Have you ever 'had it all' in a restaurant?
 

I have never known such a combination would happen, but some people believe it has been achieved:

• Acclaim in respected awards
• Breathtaking location / view
• Flawless service
• Excellent and extensive wine list
• Challenging, inventive, creative food that tastes amazing
• Is good value

?

Sydney is lucky to have some restaurants that have potential to do it all.
I'd like to hear of your own finds around the world, either your local city or memorable places from your travels.
Hopefully you can add a link.

Do you know of restaurants that tick all of the criteria? Failing that, ones which tick (at least) the amazing food and value 'boxes'?:

Here are a couple on my list.
1. Quay [review 1] [review 2]
2. Berowra Waters Inn [review 1] [review 2]

I thought you'd ask if anyone ever ordered "one of each" at the restaurant...

the thought of that came across my mind, but no I never done it.

--Russ ;)

PS. I'm taking the family to Lalezar in Montclair, NJ tomorrow for my birthday... I hope it "has it all"

I've not found a 'has it all' buffet yet. ;)

You have missed the most Important aspect of any Restaurant Meal:

The Perfect Table Partner

The rest is just secondary.

oh God! I hate buffets with a passion and avoid them at all costs.

the problem is I have very little self control and end up staying at the buffet for hours until I literally sample all the food they got... then I whobble out the place and hurt for hours... never again!

--Russ

Quay

Lunch on a weekday. Place was half empty. Gorgeous views no doubt. Service mediocre, and food is just fine. Perhaps will be very different on a busy night, but cannot believe this is restaurant of the year!

Not recommended for lunch.:td:

Thanks for this tip, aurigakb. I was thinking it would make a decent place for lunch for the greedy ;) FTers with multiple CMB fares still to be routed via my hometown.

There are plenty of places to have lunch, so I'm going to think carefully about whether it's worth the hassle to go to Quay for dinner - when Berowra Waters Inn is a more peaceful drive home (and parking experience) than from the Quay.

Same here, never again....at least until the next time I go to Vegas...next week <cough>.

And no I've never been to a place that had it all either.

The restaurant James in Philadelphia provided me with the perfect dining experience back in late May. Food was exquisite, service was the best I'd ever encountered, and considering the quality the price was perfect.

Simply perfection.

These two points aren't always an issue. Obviously, in Britain the second point is particularly important as traditionally made food that tastes amazing is so hard to come by, but I see it as an over-rated quality.
When there are so many established techniques, foods and flavours out there I haven't yet tried, the urge to go for innovation seems a bit pointless to me. (you should try the smoked takuan slices I was eating yesterday...)

And an extensive wine list appears to me to be another Western conceit. When you're in a country that doesn't produce great wines, the stuff is going to be expensive. If I'm expecting good value, I'd also expect the restaurateurs to concentrate instead on providing well judged beverage options that will complement the food, and that doesn't always have to be wine.

Australia inherited Britain's gastronomy whilst at its lowest point. After persevering with it for far too long, the shackles were loosened and Australians finally embraced the challenges and opportunities of their geography. It took a while to figure out, and there have been some ugly culinary failures, but eventually the enthusiasm for Pacific rim fusion cooking seems to have paid off. I've no doubt that Sydney is a wonderful place for inventive and creative food. And as a part Brit, I'm delighted and feel that many of the vile eating habits of the English are responsible for the current Australian backlash. As Sydney has access to some fantastic home grown wines also, I'm not surprised to see that you're patting yourselves on the backs over your recent graduation from meat pie and lager.:)

When so few people have had a good paella, or have enjoyed the finest products from the Murcian Huerta in a to-die-for potaje I find it extraordinary that so many folks are leap-frogging all these rare and remarkable delights in dogged pursuit of El Bulli style innovation.

So yes, as far as I'm concerned, I have had it all.

Here's a classic example - Ukai Toriyama with menus from £20 (4,000yen)

hear hear... ^

Thanks! :p I really should find the corresponding thread for each city for each trip I take but this is a shorthand step before that. ;)

Hard to say flawless: one can always find something.

I'd say that of my top experiences in 50 years of dining
a couple have been on your fair island:

Grange, Cheong Liew's place in the Hilton Adelaide, the
first time I was there;

Tetsuya's, in some other city; but this was flawed - as
with many of my near-perfect meals, there was the
issue of a stale oyster (replacement free of course, but
the bad taste lingers in one's mouth).

In the USA, TFL was of course remarkable; the only
flaw was the nearly $500pp tab (we had some nice wines).

These places had pleasant, sometimes innovative settings;
I've never had anything close to a great meal at a "view"
restaurant.

LOL,

That's "exactly" what I was thinking.

Sort of what one might do when they are RFB4 at a casino.

I've had a few late night room service experiences that have come close to ordering every appetizer on the room service menu. But, only at casino hotels.....

Dinner with someone who has it all...

