MOD. Dining — Restaurant in Sydney

(3.5 stars) With grey days regularly punctuating this summer it pays to have some wet weather plans. The Art Gallery of NSW has your back with the Cao Fei dining package ($99), which combines an exhibition pass (normally $35) with a banquet lunch at MOD. Dining. It’s up to you whether you view art then eat, or eat then view art. Either way you pick up your exhibition tickets at the airy restaurant, with the colourful Chinese artist’s film-focused immersive exhibition located right underneath it. We chose to see art first, so entered the minimalist restaurant space dominated by glass windows letting in the epic view, with images a retro movie cinema in full saturated colour dancing in our heads.

The 80-seater is now mod. Asian with its menu created by Nepalese chef, Sushil Aryal (ex-Miss Pearl Bar + Dining in Melbourne). The banquet one menu (normally $69) begins quickly, with dishes landing two at a time. Crisp candied eggplant batons seasoned with lao gan chili, white pepper, and flash-fried Thai basil are fun but too sweet; the accompanying raw tuna a little flavourless despite a lift from yuzu kosho, spring onion oil, pickled chilli and seaweed crisps.

The short list of Aussie wines is available in 150 or 250ml pours, so tell the bevy of staff how full you like your tumbler. Satay chicken thigh skewers on a bed of crisp naturally sweet cabbage and a middling satay sauce went okay with the 2023 Pawn Wine Co. Grüner Veltliner ($17/150ml). The acidity of the 2023 Yangarra Rosé ($29/250ml) needs more to work against, coming into its own with the closing course of char siu pork. It’s a generous portion of sliced pork collar paired with burnt pineapple nuoc mam sauce and a splash of chargrilled lemon eaten over rice with an accompanying salad of cucumber and pickled morning glory. Along with a pair of (very loosely) Thai fish cakes served for two people with three cos lettuce wraps (seriously: why not four?) it’s a substantial if not awe-inspiring lunch. But hey, awe is where the...

Oh boy, let me tell you about my recent adventure at MOD Dining, the supposedly "fancy" Asian fusion spot at the Art Gallery. With its hoity-toity location, I expected Gordon Ramsay-level cuisine. Instead, I got what feels like a masterclass in "How to Disappoint Customers 101."

Our fearless party of four bravely ordered an array of dishes that read like a "Greatest Hits of Asian Cuisine": Char Siew Pork Belly (spoiler alert: the char was missing), beef steak (more like beef mistake), vegetarian tofu (even the vegetables looked sad), and Asian noodles (so bland, they made water taste spicy).

If mediocrity had a flavor profile, this would be it! The tofu came with rice so ancient, it could've been excavated from a pharaoh's tomb. The Char Siew Pork Belly was so underwhelming, my local takeaway spot's pet goldfish could've done better. The beef steak portion was so tiny, I needed a microscope to find it on the plate. And those noodles? Let's just say instant ramen packets are filing a class-action lawsuit for defamation.

Look, I'm happy to pay premium prices for premium food, but this was highway robbery wearing a bow tie. Save your money, folks - you'd get more culinary satisfaction from licking the art gallery's walls. The sausage roll downstairs in the café has more cultural refinement than this entire establishment. Trust me, this place is where good taste goes to die, and your wallet goes...

Take no pleasure in leaving such a poor review, but one of the worst dining experiences in recent memory.

For starters, and no fault of the restaurateur I imagine, the design (and ambience) is really pedestrian. The carpet is already looking tired, there are no considered design elements (eg. the outside seating area is literally just chairs and tables with nothing on them, no music inside, no interesting finishings)… for such an iconic location, the space is a real let-down.

On top of that, the menu is pretty limited and overpriced – $20 for some ham and a fried egg on a HOTDOG bun; $28 for a cold bland salad; and $14 (!!!) for a simple cinnamon scroll which I’m guessing they don’t even bake in-house … this can’t be ignored when the design of the venue is so banal. Service was fine, even though we hadn’t yet finished eating and they wanted to take our plates.

It’s just such a shame, because this venue could be a real destination given its incredible backdrop. But sadly it feels like such a miss. I was a bit shocked to see the average rating was 3.7/5 before we went, but I do understand why. Maybe in a few months time it will have fixed a few...