St Siandra — Restaurant in Sydney

October 2023 update: sadly, this place has gone downhill since my initially gushing 4-star review from several months ago (see below). It takes an exceptional person to keep something special like St Siandra together. It is going the way of so many places with that certain something about them i.e., down. The good news (for the owners at least) is that Sydney's a big city, and to use the analogy of soft drink bottles in a fridge in a fast-food joint, when the front bottle is removed (think a diner or diners who have had a bad experience at the restaurant) another new bottle instantly slides down to fill its place at the front of the fridge. Sydney's diners are like an unending row of new soft drink bottles in a fridge. As soon as one unhappy diner departs forever, a new one takes their seat, unlike in a smaller town where a dud restaurant has burned through its goodwill in 3 months and closed in 6.

Superb food, location, service and decor. I resisted the greeter's suggestion of sharing plates in preference to a la carte, but in the end, as the plates arrived, succumbed to sharing as the dishes lent themselves to this. The mussels were the best I've tasted, as was the Angus beef on skewers, and the potato flatbread was beyond perfect, as was the prawn spaghetti. While I didn't try it, the fish of the day was deemed excellent by the three who did. I can't wait to get back to try the other seafood dishes, particularly the octopus, for if the chefs can do with the octopus what they did with the mussels, they are serious wizards in the kitchen.

I sadly couldn’t give St Siandra a perfect 5/5 as it was very noisy, so much so that all five of us, four with perfect hearing, could not converse comfortably, and had to shout throughout the evening. Hopefully the owners can find ways to make the place less noisy, like carpets, and turning down the music over...

Look, I'm going to be straight forward on this, went there for a birthday, everything was going well until the mains arrived (which took well over an hour, but okay), and the waiter didn't send my food through, so I got to watch my friends eat while I waited for another 35min for my food. At the end of the meal, they've brought the cake that the birthday girl brought (that we paid 5 dollars per head to have btw) so we could sing happy birthday and have the cake, the waiter took the cake inside and brought us slices of it and repacked the cake in the bag, after we were done with the 1st slices we wanted to eat more, so we took the cake out of the bag and went to cut more slices on the table, that's when that same waiter guy came in close the cake's box and placed the whole thing back in the bag claiming we couldn't have the cake on the table, all of that was done in a very rude way. So some of us still had cake in their plates and drinks in their glasses, the place was not busy, there were heaps of empty tables, but apparently he had a new booking for our specific table, because that rude guy came along once again to us, pretty much shoving us away saying we had to go now, being that we were there for a longer time than expected because he forgot the orders in the first place, and didn't even apologised for it. In conclusion, food was good, atmosphere was great as well by the water, but that waiter just made the whole experience that bad that I can't give any...

sun-drenched waterfront venue with cheerful yellow walls, this is a beautiful spot perfect for long lunches ☀️ 🪸

starting off strong with Potato Flatbread and smoked garlic served with Sweet potato & split pea hummus, pine nuts, chili oil. this was a great combo and wow was that flatbread good. a little bit oily but in the best way. I also really really enjoyed the Wagyu bresaola, rocket and zuni pickle, the pickle and parm combo was so yum with the thin slices of beef 🥒

Tuna crudo, avocado, green chili, baharat, citrus vinaigrette was our next dish, the presentation was fun 'hiding' it underneath the crisps. it was well-balanced and refreshing 🐟

we added on the Baked Scallops with vadouvan butter and chickpeas which were fabulous, so nicely cooked and nothing beats a butter sauce. Green pea, burnt onion, fior di latte arancini was also a big winner, cheesy and delicious!

for mains we chose the Lamb shoulder, zucchini agro dolce, garlic potato and the Hiramasa kingfish, capers, tomato, saffron beurre. flavours were great but I did find both mains a little overcooked and tougher than expected. the sides were Bitter leaves, pecorino, macadamia, sour cherry vinaigrette and the Kipfler potato, guindilla, harissa dressing, both yum 💛

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