Bilsons Restaurant

I believe this is our one (and possibly only) 3-hat restaurant this year. Having been to my share of the fancy places over the years, I was definitely looking forward to this, especially because a few friends have been raving on about it.

Food

We decided to forgo the good looking degustation and have 3-course a-la-carte instead. We started with my favourite bread of all Brasserie Bread spelt loaf paired with some good butter. Simplicity at its best really. I enjoyed this so much we both ate an extra slice.

Before long, we were tempted with our amuse-bouche, Cream of Corn Soup with Basil Oil, the green oil floating on top looked delicious, and tasted the same. The soup did taste of corn, but there was just something extra about it – it probably took about 2 hours to produce this soup, so, at least their efforts were worth it!

Bilsons haven’t updated their website, so the description of these dishes are from memory – they are so complex it’s quite hard to describe, but here goes.

entrée

• Grilled Scallops with Cêpes, Bitter Chocolate Tuile and Mousse of Foie Gras - ordered because I wanted to taste chocolate and foie gras together. I shouldn’t have been surprised that the flavours worked wonderfully together. The scallops were fat and juicy. It was actually a mouthful to try to fit a bit of each ingredient on the fork.
• quenelle of rockfish, crowned by black pearls of Sterling caviar on a citrus beurre blanc - this was very interesting. Basically the rockfish has been made into a mousse and shaped into a ball. It tasted of strong, earthy flavours, with a light foamy texture – definitely different to eating fish.

main

• Lasagne of lobster with Autumn vegetables - I remembered the description did call it a lasagne, but really, it was beautiful lobster meat, scattered around various vegetables, and all covered with a jelly like sheet on top. As far as I could tell, the sheet tasted faintly of shellfish. I really like the lobster, but I’m not sure what the point of the clear sheet was for, except presentation
• Lightly Smoked Rack of Lamb with Ratatouille - I thought the flavour was a bit too strong and the ratatouille a bit too salty, but Slokky, who usually prefers bolder flavour, loved it. The lamb itself was very succulent, but I couldn’t really taste any sort of “smoked” flavour.

dessert

• Bitter Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry Coulis - our only hiccup of the night was when they delivered the pre-dessert twice. We didn’t mind when it was top notch dark chocolate made super smooth by thick cream. The raspberry coulis was raspberry coulis, it was a little too sweet for me as the chocolate was not that bitter.
• Tarte aux Saveurs de Provence - this was our dessert proper. I didn’t know what to expect, and as usual, I was surprised. This is no ordinary tart as you can imagine, more like sweet pastry with fruits on top. But what beautiful fruit! I actually don’t know what it was, but it was beautifully sweet. The star anise sauce on the side was sensational.
• Apricot Soufflé, raspberry sauce with Passionfruit Sorbet - Slokky had been raving on about the soufflé for awhile, and I’m quite a fan of soufflé. It was quite dramatic too, they pour the sauce at the table. I actually would have preferred to pour my own sauce, then at least I can control the amount of sauce I add. The soufflé was light and fluffy, but didn’t really have much flavour except from the sauce, which actually overpowered this a little. It didn’t quite measure up to the unforgettable soufflé at Claudes.
• Cappuccino - Slokky was boring and went for a cappuccino. Even for a 3-hat restuarnst, I think the cappuccino was pretty ordinary. I mean, there are so many places specialising in this, it’s hard to beat sometime.
• Lemongrass Tea - I, on the other hand, went for the cool sounding tea. It had a wonderful aroma, and it certainly delivered a hit. I had lots of fun pulling back the lid of the teapot to smell the wonderful fragrant tea.
• Petits Fours – were included as part of tea and coffee, and the selection was worth the price alone. We had chocolate slice (gooey dark chocolate), almond tart(dense almond texture with slight citrus flavour), and orange jelly (intense orange flavour)

Was it worth its 3 hats? I think so. Was it my favourite 3-hat? Not by a long way.

Rating - 8.5

Atmosphere

For a 3-hat restaurant, it’s not very full. The restaurant was about ¾ full on this Friday night. There seems to be more tourists than Sydneysiders visiting though.

The décor is a little bit art décor, and pretty relaxed. The most distinguishing feature is the light fixture, with bits of artwork or collage type things, all clipped together. It was interesting, but I didn’t find it was that aesthetically pleasing. The tables are nicely spaced apart so you can have good conversation. There’s not really any view, except to the offices across the road. The food’s the star here.

Rating - 2

Service

We were greeted by Chris McFerran. How do I know this? His accent. On the web, it tells us that Chris was

…originally hails from Belfast, Northern Ireland and has been working in Restaurants since he was 16 years

After Chris showed us to our table, we were served by two different waiters. Both took the time to explain each dish carefully to us and were quite attentive. I guess there’s no real communications between them though as that’s how we ended up with 2 pre-dessert.

Rating - 4

C-factor

Entrées $30, Main courses $45, Side Dishes $10, Desserts $30 is around the same price as the other 3 hatters. I was a bit less wowed than say at Claudes or Est or Guillame at bennelong (Tetsuya’s is in a class of its own so I won’t compare), so I would say given the choice, I would go to one of the others.

Rating - 0.5

Brownie Points - 15

Info

Radisson Plaza Hotel Sydney
27 O'Connell Street
Sydney
NSW 2000
Phone (02) 8214 0496
Website