Flying Fish and Chips

Flying Fish and Chips
Level G Café Court
The Star
80 Pyrmont St
Pyrmont
NSW 2009
Ph : (02) 9518 6166

The Star, previously known as Star City, has been rebadged, renovated etc etc and so forth. We all know what happened, we all know the new eateries, so let’s move onto one of them. An offshoot of Flying Fish, it is situated in a food court that feels quite separate from the gambling and entertainment part of the complex, making it easy to forget that you're at a casino.

An expansive space split into food and bar sections, the menu, which is not available online at Flying Fish, is divided into “classic”, “oven roasted”, “salads”, “burgers & rolls”, “ocean bar”, “stone bar” and “sushi + sashimi bar”, with 3-8 items in each section. The bar list features four champagne/ sparkling (glass or bottle), nine whites from around Australia, with a Farnese Pino Grigio from Italy, a rosé (Serafino Goose Island), four Australian reds and half a dozen beers.

At a fish and chippery, what else to order but a “classic fish and chips”? Priced at $14.90, it is described as being cooked in beer batter and served with tartare sauce and lemon.

Ruby & Rach - the Reuben

Good Living Growers' Market
Pyrmont
Sydney
3 September 2011

One of the things about twitter is that sometimes, the pace of your tweetstream is so rapid that without bookmarking it, it can be hard recall where you read about something.

In this instance, it was Tony Gibson's venture "Ruby & Rach", a new sandwich stall at the monthly Pyrmont Markets serving only two items - a Reuben sandwich, and a Rachel sandwich, and with its inaugural appearance on 3 September. I cannot for the life of me remember who tweeted about it.

The Reuben is what drew me there, as well being intrigued by the idea of someone being dedicated to producing only two sandwiches.

Inevitably, I chose the wrong way to do the market circuit in search of the Reuben, and it was one of the last stalls I came to. By that point, all you could hear from me was "WHERE IS IT?!?"

Examples of both sandwiches sit at the front of the stall for illustrative purposes. The Reuben ($9.50), described as "corned Wagyu, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing on Rye", is made from 72 hour brined Wagyu.

As each order is placed, the bread is toasted, the corned beef hand-sliced and then warmed up, the cheese melted etc, and the completed sandwich wrapped in a what appears to be butcher's paper, which is great, space wise, for sandwich consumption.

Sean's Kitchen

Level 2 Star City

80 Pyrmont St

Sydney NSW 2000

Ph : (02) 9777 9000

Eatability reviewers gave warning. Some say that we should stay away. Almost everyone complained about the price. Those who didn’t probably can afford it regardless. Not a good start. I thought I’d get my act ready in case I need to act a certain way to ‘counteract’ the supposedly bad experience. Of course, not everyone reviewed on the website gave the same account. I concluded that everything about the place- the food, the service and the ambience were probably at best inconsistent. The only consistency seems to be the steepness of the price. Since the venue was chosen, I approached with extremely low expectations, hoping that this will, at least, make the place a little more enjoyable.

Considering the high risk involved, I again went for the safe options. In wine and food. A known Pinot Noir can’t go astray, and if you can stuff up a steak, then you really shouldn’t be in the restaurant business. People raved about the duck fat chips. It’s also what I’ve been hearing about. So I suppose ordering one of those was in…ermm… order…

Most of us chose the safe route and ordered the same steak in 3 different settings: medium rare, medium and well down. Just, you know, to test the skills of the chefs. I suppose it’s really just about timing. Something that was a bit lacking- that timing- in the way that the wait was erring on the wrong side of overly delayed. I mean, yes, a well done steak might take longer to cook, but… hmmm… luckily the company was good. Otherwise the wait would’ve felt much longer. Seriously. Cityrail’s delays are a delight compared to what we endured. I suppose it was a good call to have a bit of pinot to calm the emotions.

Logan Pinot Noir 2007 (I believe) from Orange. $55

Perhaps they took all the criticism to heart and made a deliberate effort to improve? Service was friendly, attentive, and the attractive pixie-hair-styled waitress did her very best to sell us more drinks. Kudos. She deserved a raise on efforts alone.

Now this is me nitpicking and just being plain spoilt, but I believe a restaurant like this really shouldn’t be asking, “So… who’s having the steak?” when they bring the food around. I’d expect that from a $10 special with year 10 work experience girls. If places charging 50% less than they are can remember who ordered what, it’s not much to ask, now is it?

The famous duck fat chips $8

The duck fat chips? Well… they’re nice chips. I just don’t think they’re “phat” hehehe… Sure, I’ve had much worse chips in better places, but I really don’t feel the need to advertise the duck fat fact.

All is forgiven when I sliced off a piece of my medium rare steak (which wasn’t all that much different from the medium), chock full of béarnaise sauce and veal jus, and savoured the heavenly moment. The steak was simply heavenly. There are no other ways to describe it. If Jesus has steak, I’m sure it won’t be far off what I had on the night. This was something completely unexpected and I’m not sure that Sean’s Kitchen is known for their steaks. And considering this isn’t some rip off marbled wagu beef. This was a simple angus 400 gram rib eye. It truly was sensational.

Grain fed Angus rib eye 400g $38- I reckon this was the best value dish in the whole place. Delightfully succulent... especially with the bearnaise sauce and veal jus

Of course, I cannot guarantee that you’ll have the same experience. As the restaurant seems to be consistently inconsistent, meaning it’ll be a gamble every time you go. Quite apt too as it’s situated inside Star City Casino.

Price? Yes, it is expensive. Luckily we had both a $50 gift card as well as 10% off the total bill thanks to one of us being a member of Star City Casino. And of course, there are perks being a member too…

The really really expensive prawns. Yes, they peel them for you, and add a little bit of what looks like thousand island and a tiny slice of lemon, which looks to be mostly skin... for the grand o' price of $32 smackeroonies... I don't care how large they are... that is not $32 worth

Steamed Suzuki Jewfish, with what looks like the stem of a giant mushroom, half a ball of some kind of vegetable and some puree; $36

And the perks are that we managed to weasel ourselves some free churros!!!

So that was a real bonus. We didn’t have to order desserts, just the coffees to go with the desserts. Which, were just a little bit overpriced. If it weren’t for the free churros…. And what churros they are!!! So much fat and sugar, but it was soooo good! They went really well with the dark chocolate dip. I can feel it going straight to my waistline and quite frankly, I didn’t care one bit!

All in all a great night had by all… helped, of course, but our lots and lots of freebies! But paying full price? Probably won’t go… 

And yes... I realise the photo quality is quite poor, even for me. I blame the mood lighting... [Onomatopia]