We attended the Riviera Rooftop event; dinner and drinks held at the most perfect venue, Martinez Restaurant. Located within the Sydney’s Quay Quarter in Circular Quay, it is a great restaurant precinct within the CBD. Quay Quarter and Good Food events teamed up for this one off collaboration at Sydney’s hatted French restaurant Martinez along with Melbourne’s iconic hatted French restaurant, French Saloon.
This menu saw flavours of the Riviera as well as dessert and pastry provided by Sydney’s Humble Bakery – the cult pastry shop from the Porteno, WyNo X Bodega and Bastardo crew.
Martinez is a beautiful dining space, the rooftop having a spectacular back drop of the Harbour bridge as, well as being surrounded by modern and historic buildings. The dining space was oozing French Bistro Style, with layers of texture provided by maroon leather and and velvet seating, the tables nicely set and ambiance provided by a live French inspired jazz set, with brass and string instruments.
The multi-course menu by Martinez’ Chef Andrea Sonnante and French Saloon’s Luke Fraser featured French cusine and bottomless French-style wine and Champagne by Piper-Heidsieck.
The starters were a nicely presented fresh snapper tartare from French Saloon with some sweet and sour flavours provided by the pickled grapes, the bread proved to be a good vessel to get that delicious tartare to your taste buds, but it also provided some crunchy texture.
This was also accompanied by some small bites such as the Pain perdu “pissaladiere” an extremely flavoursome caramelised onion and anchovy tarte.
We also enjoyed the lovely sweet and savoury flavours of the Eclair filled with Woodside cheese chevre, cherry and hazelnut. What a great way to get the three course meal started.
The entree was a favourite of ours, not only was it an inviting looking meal, but it ate as well as it looked. The Martinez bouillabaisse was a beautifully rich, classic French seafood soup, served with a medley of perfectly cooked seafood including; cloudy bay clams, plump Jervis Bay mussels, southern calamari, Scallop & prawn tortelli. We loved that this was served with a Baguette basket, so we could mop up every last drop of the bouillabase.
The main and sides were substantial and the tender Westholme wagyu sirloin MBS 5 combined nicely with the silky jus de saloon that had a nice depth of flavour. With it was pommes Parisienne Spicy cabbage & gruyere mac and cheese, which definitely levelled it up, to boss level with so much flavour. The Witlof Waldorf, celery, apple provided a some freshness to cut through the richness of the beef and Mac and cheese.
We were already extremely satisfied and food, but who can pass up dessert? Not us. We were impressed with Humble Bakery’s Belgian dark chocolate mousse with wattleseed caramel, nutmeg and a hazelnut sponge which was pretty to look at with the light glimmering off this dessert. The mousse was decadent, almost overly sweet, but was balanced out with the tartness of the cacao nibs. We also secured one of Humble Bakery’s famous finger buns to take home!
Overall this was a well run event by Quay Quarter and Good food, it was in a great location on the rooftop, excellent service provided by all, good food and plenty of it, same to be said for the drinks. The marvellous French inspired jazz music, was also a great touch, perfect for the setting. We are very grateful to have attended this event.
Riviera Rooftop Presented by Quay Quarter
Venue: Garden Podium, Quay Quarter Tower
Address: 50 Bridge Street, Sydney