Cafe Sydney

I had been dying to try Cafe Sydney for months, when the time came to suggest a place to eat before watching Carl Barron at the Opera House, Cafe Sydney seemed perfect.

Café Sydney is located in Historic Custom’s house (right across the road from Maccas at Circular Quay). To get to the restaurant you must catch the lift up, where you will then be greeted by the wait staff upon your arrival. The layout of the restaurant is very comfortable with a glass ceiling letting in plenty of light and the décor giving the room a classy yet relaxed feel. The dark wood finishes and entry lifts reminded me of Zeta Bar at the Hilton (but a lot brighter).

The view is stunning and if you book early enough you can grab yourself an outside table. We chose to sit inside this time as rain was expected, it turned out to be a good choice as the glass doors next to us were opened up to give a ‘sitting outside feel’.

The staff at Café Sydney is generally quite young and funky which I guess helps set the mood and feel of the bar. Our waiter was a young guy (with David Beckham hair) who seemed to try a little too hard at trying to be ‘very professional’. He always stood with his hand clasped and spoke so softly that half the time we couldn’t hear what he was saying, we would just nod and smile and ask each other what he said after he had left. During the night Betty made it her mission to try make him crack a smile or to relax just a notch, he wasn’t going to budge.

• Woodgrilled veal cutlet with potato and garlic cream, turtle beans, pancetta, celery heart, sage, roast tomato and aioli 36.00

• Tandoori roasted blue eye cod with eggplant, mustard, baby spinach, choko chutney and raita 34.00

• Oven roasted snapper with steamed asparagus, lemon, watercress and sauce gribiche 36.00

• Spring lamb with sourdough, pecorino and basil crust, crushed kipfler potatoes, baby green vegetables and sauce vierge 36.00

Overall the mains were pretty good although a bit pricy for what it is (you're probably paying for the view and ambience.

Dessert platter 39.00

The dessert platter changes regularly (so don't expect to have the same thing when you visit), this time we had a pecan and peach tart, a tropical trifle, a rich black cherry and chocolate cake and gelato with almond bread.

The other girls seemed to enjoy the platter but I was a little disappointed. I found the pecan tart to be a bit dry and would have been better matched with ice cream than cream. The dark chocolate cherry cake was very rich and drenched in a bit too much liquor making it rather soggy at the bottom. The gelato was nice but very ordinary, the trifle on the other hand got the thumbs up from all of us.

Whilst the experience was good, there's probably a lot more places I would rather try before making a return visit.