Fix St James is a one hatted restaurant in Sydney, and a place that I had known about for several years now. I had wanted to go to check it out their awesome wine list but kept putting it off. Finally, this year I managed to visit, and I wasn’t disappointed!
My obligatory wine at a wine bar – a pinot noir as they didn’t have nebbiolo by the glass.
Oysters!!! Au naturale, with only lemon juice. I think I’ve been spoiled by Adelaide oysters, but I’ll still take every oyster opportunity I can get!
I decided to opt for a shared dinner rather than entree/main/dessert, since there were so many things I wanted on the menu! This was a selection of three meats – culatello prosciutto, bresaola and saucisson. They were all so tasty! I like cured meats when they have an earthiness to them and aren’t too salty, so these were perfect. I was also amused by the fact their wax paper was self-promoting.
Ah, delicious fried school prawns! I was agonising over choosing between fried chicken or school prawns, and the waiter said there were only a few pieces of chicken, so we opted for the prawns. It was a great choice and it came with some super tasty aioli!
Look at the massive fluffy rice cracker! This was the kangaroo tartare, and it was very impressive. It didn’t look like tartare from the original presentation, but the waiter explained that the tartare was hidden at the bottom, with a yolk in the middle, and then parsnip foam was on top. All of it was so well seasoned, and the kangaroo was so finely chopped! I’ve never actually scrutinised tartare before, but the pieces were so small that I really appreciated the knifework that went into this dish! The rice cracker was super fun to eat, though it wasn’t super crispy. I didn’t mind though, because it was still very yummy!
Veal sweetbreads! And now I can say I’ve eaten sweetbreads – which was not brains, like I originally thought, but pancreas. It was a very interesting texture that I’m not sure I liked, but I thought the accompaniments were quite nice – fennel and celery. It was quite a fatty and heavy dish, but had good flavour.
The first dessert – pressed fig, salted caramel ice cream, caramel popcorn and apple granita. I didn’t quite expect pressed fig to be just… flattened fig, but I did like the apple sorbet! It was an interesting combination for me. I did decide on a cognac just to be all cool. To be honest, I can’t consume enough spirits to tell the difference between this and other golden liquors. One day I hope to know though!
Rice pudding with rhubarb ice cream. Wow, this was like a really rich smooth custard of a rice pudding! There were no rice bits at all, but rather, it had all been blended together somehow. For me, neither dessert was super standout, but both were quite nice.
This is a place to visit if you’re after a small but succinct selection of drinks, and their savoury dishes are not to be missed! Don’t think that you have to get an entree – main – dessert; if you’re there for nibbles, order the small dishes for a great way to sample the food!