Fine dining meets fusion at this ‘slightly otherworldly’ Circular Quay showpiece

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It’s probably a difficult time to be a luxurious fine-dining restaurant; especially one designed as a shrine to the fusion of Japanese and French cuisines. (Haven’t we done this before, and fused already?) But if it is, Oborozuki isn’t showing it.

Instead, it’s showing off. There are sommeliers for sake and wine, and I have just been presented with a huge leather-bound Louis Vuitton trunk. Inside are 40 individual glasses from Japan’s famous Kagami Crystal, backlit and glowing like cut emeralds and rubies.

I select one, and a white-gloved somm fills it with Hananomai Abysse ($23 for 100ml), an unpasteurised sparkling sake brewed using a process similar to champagne that leaves it zippy and fresh.

It’s a flourish, a ritual, that is almost sacramental. As I am to learn, this is the Oborozuki way.

The Tong Sheng Group (behind Panda Yum Cha and 678 Korean BBQ) has pulled out all the stops with its first upscale restaurant in Australia. The location is hard to beat, overlooking the ferry end of Circular Quay. A magnificent spiral staircase (bait for influencers) leads to a golden-hued double-height cathedral-like room. Above, a second level of three private dining rooms is the domain of dedicated head teppanyaki chef Felix Zheng.

Oborozuki started as high-end omakase, but appointed a la carte head chef Daeun Kang in late 2023, fresh from seven years at Aria, to ring in some changes. Her food is delicate, refined and high in technique.

The expense of the menu ($180/$220 a head) is lightened by the generosity, as not one but three appetisers land on the table, followed by Sonoma bread and seaweed butter. Fingers of maki roll have the bite of mustard greens, capped with avocado and saltbush. An impossibly thin tartlet (made from gyoza wrapper) holds oyster cream, diced kingfish and crisp apple, with a bunch of sea grapes reclining on top like a seal. A smoked mussel sits atop a cushy doughnut with a bright sudachi aioli.

Oh my, this food. Overlapping slices of raw coral trout nestled with tangy furls of daikon, huddles of Kaviari Kristal sturgeon caviar and tiny white blossoms are so white-on-white, it’s almost bridal.

Chawan-mushi is bathed in a scallop consomme, carrying wonderfully toasty scallops, sea urchin and Jerusalem artichoke crisps, paired with a seriously umami-rific Gassan Tokubetsu Junmai sake ($36 for 120ml).

The fusion of French and Japanese plays out on every plate, and my drinks pairing ($95) flows from wine to sake and back, with Donggeon Kim on duty to guide our sake experience, and Harold Clouet and Romain Bouquet for wine (what a brilliant surname for a sommelier).

O’Connor beef tartare is nubbly and rich, warm with fermented chilli and capped with a disc of toasted brioche dusted with cured egg yolk.

Some dishes owe inspiration to Kang’s years at Aria. The Maremma duck is one; dry-aged for seven days, brushed with red wine and maltose, roasted, rested, carved and char-grilled. Accompaniments are precise and pointed; a pretty gathering of jube-like purple carrot with blackberries, and a curl of macadamia cream. The duck is a star; ruby-red and as giving as high-marble-score beef, paired with a velvety 2019 E. Guigal Crozes Hermitage.

It’s slightly otherworldly, like being in a Japanese restaurant in Paris or a French fine diner in Tokyo.

A word: agree to the same number of courses among yourselves, or you may get out of step at the end, with one brought fish and the other dessert; something best avoided.

Sake takes on the role of rum for a gorgeous little baba layered with sudachi curd, citrus cells and citrus granita, with freeze-dried mandarin showered from above at the table.

The theatrics and staged rituals at Oborozuki are reminiscent of high-end Vue de Monde in Melbourne, but there’s generosity here, with a sense that everything possible is done for the diner, not for the kitchen.

It’s slightly otherworldly, like being in a Japanese restaurant in Paris or a French fine diner in Tokyo. But instead, we’re here in Sydney, where bringing them together feels like a glimpse of the future.