Icebergs Dining Room & Bar

Ph: 9365 9000; 1 Notts Ave, BONDI BEACH 2026 www.idrb.com

Italian, $$$, ** for Ambience, Good Wine List
Open Lunch Tue-Sun from noon Dinner Tue-Sun from 6.30pm; Licensed, BYO; AE DC MC V EFT
Chef Robert Marchetti, Ben Home & Damien Mccleery (29-11-08) Owner Robert Marchetti, Maurice Terzini, Kimme Shaw & Tony Zaccagnini (29-11-08)

Mietta's Review
The food is quite reasonable. It may lack the refinement and sophistication that mains around $40 demand, but it's not too bad all the same particularly for a restaurant this size. No matter, the room and the view is what it's all about. Sydney is littered with water views but not like this - the curve of Bondi Beach laid out before you and directly below an epic battle between men, women and the waves as flocks of surfers fight to conquer the foaming breakers. In the distance the beach is crowded with tiny sybaritic figures sunning themselves. The much vaunted fit-out of the curved, long, narrow space is fine and reasonably restrained. There are however, a couple of problems. First the setting. For this money it is entirely unacceptable to dine off the cheapest possible laundry linen using pretty basic stainless cutlery and glassware. Then there's the service and its strange detachment from the diner. It's almost as if the senior staff are too important to actually do anything. There's a distinct feeling that the room needs a strong hand at the helm. It is perhaps typified by the experience of an unbooked guest walking in a bit after 1 o'clock to be greeted by the bustle of the front desk where a crowd of attractive young beings is thrown into total confusion by the untimely request for a table - now. After consulting charts, computors and possibly the stars a miracle happens and one is found with the stict proviso that it is rebooked at 2.30 (they close at 3). Once seated the diner had time to thank those stars, they were clearly lucky ones. In spite of the slightly ominous passing of the waiters on their catwalk behind you, this is, during the day, a pleasant dining experience where one is soothed by the ceaseless movement of the water below and its interaction with the human flotsam that floats on it.

Other published opinions

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2009 "It's a pleasure to see that Icebergs' bird's-nest position at the southern end of Bondi Beach hasn't gone to its head"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 17/20, Two Hats "Sure, you can come here for the view. But who would overlook Robert Marchetti's joyous cooking, with dishes that soar through delicate whispers to triumphant, full-blooded roars? From a beguiling fresh fig salad to salt-crusted baby lamb and 500 grams of crusted poetryin-pink from the steak menu, these are instant Sydney benchmarks"

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "Home & Robert Marchetti It's a $26 salad, but what a salad. Dressed tableside with your choice of vinegars, this artful tumble of frisee, bitter dandelion leaves, cime di rapa, chives, crisp beans and fennel, salted with anchovy and enriched with shavings of Asiago cheese is what the Icebergs experience is all about: going the extra mile"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 16.5/20, Two Hats "Arrive early to savour every moment of one of Sydney's most seductive dining experiences. The long, elegant room's marine tones mirror the wondrous ocean outlook"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "There are few greater show-off restaurants in the world, and even fewer where babes of both genders fresh off the beach mingle s freely with the special-occasion crowd"

Sydney Eats 2008 "A masterly juxtaposition of a super-cool aqua-blue room with sweeping views of Bondi and the sea, and the artfully artless down-home food of Rob Marchetti"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2007 Score: 16/20, Two Hats "Being at Icebergs early in the evening is like watching a beautiful drama, choreographed by stylemeister Maurice Terzini, as tables are set with glamour-puss theatrics by waiters with better watches, eye shadow and haircuts than you."

Gourmet Traveller 2007 Restaurant Guide Score: ** "This light-filled room framing a spectacular view of Bondi Beach is the perfect example of the package restaurant. In a sea of celebrity chefdom, Icebergs stands out by putting the focus on the whole experience."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2006 score 17/20, 2 Hats "The sting of salt may have taken its toll on everything from the hinges to the drawer runners, but Icebergs still has that glamour-puss air and nonchalant, you-want-me look. Thanks to Maurice Terzini's eye, the details are everything. Short banquettes are dotted with silk cushions in blues and greens that mirror Bondi beach and the congregation of surfers hustling for waves outside."

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide "Part of it has to do with the aspect, a panorama of sea and Bondi Beach. Part of it has to do with the room, light and breezy by day, hazy and shadowy by night, buzzing around the clock. Part of it has to do with the knowing, slightly naughty service. Part of it has to do with Robert Marchetti's food"

Sydney Eats 2006 "A serious contender for the most beautiful room in Sydney, its jades and aquas echoing the pool below, dear old Bondi Beach in every window and now with smart young chef Robert Marchetti firmly fixed in the kitchen."

