Follow the glow from church candles suspended on wooden planks at the entrance to the restaurant and enter a different type of seafaring experience. Made to resemble the hull of a yacht, the connection to the sea is never far away with wooden touches from dividers, tables and windows onto the sparkling water over Darling Harbour.
Hotel restaurants are often overlooked when it comes to choosing where to go at the weekend. Sailmaker really stands out for its commitment to sustainability, sourcing and produce. Chef de Cuisine, Simranjit Gill and Pastry Chef, Prashant Anand sought to create a new experience which evolved Hyatt’s promise of ‘Food thoughtfully sourced, carefully served’.
We arrive on a Friday night as the sun is setting and the restaurant takes on a warm glow. We’re shown to our window table and within moments our server welcomes us, shares more about the experience we are about to embark on and offers us a choice of Pyrmont bakery’s Pioik’s majestic rye and organic sourdough . To accompany is a savoury black garlic and pernod butter, with puffed grains. It has all the dangerous addictiveness of Pringle crisps, one bite and we are hooked.
The new menu is a tribute to the sea, due to collaborations with sustainable premium sourcers like Aquna Murray Cod, Fremantle Octopus and Far West Scallops. Signs around the restaurant share more about the brands and their care for the planet and our palet.
The first course is an invitation to visit the Mediterranean tapas table. Each offering has been individually plated into canape style portions which can be a little frustrating if you really like something like the thimble sized Vietnamese duck pancake! It’s just over the size of a thumbnail, so it’s a test of decorum over hunger when I really want to snuffle down on about 5 of these babies! An array of tastes are laid out, cesar salad, sweetcorn kernels, a teaspoon of guacamole with a mini breadstick, aged grana padano, slices of spiced pumpkin. It’s simple fair , but has the creative potential to be more exciting as the seafarer dinner evolves.
As a seafood lover, I am lucky to have a menu with more than one fish option, here we have five seafood starters and mains to choose from. It’s heaven and for the first (in a long time) really hard to to choose.
Two red glossy QLD Skull Island prawns arrive grilled, split and dotted with dashi butter, shoyo sesame and tendrils of fresh salty samphire. The sweet, salty and unaminess is all there, would have hit the spectacular mark with more buttery juices to swirl and mop up on the plate. Two scallops, with roe on, is doused in a rich brown butter and egg sauce which is complemented by pickled kohlrabi and rainforest lime which cuts through the richness.
Seared Hapuka 
For mains we could have opted for soy glazed Mulloway, grilled snapper with artichoke puree or Ora King Salmon (one of my all time favourites) but we are tied in who wins on the order stakes!
Seared hapuka is set off by a pool of chana dal, with spicy fried curry leaves and a flourish of shredded paratha – which I pick up with my fingers and down in one delicious, buttery mouthful. The Aquna Murray cod is a sophisticated dish on a bed of puy lentils dotted with chorizo, cods roe and a silky cauliflower puree. A dish of balance, fun and restraint.
We probably didn’t read the menu correctly so when a dessert trolley and its dessert queen arrives we are a bit dumbfounded. What? choose two deserts?, no, what? each ? two each? whoahhhh! This is unreal! When do you get two deserts? Between us we pretty much order up the whole menu; a delicious (but coffee lover strong) tiramisu, a creamy panna cotta with wattleseed and Malfoy honey, a Italian meringue pavlova with strawberry and madagascar chantilly cream. Its all just well, really fun!!
With a bottle of Nick O’Leary Chardonnay from Canberra we are in good company through the dinner. It’s lovely to see a wine list celebrating Australian wines from the superb Leeuwin Estate through to awarded but little known winery Eden Road which won the Jimmy Watson trophy a few years ago. At $74 a head this is insane value; a beautiful venue, attentive and knowledgeable service, a sustainable and impressive dedication to showcasing the best seafood from around Australia oh and two deserts each? Get outta here!!
Sailmaker Restaurant, Hyatt Regency Sydney,161 Sussex Street, Sydney.
Dates: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 6pm -9:30pm, $74pp
To book: www.tablecheck.com/en/shops/hyattregency-sydney-sailmaker/reserve
