The Reverie Cat

Jackie McMillan
1st Jun 2023

The oddly named Reverie Cat eats like half-remembered Vietnamese crafted with white people at the centre. Pâté, for example, has been judged too weird and consigned to daytime banh mi, in favour of skewers, spring rolls and fishcakes at night. We tried butternut and blue cheese wontons ($12) which were overcooked and dominated by sweet pumpkin puree against a mildly flavoured five spice berry coulis that wanted for a chilli lift. Cocktails however drink well, from a short list populated by cocktail classics lightly updated with Vietnamese flavours. The Cay Bay Sazerac ($20) made on Vietnamese mint tea drank slightly better than the Vietnamese Negroni ($20), but both were pleasant, well presented drinks. 

While the dishes looked great on Instagram, the stone pot coconut sauce that dragged me in with Bau Truong’s wonderful sea snails in coconut broth dancing in my mind, didn’t live up to the memory. Here the dish presents rather textureless garlic prawns ($28) in a super-heated stone pot. As the dish continued to cook at the table, the sauce reduced to an unpleasant pasty consistency. We were told by floor staff we just didn’t eat it fast enough. Sa pa spiced braised beef ($30) was a bit dry and bland, with the accompanying cassava needing more cooking time, though the kumera was fine. The Vietnamese crispy pancake, taken in pork and prawn ($24), was super thin with the crisp-skinned pork having good bite. With flavour on the light-side, we asked for more heat and received a ballistic bowl of little red chillies: the tastiest thing I consumed all night. Staff are certainly enthusiastic and eager to please, but there are many better places to eat Vietnamese food, including fusion cuisine, in Sydney. 

https://thereveriecat.com/