Sepia for a special occasion

Category: Fine dining

Food:$215 tasting menu

It has become a bit of a tradition for us to visit a Sydney fine dining restaurant for our Birthday dinner. This time we chose award winning Sepia, after reading rave reviews.
For your initiation you are greeted at the door which is a nice start.
As you go inside you first come across the bar which had a number of bottles on display in front of a mirror of a grand scale. The height of the ceilings are equally grand. The restaurant is dimly lit to set the mood, with jazz music playing, which I thought was a bit clichè for this type of restaurant.

I was here a little early and decided to order a drink while I waited for my wife to arrive. As expected, the drinks list is extensive and expensive. I ordered a Japanese pale ale, as I do enjoy a nice pale ale. It was my birthday so why not enjoy some of this golden elixer, at $20 a bottle. I was expecting something possibly sourced from the fountain of youth, but no; still another year older. A nice beer but not for that price.

We went with the 9 course blind tasting menu, my wife is a little picky with her food and the restaurant accomodated, which was nice. It is always nice to go on a bit of a food journey with a degustation. A degustation is always interesting as there is no choice involved, you are at the mercy of the chefs palate. Which may or may not be to everyones taste. In a restaurant of this calibre, it is alway great to experiece the skill and technique used to produce each dish.

As to be expected the service was very professional, the staff explained each dish, they were very attentive filling our glass and checking to see how our meal was going. The tableware also added to the experience with it being Japanese inspired to match the food they were serving. Also bringing back fond memories of our Japanese adventures and the craftmenship from Kyoto in particular.

The start of this dining experiece had an emphasis on seafood, showcasing Japanese flavours and using different culinary techniques. Each dish combining different textures and delicate flavours.

Next we move on to the land with the protein of choice being roast duck and wagyu beef. Both dishes presented nicely with amazing technique on display. The meat perfectly prepared with good flavour combinations.

The degustation adventure reaching the dessert phase. Already a fair amount of food served, almost time to loosen the top button. The desserts were amazing first up the palate cleanser of mandarin zest jelly, white chocolate frozen mandarin and yoghurt sherbert kinome the fresh acidic flavour used to prepare your tastebuds for the absolute gluttony ahead. This was followed by another fresh flavoured blueberry dessert.

The Spring chocolate forest was interesting; with dried leaves of the forest floor being represented in both look and texture. Chocolate twigs and blackberry sorbet. A crazy amount of dessert and wait there is more. We were given a bowl of stones, an amazing dessert called Japanese stones. With different flavours, a suprise each time you bit into one not knowing what you were going to get and all very delicious.