Nick's Bar and Grill: King Street Wharf

I went to Sydney for work late last week and stayed in a hotel on King Street Wharf. The hotel was better than anything I'd be willing to pay for out of my own pocket. It was surprisingly quiet as double windows blocked out the hustle and bustle of typical Sydney traffic. I felt that a one bedroom apartment was too much space for one person. Nevertheless, the views of the wharf and the city were pretty decent/good.

For a work dinner, we went to Nick's Bar and Grill. It was a rainy Thursday evening and a bit chilly. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was still classy (or upmarket) and sophisticated. For the entree, I had seared scallops with citrus and caramel sauce. The scallops were plump, extremely fresh and sweet. Definitely amongst the highest quality scallops I've ever had. The sweet sauce complemented the dish well as it brought out the natural sweetness of the scallops and the citrus added a 'bite' to the food.

For the main, I got the whole baby barramundi - offshore fish grilled and finished in the oven. The barra was cooked to perfection as the meat fell off the spine and wasn't dry at all. Others at the table thought a whole fish would be a clumsy choice and I must admit - I found myself constantly spitting out baby bones. But for what it was, the restaurant did well. My only complaint would be that the guts weren't cleaned out to perfection - this affected the end result as there was a very small section of bitterness in the fish's stomach near the guts.

Dessert is my favourite, if not second favourite, meal of the day. I got the baklava - a traditional Greek dessert with pistachio icecream. The icecream was ever so creamy and tasted like real pistachios. This accompanient was necessary as the baklava was probably the sweetest thing I've ever eaten. I'm a huge fan of baklava, but this one was way too sweet for me. One of my colleagues advised me that 'traditional' baklava is sickly sweet and usually accompanied by bitter Greek/Turkish coffee. After eating this, I wasn't surprised. The baklava was so sweet that I couldn't finish it - def needs to be shared between two people.

Several of my colleagues got the Mango and Summer Berry Fool, with fresh mango, mixed berries, chantilly cream and meringue  - it looked amazing and many of my colleagues praised the dish for having many different components but criticised it for having too much chantilly cream.

Overall, I'm glad I had the opportunity to dine here as I've heard much about this restaurant and walked past it a million times thinking that it was way out of my budget. A great restaurant but probably not distinct or quirky enough to be called one of my favourite fine dining restaurants in Sydney.

Nick's Bar and Grill

The Promenade, King Street Wharf

Sydney

http://www.nicks-seafood.com.au/nicksbarandgrill/