Pei Modern(Inside the Four Seasons Hotel)
199 George St,
Sydney CBD
Pei Modern has been in Melbourne for a while. It sits up in the Paris end of Collins street inside the Sofitel Hotel and has developed a strong reputation and local following. Well late last year its sister restaurant, also called Pei Modern, opened its doors in Sydney. Again, it's inside a hotel, this time the iconic Four Seasons Hotel Sydney on George Street at the start of The Rocks area. Pei Modern is an elegant space, expansive but not overbearing, nicely decorated but not over done.
It has an upmarket feel to it yet still manages to be relaxed and comfortable at the same time.
Mark Best was again behind opening Pei Modern in Sydney, as he did in Melbourne. Also from Pei Modern in Melbourne is the new chef for Sydney - Matt Germanchis. They have put together a diverse and diversified menu with plenty for every taste. Pei Modern is open lunch Monday to Friday and Dinner Monday to Saturday and a "Quick Lunch" menu of 2 courses plus coffee for only $35 is a bargain.
We started with some lovely house made sourdough snuggled inside a small hessian bag and served with freshly churned butter. We then moved on to sample some Clyde River rock oysters from Ewan McAsh South Coast NSW that were served with a tangy Cabernet vinaigrette sauce. We only had one each and wished we'd had more.
If you've read our write ups before you'd know about our lust for croquettes. It's one of the reasons Spain and Portugal are also on our Europe itinerary in a few months. The salt cod croquettes here were a little different to what we expected - a bit less traditional in shape - more like fritters in some way. Fortunately they were also tasty - cod and croquettes - delicioso. A fruity and tangy salad of beetroots, fig and braised mustard seeds was a nice side to this.
The menu is very diverse here at Pei Modern - very. It has a bit of everything - it's like a world culinary tour in one room. As if to showcase this, our next dish was the ricotta dumplings - a bit like gnocchi - with zucchini flowers and a great lazy mans pesto (made with chunky pine nut pieces). A very simple butter lettuce salad with chardonnay vinegar and new seasons olive oil was a nice offset.
While Mlady isn't much for pork, Sir loves it - a lot - but he loves food - a lot! The Kurobuta pork cutlet came served with some interesting accompaniments - fermented blueberries, spinach and lemon puree. The sweetness of the berries and the tartness of the lemon puree combined so well with the nicely cooked pork.
It was a great combination.
It wasn't like any other chocolate tart she had eaten before. It was a stretch even calling it a tart. There were layers of thin chocolate piled high on top of a rich gooey filling all resting on a pastry base. She absolutely loved it - all of it - and every mouthful of it. Even the eucalyptus cream was raved about with frequent outbursts of OMG!
Sir chose the intriguing sorrel sorbet and honeycomb. What arrived was as pretty as a picture but more importantly very tasty. The flavoursome bright green sorrel sorbet looked good nestled among big chunks of honeycomb. To match, Sir had a 2009 Ridgeside Winery Vidal Icewine , Niagara Peninsular from Canada and Mlady had a NV Romate "Cardinal Cisneros" Pedro Ximenez from Jerez, Spain. Both were great with dessert.
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Pei Modern and the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney. Special thanks to Ozgur, Emelda, William, Fabian and Caitlin as well as their highly capable sommelier Mikey and restaurant manager Tara. A big thanks to Hansni Bhagani, Director of Public Relations at the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney for inviting us.
