Elegant. Intimate. Sophisticated.
New Pont Brasserie is like a lighthouse beacon in the city of Sydney guiding us to a return to classic cuisine, plated a la carte restaurant food served by knowledgeable professional pedigrees.
Like those that came before it within the Hotel InterContinental Sydney, new restaurant Pont tailors for the meat eating alphas through refined grills, yet Pont has also been swept with a lighter fresher brush to offer, those like me, the reassurance of simple dining traditions redefined for the new 'naughties'.
Wrapped in both the comfort of our booth, and the safety of service embodying the true meaning of hospitality, I move my steak to my starter with a new Pont take on Steak tartare. This is a dish I know well, which is brilliant when freshly cut using fine beef, as here. I'm taken with the update of Asian flavours, moistness without creaminess, punch from fried alliums, crunch from the seaweed cracker. Do not be deceived. This simplicity is challenging, even moreso when taken on a tangent. The dish delivers pleasure with a Sydney signature.
Having filled my fix for meat, my plated main takes another 'steak' tangent but with celeriac and woodear mushrooms rather than beef, a hearty and creative vegetarian option.
We're bucking the Sydney trend for shared plates here, resuming our part as the restaurant audience by dining with elegance. Sides are stunning potatoes, done two ways. My plusone swims along through seafood and fish before we put our desserts in the middle of the table.
After starting the night with my choices of a Night Merchant Distillery gin martini then a glass of Bimbadgen Hunter Valley Semillon perched at the bar, I hand over the choice for our very fine bottle at the table to the inimitable GM Erez Gordon and my (former newspaper dining editor) companion. My start to Sydney spring 2023 is a happy celebration.