SBS Eating Guide to Sydney 2005 "Premium views, location, style, elegance and food: Icebergs may draw the trendy crowd but they also deliver the goods through chef Robert Marchetti 's food, which is truly an Italian inspiration. Robert worked alongside the wonderful Karen Martini when she was here and he carries on the tradition of dishes true to their origins in ingredients and techniques"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Living Mathew Evans 8/3/05 score 17/20 "Splendid views and a glamorous room, with better food than ever, thanks to the promotion to head chef of Robert Marchetti. Even the simplest dishes are giddily good. The Service Alert, occasionally alarmed. The Noise A hum. The Vegetarians Separate menu. The Value Very good."

SMH Good Food Guide 2005 Editors Favourites "Blue silk cushions, special-effects lighting, chilling out in the bar and a seamless change in chef"

SMH Good Food Guide 2005 Score 16/20 Two Hats Good Wine List Award Winning Restaurant "They could stop with the world's best view. Instead Maurice Terzini gives us his version of the ultimate Sydney restaurant experience. That iconic view is enjoyed from an ultra-cool room, full of ultra-cool youngsters. Some may come to be seen, but everyone enjoys caring Italian-style service, a super wine list and damn good modern Mediterranean cuisine."

SMH Good Food Guide 2005 Best Bars "Four o'clock, Sunday. Corks are popping on bottles of Veuve, Italian style is apparent in the cool flavours of long Campari-spiked aperitif cocktails"

The Age GFG 2005 "this iconic site, perched above Bondi Beach, she's still dishing up clean Mediterranean flavours."

SMH Good Food Guide 2005 Best Show Off "Oh, really? You've got views where you come from, eh? Well get a load of our most famous beach, seen from the vantage of this devastatingly pretty clifflop diner, with a fab mod Med menu"

Gourmet Traveller Australian Restaurant Guide 2005 ** Good Wine List "Thrift be damned. lf you're going to go to Icebergs, don't muck around. Park yourself in for an indulgent, long lunch, get the French fizz and dive deep into the menu."

Sydney Eats 2005 "You too can feel famous just by stepping into this stunning room, its jades and aquas echoing the pool below and that famous beach at every window. Karen Martini's food found Sydney fame here and we have all shed a tear for the departure of her sardine torta with her return to Melbourne. Still, the Mediterranean and seafood themes are ably carried on by Robert Marchetti"

Sydney Eats 2005 Best Bars "Sydney's most beautiful bar, this adjunct to an outstanding modern Italian restaurant offers comfy couch seating and a dramatic cliffside view of Bondi Beach."

SMH GFG 2004,'The location,hanging off the cliff face at South Bondi,couldn't be better.The views out along the beach and over the ocean is extraordinary,the decor is stylish and comfortable and the experience sublime.Lovin' that chandelier.More,please.'

SMH, good living, 16/12/03, Guy Griffin,'Prince of hospitality Maurice Terzini is da man. He's created a shrine to sex in its many permutation, from flirting singles crowd to the caressing notes of Jobim's Wave drifting across the room.'

SMH GFG 2004, Score 16/20, 2 Hats-Really lovely, good wine list, Best New Restaurant,'A stunning, long dining room...If you can tear your eyes from the waves, the food is equally as good...deceptively simple Mod Italian cucina...you could be parted with more dosh than you planned.When the memories linger like this, however, it's worth every cent.'

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, 2 Red Stars, Excellent wine list,'Sydney's most beutiful restaurant...a menu based on Mediterranean flavours...Staff are attentive, but not always well informed.'

VE+T, March April 2003,'is the place to be seen, with great food, fabulous atmosphere, glorious views of Australia's most iconic stretch of sand, and hefty prices to match.Be at casual lunch or romantic dinner, this place will leave an impression.'

SMH, good living, 16/9/03, Kate Duthie, 'What's not to love about sitting in a glass box, hanging down the side of a cliff with only the waves crashing into the pool below and the deep turquise of the Pacific filling every pane.'

SMH, 21/1/03, good living, Matthew Evans, score 16/20,' the seagull's eye view of Bondi Beach is simply amazing and service is watchful, if occasionally harried. But, most importantly, Karen Martini's mod-Itailan food has something indefinablt great and true about it'

SMH, 14/1/03, Kate Duthie,'It is no exaggeration to suggest that this could be one of the most stunning bars on the planet...Friendly, but formal, waiters...the view of the sensational Pacific Ocean fills every floor-to-ceiling window'

THe Sydney Morning Herald, good living, Eat Up, Keith Austin, 21/5/02, "RSL chic stays true to its cheap and cheerful past."

The Sydney Morning Herald, good living, Bars, Kate Duthie, 30/4/02. "Melt into the crowd at Bondi's newest hotspot for the cool crew."

The Weekend Australian, 29-30/3/2003, Emma-Kate Symons,'has become so hot it can take weeks to get a dinner reservation...unfussy seafood-oriented food with European or Asian influences.'