Aria

With what must be one of the most spectacular views in Sydney, Aria also presents some of the city’s most spectacular food.

On a faultless Sydney winter’s day (about 22°C, just to make the Melburnians green) you have a soprano’s eye view of the Opera House and a vista of the Coathanger (the Sydney Harbour Bridge) across the sparkling harbour waves. No wonder tourists are breathless at the sight of it, and even as a Sydneysider you do forget how gawpingly magnificent it is. If you look on Aria’s website you can see a neat little virtual panorama of the view from the main dining room. From the private dining room, where I was seated you look out over the Bridge only (poor me). On this occasion I was a guest of Open Thinkers of Australia, so this was a working lunch, but despite the brain strain and idea sharing, I had time to take in the equally stunning culinary vistas laid before me. Being a serious occasion my pix are a bit quick and dirty and it definitely wasn’t the sort of gig where I could taste other people’s plates with impunity or grill (no pun intended) others about the nuances of their meals.

Tartare of Hiromasa Kingfish with trout roe
An amuse bouche of tartare of Hiromasa Kingfish with trout roe whetted the appetite admirably. Here you can read the lunch menu, and on the main website some mouth watering food photography illustrates a selection of the dishes.













Scallop tortellini with mushroom puree and pine nut and leek salad
I started with scallop tortellini (left) with mushroom puree and pine nut and leek salad. Near translucent, silky, fresh egg pasta enclosing just cooked scallop pieces on a cushion of scented and delicately meaty mushroom morsels.





Roquefort cheese salad with pear The roquefort cheese salad with pear, witlof and walnut dressing comprised a perfectly caramel pear with salty chunks of cheese in an artwork of composed leaves.



Baked barramundi with pea and ham consommé and baby gnocchi I followed with the baked barramundi with pea and ham consommé and baby gnocchi. The crispest skin uppermost, the full flavoured fish floats like a cloud in a delicately limpid flavoured broth with shards of slow cooked hock and emerald pea islands. The tiny gnocchi were almost lost however when I tried the side dish of desiree potato and truffle mash.


Desiree potato and truffle mashThe lingering heady scent of truffles infused through the downiest potato silk I have ever sampled. Lolling like a plump cream duvet, snug in its bowl and ringed by buttery lakes it was heaven. Not a lump, not a bump it melted along the tongue to leave its truffle infused memory for the remainder of the afternoon.

Assiette of Valrhona chocolate
And the dessert. Like sets from one the operas next door, the kitchen’s creative juices were let loose with dessert presentation. Still life with sugar, the story of endless and minute attention to detail as the finale to a memorable meal. I had to have the assiette of Valrhona chocolate – three mini masterpieces of ice cream coated with crisp chocolate coating, a raspberry and chocolate stack and a warm frothed hot chocolate. My head was spinning. However I did manage to get pictures of some other desserts.


Bombe alaska with pistachio and Chestnut ice cream and citrus salad.
















Mandarin jelly with raspberries and yoghurt sorbet

















And to finish with coffee, the daintiest plate of petits fours imaginable. And the view.




Aria
No 1 Macquarie St, Sydney.