Sydney- Michelin Star Dinner at Quay Restaurant

JWe arrived in Sydney at 9am. Tired, disorientated and stinky, we got off the bus to see at least 5 homeless people sleeping outside the coach/train stations. We were shocked that there are so many homeless people here. We caught the train to our hostel, and although our room wasn't quite ready, the receptionist took us up to put our bags in there so we could go out. We went back into the city to get some breakfast. We found a cute cafe called Gazzi, and had an AMAZING breakfast. Well mine was amazing, Luke's looked like bear poo. And I'm an expert in bear poo after the wildlife sanctuary. Honestly that's what it looks like. 

We walked around for a while, I booked an appointment for the following day at a hair salon to finally get my hair done, and I went and got my nails done too. We were absolutely shattered after all this so we wanted to go straight back, but the heavens had opened and it was pouring rain. We took shelter in Hungry Jacks and had a burger before braving it and running to the train station, getting back to the hostel, and collapsing into bed. 

The following morning my hair appointment was at 9, so we went into the city really early. It took quite a few hours because apparently the pollution, and the water from the copper pipes from Thailand and Cambodia have really damaged the colour of my hair, so it had to be bleached and toned twice and it still wasn't the right colour. Luke patiently waited for hours bless him, walking to the harbour bridge, the opera house and taking loads of cool photos.

After arranging another hair appointment for colour correction for the following day, and running around to find me an outfit, we caught the train back to the hostel to get ready for the meal at Quay.

The meal was amazing. I'll let Luke explain all the dishes because he's better at that than me (aw our first joint post!)

------------------------------------------------

As I am writing this I'm lying on my bed in our Tokyo hotel, we made it safely! Our Tokyo post will be done tomorrow after our first full day. I drafted this post while in Sydney so some of the time scales seem a bit off but just bare with...

On Mar 15th we arrived in Sydney via the greyhound bus journey (9 hours) from Coff's Harbour. 

The first thing we noticed when we got here is that there are loads (and loads) of homeless people! We expected a modern, fast city polluted with shopping malls, restaurants and high rise business sectors... But we definitely did not think that the rate of unemployment, immigration and homelessness would be this high! 

When we arrived here on the first morning, we got on a train from Central Station and took a short journey (10mins) to Stanmore, our closest stop to our accommodation. The area we are in is strange... It's full of big, old colonial buildings and posh cars parked out front, but it's littered with graffiti pretty much anywhere that graffiti could be found. I quite like it, it kind of looks like a New York neighbourhood. We are staying in a large lodge called Cambridge Lodge which is basically a big old English house that has individual rooms in, it's quite quiet and we get our own room so we can't really complain. 

When we arrived we could not check in until 2pm so we dropped our bags off and went back into the city centre. We hadn't slept much on our overnight journey and we were starving; so as usual we searched for something good to eat and we didn't have to look far. We found a small, busy looking cafe/bistro inside a shopping area called World Square. It cost £10 each, which isn't too bad and it was pretty dank!

After this we went and booked Courtney a hair appointment at the hair salon and then went shopping for Courtney's outfit for The Quay (Michelin Star restaurant). After a long walk around the shops Courtney didn't end up buying anything (surprise surprise) and we ended up going to get her nails done instead (another task I quite obviously thoroughly enjoyed!); eventually we got back on the train to our hotel, by this point it was hammering down with rain and we got a bit soaked which we were not best pleased about! We got back and had a long and well needed sleep. 

The next morning, Courtney's hair appointment was at 9am so we got up and got back on the train to the city centre. Courtney went in to get her hair done and I went on a little adventure I to see what I could find. Fortunately for me, Sydney is a host to many crazy people as well as homeless, so I had a slightly entertaining/scary walk around the city streets and eventually came out at the opera house. 

It was pretty amazing, the pictures don't really do it justice but the storm in the background over the city looked really cool! The large ship parked in the harbour is the Voyager of The Seas, again, the pictures cannot capture how truly massive this vessel is; I reckon I could still lift it up though. 

I had a walk around the harbour, dodging the many Chinese/Japanese/every-other-enese-you-can-imagine as Sydney is absolutely over flowing with Asian tourists, it's quite overwhelming at times.

The area around the harbour (The Rocks) is quite picturseque and the buildings are quite cool so I had stroll round there and eventually found myself at The Quay where we were eating later on that night.

This marked the end of my escapade and I took the long walk back to the salon to meet Courtney. Unfortunately Courtney's hair didn't quite go to plan and she had to go back for another session today (just to get the colour all white all over) I am currently sitting in a coffee shop eating my macaroons and waiting for her hair to be done!

On our second last night we went to The Quay restaurant on the harbour. It's a Michelin Star restaurant, priced at $235 per head for the tasting menu (9 courses); so our expectations were high. We both got all dressed up and headed out for our last proper night in Australia. 

On the way, as we were a little early we stopped off for a drink at a bar along the harbour. I had a sunrise Aussie lager and Courtney had a sparkling lychee cocktail.

We then headed round the harbour and up to the top of the loading dock to get to the restaurant.

As expected, it was incredible. Hands down best food I have ever tasted. The view, service and layout were perfect. We had a brilliant table in the orb of the layout, overlooking the opera house (after the huge boat had left the harbour) and also the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

We chose the 9 course tasting menu and we were blown away. 

Firstly we were served a beetroot and parmigan amuse-bouche.

Raw Wagyu.

 

Mudcrab.

XO Marron 

Pig Jowl. (No pic).

Whiting 

Duck.

Snow egg. This dish is so insanely good I can't even explain what it is. Google "snow egg quay" and watch how the chef makes it then you will understand how good it is.

Chocolate ethereal. 

The presentation of the dishes makes it hard to express how nice this food was in photos. However the food definitely makes up for the lack of presentation in the flavours that they pack into each dish. Absolutely exquisite meal, great way to end our time in Australia.

Our very last day in Aus was spent by Courtney getting the finishing touches done for her hair, we had a little walk round the botanical gardens and ate an Italian restaurant for dinner! 

In Tokyo it will be very hard to connect to wifi so we may not get the chance to publish any blog posts. We will try and keep in touch as mych a possible.