Guillaume At Bennelong Ph: 9241 1999 ; Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney 2000 www.guillaumeatbennelong.com.au French, $$$ +, *** for Ambience, Good Wine List Open Lunch Thu-Fri noon-3pm Dinner Mon-Sat 5.30pm-11pm, Closed All public holidays; Licensed; AE DC MC V Chef Guillaume Brahimi (30-8-10) Owner Guillaume Brahimi (21-12-09)

Photo Tony Knox

Mietta's Review
It might be a famous landmark but this room has never been easy. For example, the soaring cathedral ceiling has made lighting an endemic problem. The present solution of bulky lighting towers, though not beautiful, is effective and helps humanise the restaurant. Bennelong is probably at its best these days under Guillaume Brahimi's stewardship. Gone are the artistic dreams of previous owners to be replaced by firm French realism. The glue that holds it all together is the service - it's the star of the show, even more than the view, and several leagues ahead of the food (of which more later). Here, possibly for the first time, you will encounter proper classical service where everybody has a role, knows what it is and performs it correctly - on demand. Wonderful to watch and reassuring to experience. As we all know, Bennelong's other great plus is the view, at least from the side looking towards the city, but then, that's a given as is the experience of dining in this great building. Unfortunately the meal lets it down. Maybe its inevitable in a big restaurant that the food is more realistic than artistic (and Brahimi is the master of realism). There's no point having a menu of exquisite dishes if you can't get them out and here the kitchen, a well oiled machine, sends out with impressive dispatch, meals that are well cooked with sauces that are correct but which lack soul. You are left wanting more - not food (the serves are big) but refinement. Regardless of this, you are still paying landmark prices - mains $45.

Other published opinions

Gourmet Traveller 2011 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: *** "Sydneysiders! Don't wait till you've got visitors, don't wait for a show, the Opera House is your greatest cultural landmark, and, unusually enough, it happens to contain within its smallest sail a very good modern French restaurant"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 17/20

Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: *** "There might be no finer example of poise in restaurant-craft than this dark and magical space occupying the smallest of the Opera House's sails. Bennelong holds its rank in our threestar constellation not because it pushes envelopes, but because it over-delivers on quality"

Sydney Eats 2009 "We've heard it said the only disappointing thing about eating at this stunning harbourside location is that there's no view of the Opera House"

Courier Mail Food and Wine Guide 2009 Queensland "It's not often you get the chance to eat fabulous French food in one of the modern wonders of the world, so grab it"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 17/20

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: *** "Call it a juggling act: the challenge of orchestrating staff and suppliers, produce and customers, into a synchronous whole. It's Guillaume Brahimi's talent for this that first elevated this grand room to the forefront of Australian restaurants"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 17/20

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "It's the rare restaurant that can offer a $65 main course with confidence, let alone an entree special"

Sydney Eats 2008 "It's not often you get to dine inside one of the seven wonders of the modern world. But the real wonder is that, at last, there is again a chef up to the task"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2007 Score: 18/20

Gourmet Traveller 2007 Restaurant Guide Score: *** "With respect to the various companies that call it home, the most polished performance we've seen here occupies the smallest of the Opera House's sails. A slew of Sydney's best floor talent glides between beautifully set tables and peerless views, while the JodI Robuchontrained Guillaume Brahimi oversees a menu that is utterly French in its precision, and pure Sydney in its vigour."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2006

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide "For years the star restaurant at the Sydney Opera House was a worry. Making it hum seemed a challenge akin to scaling Everest. Many tried, then Guillaume Brahimi pulled it off. Now it doesn'tjust hum, it sings, joyously, the daily performances there matching those in the adjacent theatres. Brahimi favours a classic French songsheet but adds a scattering of distinctly Australian notes"

Sydney Eats 2006 "A French chef in a Danish building doing tapas ... is that Sydney or is that Sydney? Guillaume Brahimi won our hearts years ago in a long-forgotten joint called Pond, and now he's taken centre stage at this premier space."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Living Eat Out Mathew Evans

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2005

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2005

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2005

Gourmet Traveller Australian Restaurant Guide 2005 *** Good Wine List "Combining the most extraordinary dining space in the country with the mastery of Guillaume Brahimi's skill in the kitchen and his professional floor staff - led by maitre d' Craig Hemmes - this restaurant stands alone. Presentation is superb, but it is the aromas from each dish that stimulate."

Sydney Eats 2005 "Location, location, ovation. Is there another restaurant, no matter how swanky, that can boast such a position in the bosom of Australia's most confident and recognisable edifice? Thought not. Luckily, Guillaume Brahimi's food is up to it"

Sydney Morning Herald GFG 2004

Sydney Morning Herald GFG 2004, Score 17/20

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, Excellent wine list, 3 Red Stars,'menu leavens luxury with delicacy, combining rich ingrediants with a knowing hand...a superior dining experience'

Sydney Morning Herald, Good Food guide 2003

Sydney Morning Herald,, 15.2.02

Sydney Morning Herald'27.11.01

Sydney Morning Herald,, 22.2.99