Our last night in Sydney was another elegant space opposite the opera house and appropriately called ARIA.
There are no more than two dozen tables in this small space surrounded by circular glass and very comfy leather seats overlooking the Sydney Opera and Harbour Bridge. We settled in with hickory smoked Patron silver madecocktails with Ferrand dry Curaçao and black salt rims which packed a punch.
It turns out the sommelier Kyle comes from the Bronx, and he gave us magnificent suggestions. Our white was a Yangarra Roux Beaute from the Claire Valley made from Rousanne and offered a creamy mineral finish. The half bottle of Ati Rangi Crimson 2022 Pinot Noir from Marlborough in New Zealand needed bit more heft for our duck course...we shall stay with Australian wines from now on.
Since we had had such a large lunch, we opted to not take the tasting menu and instead had the a la carte four course meal which was still a huge event that lasted 3-1/2 hours! Our tastes are so similar that we both chose virtually all the same courses.
Amuses arrived in the form of a gougères smothered with gruyere cheese, but they were oddly room temperature. The duck liver parfait was divine, but odd that they said it had cranberry after just asking us if we had allergies and told them we avoid grapefruit, cranberry and licorice!!
Our first course was a divine K'gari Spinner Crab with tomato, fermented chili consommé poured tableside and yummy green strawberries. The broth had a slight spice to it and the entire dish was truly wonderful. We get very spoiled with the best crab in the world from Maryland, but this was pretty damn good stuff.
Parker house rolls from Sonoma bakery(outside Sydney, not California!) arrived warm with cultured butter and a decadent kombi-chicken jus butter that I wanted to take home!
Our server Giovanni was from Napoli and he also was super helpful and Kyle kept checking in to make sure we were happy and the wine was poured. Coral Prawn Ravioli with Tarragon, Lemon and Espalette was served by one of the chefs and will pinned his southern UK accent within miles. He poured the rich Sauce Americaine which was a decadent lobster reduction made with a hint of crime fraiche. Not only were the raviolis stuffed with huge chunks of amazingly tasty prawn but also there were five or six pieces of prawn in the dish itself around the ravioli and in the gorgeous sauce. Luckily there was one roll left to finish off the superb sauce!
Our main course was the crispiest and most flavorful Maremma(named for the dogs that herd them) duck aged 14 days and served with Cavallo Nero or Tuscan kale, Wit-Lof, which is the local name for endive, which was stuffed with duck confit and the dish was topped of with cherries and cherry gel. An onion purée rounded out this amazing dish that was one of the best ducks ever.
Since I wanted to try the cheese course for dessert, we decided to split that first and it came with a nutty Crunchy dry cheddar, as well as a cheese called Holy Goat LaLuna which was gooey and heavenly, a Long Paddock blue as well as a wash rind cheese that was so fabulous I wrote the name down to try and find it again-- Woombye from South Queensland. This was our first really fabulous Australian cheese plate and it came with honeycomb, Pickled figs, Calvados infused apricots and flatbread.
A pre-dessert arrived first in the form of strawberry sorbet olive oil coconut cream and lemon curd which was a great palate cleanser.
We split the desert as well, which was a Chocolate Mousse cake with chocolate ice cream, Caramel Passion fruit gel and Valhrona cocoa crumble.
We loved every bite of this our last meal in Sydney until we return in a month on the cruise..off to Adelaide next.
