Tetsuya's

Ph: (02) 9267 2900; 529 Kent St, SYDNEY 2000 www.tetsuyas.com

Japanese/French, $$$ +, *** for Food & Ambience, Good Wine List
Open Lunch Sat from noon; Dinner Tue-Sat from 6.30pm, Closed Some public holidays; Licensed, BYO, Corkage $25 bottle; AE DC MC V, Seats inside 90, Private room 50
Chef (Tetsuya Wakuda, 2007-11-3) Owner (Tetsuya Wakuda, 2007-11-3)

Mietta's Review
Tetsuya Wakada served ground-breaking food in a BYO Rozelle storefront for a decade before coming to the huge former Suntory Restaurant in Kent St, complete with an exhaustive 3000 bottle wine cellar. The food is neither Japanese, French or Australian, rather a haute cuisine combination of all three, prepared with refined taste. The only dining option is a degustation menu ($175 each), and the waiters description of any particular dish (there are ten!) takes longer to hear, in most cases, than it does to eat. Refined food at a rarefied price.

Other published opinions

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 18/20, Three Hats "RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR Culinary pioneer Tetsuya Wakuda has long held a lone spot in the limelight. While other chefs are finally catching up, both creatively and technically, his finely appointed, finely tuned city dining rooms remain a shrine to excellence, padded by smoothly gliding service and seamless execution"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: *** "As the gates whirr open, you realise that this is ordinary experience. All neo-Nippon in dark wood and slatted windows, this dining doj has a hum of confidence matched by other Australian restaurant"

Sydney Eats 2008 "If you fancy yourself even a little as someone who knows and enjoys their tucker, then you have to put yourself in the hands of Tetsuya Wakuda at least once in your life"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2007 Score: 19/20, Three Hats "Tetsuya Wakuda may be the lead in this long-running production, but the floor show preceding the arrival of his 12-course degustation is an accomplished support act. One person opens the door, another accompanies you to the front desk three paces away, then another to your table."

Gourmet Traveller 2007 Restaurant Guide Score: *** "The greatest restaurants (of which Tetsuya's is one) are bound by their fame. And their fans demand consistency over the willingness to break the rules that made them famous in the first place. But over a set 12 or so courses in this elegant oasis of gentility, Tetsuya Wakuda manages to transcend those challenges over and over again."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2006 score 19/20, 3 Hats "Great artists have a leitmotif that they spend a lifetime exploring. For Tetsuya Wakuda it might be his konbu-sprinkled ocean trout confit and unpasteurised roe. With every visit, it changes subtly, perhaps draped over matchsticks of fennel and daikon. In a nation addicted to the shock of the new, Tetsuya offers a steady-handed lesson in nuance, marrying French technique and Japanese flavours"

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide *** "First, some gripes. lf you've been to this, perhaps the nation's most vaunted restaurant more than a few times, you might register a certain sameness in some base flavours. You might wonder why, when you're paying this much money, the cloths aren't always ironed. And, above all, you might wonder why there isn't more movement in the menu. That aside, Tetsuya's belongs to that small clutch of restaurants in the world where you enter a bubble of total assurance."

Sydney Eats 2006 "Fourth in the English Restaurant magazine's list of the world's best and winner of the same magazine's Best Australasian Restaurant, step up Tetsuya Wakuda, the unassuming talent behind the remarkable food at this - go on, say it - world-class restaurant in a Japanesestyle house in the middle of the city."

SBS Eating Guide to Sydney 2005 "It's well worth experiencing one of Australia's most highly regarded restaurants, not the least of course for the amazing food that is delicate, delicious, surprising and very beautiful to look at and savour. The surrounds are superb too, overlooking a Japanese-style garden, and the service is unparalleled. There's a set menu with a set price (with or without wines) and the staff will happily guide you through. Fabulous!"

SMH Good Food Guide 2005 score 19/20 Three Hats Good Wine List "Can dining out get any closer to perfection? Tetsuya Wakuda would reject the accolade, yet in the context of his eponymous restaurant, his food is as close as we can get to perfection on a plate. It's an artist's palette for your palate - a sublime blend of aesthetic invention, audacious flavour combinations that send your heart racing and an astonishing interplay with textures."

The Age GFG 2005 "Settle comfortably in deep, padded chairs for a set menu of morsels delivered over several hours, the ultimate in dining."

Gourmet Traveller Australian Restaurant Guide 2005 *** Good Wine List "To gain passage to Tetsuya's chic Kent Street address is to enter a special society. Tetsuya's signature dish, a confit of Tasmanian ocean trout, continues to confound foodies and photographers alike."

Sydney Eats 2005 "Tetsuya Wakuda is Sydney's member of the international culinary avant garde. This unassuming man is revered by such chefs as France's Alain Ducasse, Spain's Ferran Adria, America's Charlie Trotter. And we have him. It's another one of those places where we suggest to the food lover to save up and go at least once."

SMH GFG 2004,Score 19/20,Good wine list,Truly Magical,'Service has relaxed into a professional but less formal routine;the menu isn't recited any more and the overall mood is more friendly.Tetsuya's dishes are as outstanding as ever,with the menu changing more often,yet retaining some sentimental favourites...Every dish is a work of art to rival his considerable collection on show around the restaurant.Be warned:it's not cheap,but it is,quite simply,'wow' on a plate.'

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, 3 Red Stars, Excellent wine list,'the tiny flaws here only serve to throw the excellence of all other aspects into relief.One of the great restaurants of the world.'

The Age GFG 2004

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