Marque Restaurant & Sydney’s Fine Dining Scene

Marque Restaurant was considered one of the best restaurants in Sydney and just outside of the downtown area.  It was a 15 minute drive to Marque from downtown.

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The sign outside isn’t very distinctive or bright, so it’s not very noticeable if you walked by it.  The restaurant is very dark, so it’s a good place to take someone you don’t want to see in light.   Therefore, it’s a perfect setting to bring someone who has an acne problem in their 30s.

The service was good.  Our drinks were always filled.  They did a decent job of explaining the prep and ingredients.  Every great restaurant has its signature service and their way of doing things like Burger King has its “You can have it your way” even though you can’t.  It just seems like Marque was missing their voice like women who are very vocal during you know what.  Don’t know what?  Well… they can only ask you so many times then they start to yell at you to take out the trash then they lose their voice.

Anyway, I went with the Degustation menu. I didn’t know what was going to be served until the end when they give me the menu.

The Degustation menu consisted of 8 courses and mainly savory dishes.  All the courses were okay to good.  I’m only going to touch on some of the better parts of the meal like four play:

1. Darlings Down Wagyu – I have A5 Japanese Wagyu at my disposable at home and tasted authentic Japanese Kobe beef.  Therefore, no slab of beef will ever compare to those two pieces of decadent beef.  This is no fault of Marque but I thought the dish was decent.  The Darlings Down Wagyu was definitely better than American Wagyu or Kobe Style beef.  However, the texture and quality of the beef didn’t do it for me.  It wasn’t buttery or rich enough for me to give me the “umami” moment like eating a 20 piece chicken nugget meal from McDonald’s.

   

2. NZ Bass Grouper – The grouper was very mild with a unique flavor.  It was firm, moist and broke apart in large flakes.  The fish scales was a great way to add depth to the dish cause it added color to the grouper when light hit it.  The presentation was fantastic but not quite on the level of my 5 year old nieces stick figure drawings.

   

3. Redgate Farm Quail – This was definitely one of the better courses of the night and help justified Mark Best’s awards.  The quail was really moist and the skin was slightly seared.  The carrot was soft and dissolved in your mouth after a few bites like some weed edibles.  Thank goodness it didn’t give me the munchies though.

   

4. Octopus – This was my absolute favorite of the tasting menu.  The octopus was seared, juicy and the texture was similar to a lobster.  It had the lobster’s soft, plump and sweetness.  The kimchi garnish was a nice complement if you ate the octopus with it.   This dish defined Mark Best’s talents and should be his signature dish.

   

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t consider Marque to be one of the best meals I ever had but it was a better than average dining experience.  I don’t regret trying it out and tasting Sydney’s interpretation of Australian fine dining.  Would I come back?  Not until I tried other restaurants in the area.  However, I don’t think that’s going to happen since I recently found out Chef Best closed Marque.  I wish I got the memo before I wrote this review.

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