For me the best dinner experiences so far were those when there was no time to plan or think about much. Just head out to eat ex tempore and then suddenly get caught in and enchanted by the fleeing moment.

If you are dining with someone who has it all you probably want to order antibiotics :D

French Laundry has resisted my efforts to get a table, but I did do Per Se around a year and a half ago. No view, and expensive tab, but otherwise one of the best meals I've ever had. And impeccable service.

"Greedy FTers???"

Watch it, buddy! :mad: ;)

---

I find that many of the attributes that the OP asked for can be achieved easily enough, but that the last one, "good value" is tough to pull off.

^
Less-than-perfect food with entertaining companions is better than perfect food with a person/people with whom you have no connection. (Perfect food with people you love, though, is ideal. :) )

Alain Ducasse's "Le Jules Verne" at the Eiffel Tower is an exception to my personal belief that a restaurant with nice views never has both good service and good food.

La Plage - little know place way out east on Long Island. Right on the north shore beach. Beautiful sunsets, amazing menu (changes daily based on what is in season and what the chef feels like making), fantastic wine list (quality, not quantity) and perfect service every time. The only thing that improves it is my SO.

Did I write 'greedy FTers'? :D I made notso go red. :p

:D
(For lunch, Cafe Sydney might be the better choice for a lunch or a drink, to taken in the view. If it's toward sunset, go to my standdout fave, the Shangri La's Blu horizon lounge. ^ [You know this anyway!])

Korfez - IST. Food, view, service. ^^

Hotel breakfast buffets are still, IMO, the best 'had it all' experience...

not quite sure that hotel breakfast buffets really make the cut ;)

though, the Bally's Sterling Brunch is the best of the lot, with regard to the "breakfast/brunch buffet" category.

I thought this was referring to a meal with a happy ending.


The Fort, Morrison, Colorado
On 56, Shanghai, China
Mona Lisa, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

But don't really make it into the view or value category

While I am not the most discriminating eater, I would say Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye, Scotland meet all those areas, except the wine list. I say except because I'm not a wine drinker, so did not peruse the wine list - I have no idea of it's quality. All the other aspects were spot on, though!

While it was surely the most expensive meal I've had in my life, I would say that El Bulli on the Costa Brava in Spain "had it all." The food is legendary, of course, but the service was fantastic, and not at all stuffy. The wine list had lots of good local choices as well as obvious internationally-famous wines. The sommelier was super-helpful. Even the after-dinner herbal tea was a work of art, with living herbs snipped from a rolling cart that was planted as a portable garden. On the setting/view question, we were lucky: after our first few courses on the terrace overlooking the little bay, we were led to a very private table in a little alcove with a window that also overlooked the bay. Other tables had less privacy and no real view.

So despite the heart-stopping bill, I considered it money well-spent.

Not sure I really care about the view when I am focusing on really good eating.

I would suggest:

Arzak or Martin Berasategui, San Sebastian
Tawaraya, Kyoto
Helene Darroze, Paris

My French Laundry experience was also remarkable, and the tab a bit less than $500, but not by much. I don't find that a "flaw" as such since we both left feeling like we had gotten good value for the money. Did we eat $500 worth of food - of course not - but the entire experience was perfect, professional without being stuffy, their main goal seemed to be to figure out where each customer's head was at and to adjust their service to reflect that. We were in the middle of a very relaxing wine weekend and our service was equally relaxed. An ajoining table was pretty clearly occupied by a group where the host was "showing off", and their service was much more formal and restrained.

We got a great night's entertainment for what actually wasn't that much more than a show combined with a much more ordinary meal.

Would such a meal customarily approach $700 (+ ?) after gratuities?
(For budgeting purposes... ;))

Of those criteria listed I'd say Aria (which does happen to be in Sydney) is about as good as I've had...well apart from #6, we indulged a bit on the wine front.:o

Also the River Cafe in Brooklyn...

:D

Varies widely, depending on the wine(s) you choose.

From the FL webside, the current price of the tasting menus is $240, but it is clear that this price includes gratuities.

The wine list has a very nice variety of wines in all price ranges. When it was just the two of us the staff helped us pick a selection of wines by the glass, and then for a couple of the courses split a single glass between us - the courses are many and I was driving! I'd be surprised if the wines added another $150 - so you're up to $630. But, you could also spend much more on the wine.

That's a relief! I am never 100% sure if tip inflation, sneaky tip sharing practices/charges or general underpaying of staff means that the cost of tipping in a US restaurant has risen.

I'd have guessed for such an acclaimed restaurant, that a 30% tip would be a benchmark (baseline?) for a great meal, so I'd have expected to pay $150 on top of the restaurant prices.

I was unaware that restaurants (like FL) did estimates like this in their promotions.

I should have been clearer, it isn't an "estimate", the price is "service included".

See:

http://www.tkrg.org/upload/fl_menu.pdf