Astral Restaurant

By Franz Scheurer

I think Astral must still be Sydney’s best-kept gastronomic secret. Perched high above the madding crowd at Star City it has one of the best views of Sydney, with an incredible panorama towards the east, north and west.

It’s a comfortable, warm room with excellent chairs and large tables with lots of private space around each table, terrific glassware and tableware, a gaggle of very competent and attentive wait-staff, a terrific menu and an exceptional wine list. Every table has a good view and most appealingly, it’s a private, quiet space, perfectly suited to a business, or romantic, dinner. The chandeliers are sublime and the newly finished private dining room no doubt one of the most appealing I have seen.

Head Chef Sean Connolly has put a terrific menu together that caters for serious carnivores as well as for committed vegetarians. He uses first-rate produce and he knows about flavours and textures. One of the few establishments in Sydney to always serve caviar (with fabulous hand-made-to-order blinis, traditional garnish and a superb crème fraiche!) and to always have at least one foie gras dish on the menu, the food is flavour-driven, very well plated and elegant in a simple, but convincing way. Nothing is too fussy or over-worked.

I love Sean’s ‘Prawn & Scallop Boudin’ served with orange scented broth, snow crab and a fennel salad, and the ‘Rock Lobster Raviolo’ served with ginger & treacle beurre blanc is sensational.

A vegetarian dish of ‘Eggplant & Zucchini Mille Feuille’, served with a very clever goats’ cheese nougat and pine nut dressing, is creamy and moreish.

Another main course, the ‘Pan Roasted Bass Groper’ accompanied by marinated and dry-fried octopus, and morsels of crisp speck in a gelatinous Shiraz sauce, shows off perfectly cooked fish. This is a rich, satisfying, blokey dish (that the ladies will no doubt love too).

Desserts are just as good. My favourite at the moment is the ‘White Chocolate Tart, Saffron Mandarin, Cocoa Sorbet’, a texturally challenging dish with strong, assertive flavours.

The wine list consists of well-priced Australian wines, a good mix of icon and boutique, with ‘prestige’ French and American labels thrown in, no doubt to satisfy the big spenders visiting the casino 17 floors below. A good selection of ports and Cognacs and an informed collection of good single malts round off a good list.

Service is attentive, caring and professional and they know how to smile. It might be Sydney’s best-kept secret right now, but word is bound to get out.

Pssssst! Don’t tell anyone!

Score: 8/10

Astral Restaurant

Level 17, Hotel Tower

88 Pyrmont Street

Star City

Pyrmont

Tel Restaurant Reservations: 1 800 700 700

Astral direct: 02 9657 8767