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15 Day St. Darling Harbour, Sydney
Sitting right at the gateway to Darling Harbour and the doorstep of the wonderful city of Sydney is the Parkroyal Darling Harbour. This newly branded Parkroyal is in such a prime location with a wealth of options right there for you, it's hard to know where to start.
Nearby you have the Entertainment Centre, the Aquarium, Madame Tussuad's, Chinatown, the Maritime Museum, the Chinese Gardens and Wildlife World to name a few. The hotel itself also has plenty to offer, with two restaurants, the relaxed Barkers and and the casual chic Abode. There's a gym for those needing to work off a few calories as well as bike hire right at the front entrance to cruise around the local area.
The hotel itself is impressive. It's so spacious and caters to every need - but what's just outside is also just as great.
We checked in pretty early and took a wander around Cockle Bay, King St Wharf, Darling Harbour and Darling Quarter.
Its huge with so many different things to see, do and visit!
The main restaurant is Abode Bistro Bar which actually opens out invitingly onto the corner of Day and Bathurst Streets. You walk in to the reception area that flows easily into the adjoining bar. Down a few steps is the restaurant.
It's an expansive place, holding 120 people, but not cavernous as it's separated into different areas very nicely. The white walls and tables give it an almost Mediterranean feel - very pleasant - and the use of light and dark timber gives it warmth. Abode has quite a lot of variety on its menu - from upmarket dishes right down to decent burgers - so it caters to all tastes and covers all options for a group.
We were also advised that they may be starting a chefs table soonish as well - always a fun experience!
Our first taste of food was the daily fresh oysters - it's always hard to resist fresh oysters! They were described in the menu as being served with SSB jelly, cucumber and coriander and they came served on a bed of sea salt.They looked so nice and were extremely tasty with nothing actually overpowering the oysters. We also had some house baked bread that arrived warm at the table with Pepe Saya butter - yum.
My entree was recommended as a specialty of the house - the yellow fin tuna tartare.
It came with crispy seaweed and yuzu all on a bed of avocado puree.
The tuna was so light, delicate and tasty and the whole dish was beautifully presented. Simple combinations of really good ingredients are often winners!
Mlady had the split prawns. they were served with carotene butter, charred corn and a very tasty green chilli salsa.
This dish certainly had an interesting presentation - the colours of the prawns offset so nicely with the corn spread out on top.This was again another simple but unique and tasty dish.
A few tasty signature cocktails went so well too!
Mlady was in a burger mood this particular evening - she was even mumbling about the fact that she craved a burger. Well she was in luck as they had a wagyu cheeseburger with house made cheddar, pickles and mustard aioli and served with hand cut chips.
OMG it was impressive and she loved it - and the chips were also amazing - so crisp on the outside and so light and fluffy inside - we'd both grab these again!
My main course was always going to be one of their premium meat dishes and I ended up choosing the 200gm Suzuki wagyu 9+ flank from the Blue Mountains NSW. It came with king brown mushroom, pumpkin puree and jus and was simply delicious. The meat was soooo good - it tasted just as good as it looked! As a side we also had the roasted carrots with caraway seeds and lemon - a nice mix of different carrots and simple flavours that went well.
Dessert is often the hardest part of any meal these days - there always seem to be so many great choices that it's difficult to make a decision!
I chose the pressed apple mille-feuille with lemon curd which was beautifully presented.
It came with a lovely fresh scoop of apple sorbet - so refreshing and light yet sweet and tasty as well.
Mlady loves so many desserts and often gravitates towards something chocolate based.
However she's also a pavlova fan so the passionfruit Eton mess attracted her attention.
It was a great meringue with plenty of crisp shards that did not have any sickly after-taste that some can leave.
She devoured every bit of it eagerly!
Having the buffet breakfast at Barkers lets you watch the day starting and see the city come to life outside their expansive windows.
This is a very good buffet breakfast too. It has such a wide range of foods to cater to every taste.
Almost every bench of food had plates or bowls underneath as well making it easy to eat more - oink!
There are also plenty of healthy offerings too - lots of fresh fruits, cereals, nuts and grains and juices and yoghurts through to hot food from both the buffet and eggs and omelettes prepared as you wait! .
There is no way anyone would leave here hungry from a lack of choice!
The Parkroyal at Darling Harbour is clearly a lovely place to stay and in a magnificent location, but if you just want a good meal then Abode is well worth visiting on its own. It has pleasant surroundings, good service and very tasty food!
Sir and Mlady stayed and dined as guests of Parkroyal. Special thanks top Samuel and chef Ryan Hong for looking after us so well at Abode. Thanks also to Natalie and Laura from 6DC Lifestyle PR for arranging our visit.
