Entering Sydney’s latest fine dining hotspot Silvereye, made me feel more like James Bond than a food writer.
Buzzing through the entrance, we’re ushered through a passageway of the fully restored yet still antiquitous ‘Old Clare Hotel‘, and placed in an elevator bound for the floors above. The doors open to reveal a small outdoor bridge leading to the elegantly, yet humbly designed dining room and open kitchen, filled with several very stern looking chefs working furiously, but not so much as to preclude them from offering a smiling nod to my Bond-girl and I as we made our way to our table. The vibe is warm, but you certainly get the sense there’s something very serious going on here.
‘Silvereye’, aptly named after an Australian native migratory bird, is the brainchild of ex-Noma sous chef Sam Miller, and offers two lengths of tasting menus, short ($140) and long ($175). Ten or seventeen courses respectively. Obviously I order the long, so should you.
Nods to local Australian flora are detected throughout the meal with dishes such as Sunflower & Geranium Crisp Bread, and the exquisitely presented Peas with Broad beans & Seaweed, and any chef who can make a parsnip dish that I love, is instantly forgiven for serving it to me on a slab of fucking paperbark.
I feel as though the vegetable based dishes were the stars here, with standouts like Beetroot & Blackcurrant raising my eyebrows even higher than the Juniper smoked Lamb, despite me being more of a Gin Martini bond, and liking my Martinis stirred, the dining experience here certainly shook me.
Fear not though evil sweet toothed diners! Courses to satisfy your black heart’s desires are not far off! I was particularly impressed by texture and presentation of the Big Raspberry, and the flavour of the Celeriac and Beer will prove as divisive a dinner conversation as Sean Connery vs Roger Moore.
Definitely a place you can’t miss out on if you’re into unpretentious fine dining and don’t have a problem getting an extended line of credit from your bank or financial institution.
These guys have a license to kill it.
Silvereye
20-24 Broadway Chippendale
NSW 2008