Coast Restaurant

Our last special meal before we finish with the e-book and go on our wedding diet, and I’m glad that Coast didn’t disappoint.

Food

We wanted to try the delicious sounding Chef’s Market Menu, where you get 4 courses designed by the chef for $59, but because we were off to Priscilla at Star City afterwards, we were here for an express meal. We asked for advice on how many courses we can have, and they said 2, so off we went.

True to Italian tradition, a bread basket with olive oil from Lake Como, Italy was delivered. The bread though, was delicious sourdough, paired with an excellent fruity extra virgin olive oil. We asked the waiter and they said that the oil is especially imported and is only available in Australia at Coast. They have a service where they can order the oil for their customers though.

We were still marvelling at the bread when the entrees arrived. My vongole and fregola soup ($17) was luscious. A very shellfish tasting soup with a hint of tomatoes. It was piled high with clams – probably not a good dish to order on a first date but I was fine with it, in fact, I quite enjoy sucking each little morsel of meat out of the shell. The Tagliatelle with white truffle butter and Brussels sprouts ($27) was great too. A creamy cheese sauce coated some finely made tagliatelle, with the bitter Brussels sprouts and the aroma of truffles.

Our mains arrived soon after, giving us plenty of time to pick the bones clean of the Roast whole market fish with brown butter and Sicilian capers ($36), which was a whole silver bream. The butter and tart capers sauce was good, not great, a little too oily for me. The fish was fresh and soft, with a subtle sweet flavour. Slokky’s Slow roast pork shoulder with mustard fruits ($36) reminded me of the pork from Lowenbrau, with a crust that has softened and . The mustard fruit was interesting, it’s like very intense prunes. It went quite well with the pork.

The desserts sound interesting too but we didn’t have time.

Rating - 7.5

Atmosphere

We were the first couple in the restaurant, but everyone else followed swiftly. There were couples and groups of friends, some enjoying drinks on the balcony overlooking Cockle Bay Wharf.

The chairs are covered in pretty wide black and white patterns, you don’t really get much of a view from the inside, you need to walk out to the balcony for that, but you can always watch the action from the long open kitchen that ran along one side of the restaurant.

Rating - 2

Service

We actually booked on the Internet and had absolutely no problems. Their website is really excellent too with the most up to date information. We were greeted warmly, and they handled our request to leave by 7:30pm without even a hitch. The bill did take awhile but I suspect that’s because we were using various discounts.

Our waiter was very efficient and very nice, and everyone served us with a smile. I also like it that they are relaxed and not stuck up.

Rating - 4.5

C-factor

This place is very cheap for a Darling Harbour Eatery that has a hat. The food is great, and you get free parking too! They actually refunded us $12 for parking even though it only cost $5 to park there on weekends, so we made sure we gave the difference back to them in tips.

Rating - 1.5

Brownie Points - 15.5

Info

The Roof Terrace, Cockle Bay Wharf,
Darling Harbour
NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9267 6700
Website