Margaret — Restaurant in Sydney

TL: DR Great service Tasty dishes, bit sour. Cooking technique kinda simple. Cuisine is influenced by Aussie Asian Fusion and Aussie Mediterranean dishes. Good value for $$ ( $75 total), v filling. No time limit for me when seated at bar. Crowded, bit noisy.

This restaurant was diagonally opposite where I was staying ( Savoy). There are many amazing restaurants and cafes nearby, but I chose Margaret because it is Chef Neil Perry's baby.

It's crazy busy for a fine dining place - big queue of ppl outside. All bar myself & another couple already made a booking. The waitress initially tried to shoo me away to the bar next door. Emboldened & informed by my experience at KFC Gungahlin ( plz read my review there) I told her I was happy to wait. They were very accommodating and seated me at the bar. The other couple was seated next to the window & I took pic of this empty table (refer to pics). I looked more like a hobo than a glitzy Double Bay resident with my flipflops, frizzy hair and muumuu dress but everyone gets treated equally and actually, there's no dress code.

On one side of menu is an artsy seacreature. ( See pics). Since I was at the bar, I took pics of the cocktails but didn't get drunk on so many. The bartenders served me my food and drink and you also pay at the bar when you've finished your meal.

Food breakdown: Sourdough & butter: Sourdough had a nice tang, very chewy though. Massive-est lump of butter I've seen. It was pale, almost white and soft. Only very mildly salty. The culture tasted like rancid oil instead of the lactic acidity of Lurpack. I would take Lurpack/Western Star over this fancy one.

South Coast oyster & finger lime salsa: They forgot to cut adducter muscle, so scooping up oyster was hard. The finger lime itself is quite sour, so they didn't add any lime juice or vinegar to the salsa ( I felt they should have, though because it was kinda oily and the finger lime flavour couldn't mix with oysters) The salsa was mignonette-like: finger lime rounds, olive oil, I think scallion rounds and possibly garlic also.

Potato salad with 4 anchovies: Can recreate this @home, so tasty & easy to make. Perfectly cooked potato, semi-dried tomatoes which were sweet and tart, capers, anchovies, flat leaf parsley, bit of sage, vinegar & oil dressing, torn bits of sourdough. I didn't like the bread coz it was oily, chewy and there's heaps of carbs in the dish anyway. I get that it's a panzanella of sorts. It did impart a nice grilled and charry flavour. I would grill the potatoes & leave out bread. Incredibly filling for an entree too. You ate this with a spoon and fork.

Trout cheeks: Was given fork to eat this. No knife so I used the butter knife. Were you supposed to eat this with fork & knife or with your hands, like chicken wings? Would have been good to get some kind of explanation with this. Plate was provided for bones but I didn't know. See pic of bones, might be gross but just giving you a heads up in case you wanted to order this dish. Good to see nose to tail philosophy.

Dish itself was like a Thai salad, but very sour. Fried trout, peppermint, parsley, fish sauce, chili, onion, lime juice, possibly a sprinkling of parmesan.

Most restaurant dishes lean salty in hopes that customers buy more drinks, Neil Perry's dishes lean sour. I appreciate quality produce, simple plating and perfect cooking times ( not over or undercooked). However, these dishes are not memorable or inspiring, there are no unique foods on the menu that you won't get at other restaurants. I think this is a fixed menu, they don't go to the fish market, see what's available, and then cook from there. So creativity is lacking. Minimum floor space, maximum seats. Minimum effort, maximum profit. It seems like a...

We celebrated my partner’s birthday with Sunday lunch at Margaret’s a few days ago.

When we arrived the front of house lady told us that the restaurant was not yet open. I looked at my watch and she was absolutely right. We were 90 seconds early for our midday booking.

We stood around awkwardly and it was obvious she was annoyed by our early arrival. Another hapless, too eager, early patron was simply told “we are not yet open” and was made to wait outside. Awkward! The burly bouncers at my local are, by comparison, positively warm, welcoming and tactful.

While loitering by the bar we were invited to order a drink. My partner asked for a Bloody Mary but, alas they had a run on them the night before and were completely out of stock. Suppressing an eye roll, we ordered a GnT instead.

When we eventually were shown to our seats we were allocated one of the least desirable tables (more like a cafeteria small table near the entrance and looking directly over the cold shoulder of the front of house person mentioned previously). Punishment for turning up early maybe?

I politely requested we’d be given the table behind that and pointed out that we had booked literally months ago. The girl looked dubious and walked off, presumably in search of the humourless head mistress type at the front desk to seek approval.

More awkward standing around on our part. By now we decided that if anyone was to take charge it was to be us so we simply seated ourselves at the table for two that we had asked for. Luckily for us we were deemed worthy of keeping the table (well for our 2 hour time slot anyway). Surely things were about to improve now and so they did.

The friendly lady that looked after us was like the first ray of sunshine after a long hard winter. She was smiling, professional and in possession of a personality. Winning!

Our starters of Miso Glazed Corner Inlet Southern Calamari and Thai Style Salad of Denis’ Hand-Picked Blue Swimmer Crab, Sweet Pork etc were both delicious as were our mains of Lamb Tagine Pie and Wollemi Duck Breast. We also loved our desserts. All first class and flavourful. Great also to see NP himself on the tools.

To sum up, you need energy and willpower to get past the icy front of house. Hot tip, do not to arrive too early. Then again, do not arrive too late either because, there is a strict 5 minute grace period for late arrivals (you do the risk analysis here). Also be prepared to make the case as to why you and your companion should be worthy of a proper table instead of bistro style cramped round slab. Overcome those few hurdles and you will be rewarded with sumptuous fare. Easy peasy. You’re welcome...

The food really was amazing and I know that’s what we went for but you just think that with its status, location and price the service, atmosphere and organisation of the place would also be amazing. The atmosphere of the restaurant seemed very busy and unsettled. The sommelier had to come back to check our order for two cocktails then when our drinks were delivered, the waitress said a different cocktail and when we questioned it, she said “oh yeah, that’s it” not very comforting. However, we did enjoy them, our waitress described dishes perfectly and her recommendations were great, we just felt that another staff member who seemed to come over to check on how she was doing almost seconds after she had told us about the menu. We ordered wine to have with our main and both glasses had sediment, I was pleased the staff member noticed me realising this and she quickly replaced the glasses, the sommelier then apologised and said he decanted these (I don’t know they weren’t checked or decanted the first time). The timing of the mains was awkward as we got one which we began to share after waiting a few mins and then the other came, there was not enough room on the table, so we felt rushed to finish and then missed out on the sauce as the plate was taken away. We had added a salad to our order a few minutes after placing our order which caused confusion, so we had to ask again for that. We were there to celebrate a birthday (and so was everyone else that night) I liked the way I saw the two tables next to us receive a birthday cup cake with a nice message of “on behalf of Margaret, Happy Birthday” we had decided against dessert as we were full. We then wait an awkward 10 minutes (as I watched staff wind down, many tables had cleared) I then had to uncomfortably remind what would have been our 7th server of the night, that we too were celebrating a birthday. We were told it was coming and I did see that wait person get it straight away. These are all minor things I know, but upon thinking about the night, it made me wander about the place and how it is the number 2 restaurant in the world for steak. It sure deserves the title for the food but some of the other logistics that enhance a dining experience need tightening up. Also, might recommend sitting outside, maybe it is calmer than the...