Vanessa: It’s not often we spend our lunch break during the working week dining at a 5 star hotel, however, on this occasion we dined at the Garden Court Restaurant at Sydney’s Sofitel Wentworth. Upon taking the lift up the restaurant, the buzz of the city disappears as you enter the spacious and bright dining room that overlooks the circular garden.
Executive Chef Boris Cuzon has created a menu that demonstrates French culinary skill and traditional flavours. The recently created Partager menu emphasises the French art of sharing and offers a range of dining and price option to match.
We chose the sharing board with a main each and french pastries to finish at the cost of $49 per person.
As if somehow sensing Team FFS’ penchant for bread and butter we were promptly brought out a basket of warm, crunchy sliced baguette with soft butter. Our ideal way to commence any meal.
The sharing board arrived and contained a colourful mix of charred and pickled vegetables, smoked and cured salmon and various charcuterie. A perfect sharing selection with all tastes accounted for. A second round of bread was brought out to us to enjoy the creamy avocado and french onion dips on the board.
We each chose a different main to really experience the diversity of the menu. The “Burger Queen”, Bianca, strayed from her usual dish of choice and ordered the duck leg with crispy potatoes and vegetables. The duck was tender and fell off the bone with the skin being deliciously crispy. The potato crisps were a standout. Super thin and crunchy but not at all oily.
Alex went with the pappardelle with garden vegetables and black olives. This is definitely a lighter lunch option and the flavours blended well together. The pappardelle was a little too thick and as such tended to clump together. There were also some rogue whole garlic pieces throughout the dish, which gave it terrific flavour, but had Alex eaten one or two of them his colleagues may not have been so appreciative!
I was overjoyed with the my choice of main, the rump steak served with roasted vegetables, crispy kale and red wine jus. The rump was cooked to absolute medium rare perfection and practically melted in the mouth. It was well paired with the dutch carrots and the kale added a great textural element. Definitely a stand out!
We were already reaching a level as it was far more elaborate than the usual salad or sandwich we would ordinarily have during our lunch breaks and then… the pastries arrived. Presented in front of us was a pastry board full of fruit tarts, eclairs, fresh berries and figs with scattered edible flowers, it was almost too good to eat..almost. A visually beautiful dessert that showcased the culinary skills of the pastry chef, this was an ideal way to end the meal with bite size portions of pastry and fruit.
We left the Sofitel and headed back to work, fighting every urge to have a nap after such an indulgent lunch break.
We were very impressed by the quality of the food and service at the Garden Court. If you happen to find yourself staying at the Sofitel Wentworth then it’s a value-for-money dining opportunity to consider.
Enjoy!
Vanessa
Photos by Alex
woah the skin on that duck looks crispylicious!
I’m impressed that the sharing board is actually indented so it was never meant to be a chopping board. It just aesthetically looks like one!