For the past few years I have been tossing up the idea of whether or not to dine at Matt Moran’s Aria restaurant. I’ve been told the mash potatoes are a must! Surely how good can mash potatoes really be?
Offering panoramic views of Sydney Harbour this restaurant is neatly nested on the corner of Macquarie St in Circular Quay. I booked a table for the 6:30pm seating and I must say there is nothing worst than Sydney traffic. We spent a good 20 minutes in traffic on George St before diverting to alternative routes.
Rushing like mad men inside the restaurant, we were warmly greeted
and escorted to our table, 15 minutes late. The subtle lighting and a
spectacular backdrop of Sydney Harbour creates an intimate dining room of
warmth and elegance. The clientele of the restaurant is sophisticated yet a
relaxed and comfortable atmosphere.
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| Aria Restaurant on arrival |
Our waitress kindly places our menus on the table and leaves us
to study the wine encyclopaedia that includes unlimited choices from around the
world.
The dinner menu is simple and informative leaving you with
enough choices that are not overbearing.
While reading the dinner menu we admire the Sydney Harbour views:
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| Sydney Harbour Views |
Our waitress brings the below to our table as a complementary starter:
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| Complementary Entree |
The first thing that strikes at me
from the entrée menu is the Oysters.
I love Oysters but it’s always a difficult
choice at a restaurant, as you never know if they are fresh or not. Aria being
a reputable restaurant I take the opportunity to taste what turns are to be one
of the most shucking entrees of my life.
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| Six freshly shucked Sydney rock oysters with a soy, yuzu and daikon dressing |
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| Fresh Oysters |
While I was enjoying my Oysters, my friend was tackling his Pork Belly.
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| Kurobuta pork belly with with a pork croquette, muntries and star anise |
Aria provides complimentary sourdough and other options of bread
to you. The first bite of my bread feels like a croissant.
I decide to try one of their apple ciders tonight with a main
meal of lamb while my friend decides to try the salmon.
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| Apple Cider |
Sipping on our apple ciders the waiters decide to pull up the blinds for sunset.
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| Sunset views from ARIA |
As I mentioned
previously I’ve been told that if I ever come to Aria Restaurant that I must
try their famous mash potatoes. We decide to order one side each to share. The
sides are slightly over priced in my opinion. We paid $15 per side and I must
admit when the waitress placed the salad we ordered on our table, my first
reaction was we just paid $15 for a bunch of lettuce with crumbles of goats cheese on top.
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| Truffled potato mash |
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| Salad of cos lettuce, mint, peas and goats cheese |
While the salad was a let down the mash potato did live up to
its expectation but as my friend mentioned with all that butter who wouldn’t
love it?
The restaurant was quite empty when we arrived however it now seems slightly overcrowded and the waiters seem to be run off their feet.
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| Intimate Dining Experience at ARIA |
My main meal being the lamb was slightly disappointing. While the piece of meat was quite tender there wasn’t any particular taste to it. Not that I am saying it was a bad piece of lamb but it’s not something that I would be craving to come back for. I’m not sure what was missing from the lamb but it felt a little blunt.
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| Roasted lamb rump with kipfler potato fondant, fennel and black olive |
I tasted a piece of the salmon and I must say that was definitely a good choice.
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| Salmon |
When the dessert menu was served to us it was a difficult
choice. There were quite a few choices that appealed straight away.
I asked the
waitress to provide a more in-depth knowledge of the desserts but her words
confused us more. Do we choose a pannacotta or one of the many summer fruity
options or do we opt for a soufflé that takes 20 minutes to cook? After two rounds with the waitress we decided to give the
soufflé a go.
As we placed our dessert orders in there’s a bit of a kerfuffle
at the table besides us. The man demands to speak to a manager as his main meal
hasn’t arrived and it’s been over an hour since the entrée was served. The
manager arrives with the main meals and plants them on the table acting like
the main meals were only slightly overdue. The man complains his had a bottle
of wine since the entrée and the main meal hasn’t arrived until now. The
manager tells him its on the house but the man decided to inform the manager
that this isn’t about a free meal or money but the whole service of the
restaurant. The man tells the manager to take the meals away and bring the bill
as he is leaving. The manager states its his choice and takes the meals away.
For the next five minutes we over hear the frustrated man discussing how the
manager basically told them it was their choice if he wanted to leave.
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| Unsatisfied Clients |
Meanwhile desserts are served.
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| Raspberry white chocolate soufflé with raspberry ripple ice cream |
The soufflé sounded really good on paper but I must admit it wasn’t a spectacular thing for me. I guess its personal choice but I wasn’t a big fan of it.
Along with our coffee's we received this complementary chocolate tasting plate:
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| Complementary Chocolate Tasting Plate |
Our 6:30pm to 8:30pm seating had ended over an hour ago. It was almost 9:30pm. I’m impressed they didn’t start to push us out. In fact we asked for the bill twice but the bill alone took a good 20 minutes to reach us.
Once the bill was served we were escorted to the front door to make payment. The whole experience was spectacular. The restaurant definitely has some great qualities to offer. I really enjoyed my entrée but didn’t pick the right main meal or dessert. The intimate, dimmed lighting dining room suited the quality of the restaurant.
