Having heard amazing reviews from a friend with high standards (it’s their new favourite restaurant), I had been dying to dine at nel. restaurant for months. I finally had the opportunity to try their set lunch menu a week last Friday for a business lunch. I am glad to report it did not disappoint. The open kitchen, which you can see from every table in the restaurant, and the parker furniture were big hits!
At just $45 for 5 courses, the set menu does not disappoint. And I’m sure the 11-course degustation for dinner is amazing value at just $88 ($168 including matched wines).
To start with everyone had the most divine Vinegar, Parmesan. It would be hard to do it justice with just words, but essentially it is a large cube of yumminess. The next dish was Mushroom Consomme with Truffle Dumpling; again divine. For the third dish, we had a choice of 2 options: Beef, Coffee, Macadamia and Oyster Mushroom (as pictured) or Trout, Cucumber, Potato, Mustard. I chose the first option and loved it. My dining companions who chose the trout were equally impressed. The dessert was Pistachio, Cherry, Chocolate and White Corn and the white corn was like popping candy! To finish off an amazing meal, we all had Liquorice, Lemon, which was more lemony than liquorice (to the relief of those dining who do not like liquorice).
The service was also what you would expect from a fine dining restaurant, plus more. I had booked for 7 of us at 12.30pm, but when 2 people had not arrived by 1pm, they did not push us to order. They were in fact, incredibly patient and unobtrusive during the 3 hours we hogged the table, despite being busy.
I feel saying it is my favourite Sydney restaurant would be like a parent saying they had a favourite child, but it is definitely in my top 10 and comes highly recommended. It was also a hit with everyone else in my group, and they all added that they could not wait to impress their freinds with the recommendation.