Marque

Ph: 9332 2225; 355 Crown St, SURRY HILLS 2010 www.marquerestaurant.com.au

Modern Australian, $$$, *** for Food
Open Dinner Mon-Sat 6.30pm-10.3Qpm, Closed Xmas Day some public hols; Licensed, BYO by arrangement, Corkage $30 bottle; AE DC MC V EFT
Chef (Mark Best, 2007-11-3) Owner (Mark & Valerie Best, 2007-11-3)

Mietta's Review
This is that rare beast - a restaurant that you visit for food. And, the food is fantastic - light, inventive and inspired. Perfect cooking and constantly surprising flavours that urge one on to eat more. But there's no view and that in the harbour city is almost sacrilidgeous - it's all on the plate. So if you care about food and can spare the cash (mains around $45) go, eat and enjoy while ignoring the slightly defensive service and the simple brown room. This must be the only restaurant the Sydney that doesn't describe its offerings in superlatives. So prepare for modesty and be surprised by greatness.

Other published opinions

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: *** "This is not comfort food. It's designed to please, and at its best it delights, even astonishes, but there are points in the degustation - and you should definitely have the degustation when what's on your plate or in your glass may seem baffling or challenging"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 18/20, Three Hats "Is this Sydney's simplest fine dining room? Its monochrome deep browns contrast with white double-cloth'd tables and glowing spaceship table lamps"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: *** "The views are of Crown Street, not Circular Quay, yet Marque is up there with the best. It doesn't always have the finesse on the floor of some of its peers, but the pages of its menu and wine list are a gateway t wonder"

Sydney Eats 2008 "This is where you'd take your snooty friend from Paris to shut him/her up. It's a grown-up restaurant with a talented chef who has done the hard metres in some of the best kitchens in France (Alain Passard, Raymond Blanc) and come back to build a longterm reputation in this elegant restaurant"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2007 Score: 18/20, Three Hats "No views, no frills and a smart interior that doesn't try hard to impress. In a city that often mistakes flashiness for substance, Mark Best relies on exemplary service and the spectacle of what's on the plate."

Gourmet Traveller 2007 Restaurant Guide Score: *** "Marques menu crackles with creative energy and the wine list is intriguing, yet the room is inconspicuous, comfortable and chic, largely unadorned save for the soft glow of the egg table lamp and the zinc bar that's a nod to chef Mark Best's time spent in France."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2006 score 19/20, 3 Hats "This elegant room is a quietly sophisticated backdrop to quietly sophisticated food. Mark Best experiments with the art of surprising your mouth and your mind but never loses sight of his classic techniques or clientele."

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide ** "This is cooking at the leading edge. You'll be wowed, even challenged, but careful service and plenty of smarts in the kitchen make it feel like an adventure rather than being taken for a ride."

Sydney Eats 2006 "Another little corner of French excellence in Sydney, this one is quietly elegant rather than flashily froggy, though it must be said that chef Mark Best is a seriously clever chef who has worked in the kitchen of French wizard, Alain Passard at Arpege."

SMH Good Living Mathew Evans 12/7/05 score 19/20 "Incredible food, amazing wine, great service and a modest but pleasant space add up to sheer harmony at one of Australia's finest diners ... Wine List Astonishing Frenchbiased list, one of the best in the country. Service Calm and polite. Noise Throbs rather than screams. Bill Entrees $24-$27; Mains $39-$44; Desserts $18. Value Superb."

SMH Good Food Guide 2005 Score 18/20 Three Hats Good Wine List "Mark Best likes to play his cards close to his chest. His restaurant is chic and comfortable, but quietly so. And his food, though frequently spectacular in terms of what it delivers, is rarely showy. The presentation of an egg - the top sliced away as an appetiser - gives no hint of the surprise bursts of salt and sweet flavours that lurk within. Roast New England muscovy duck is accompanied by nicoise olive jus and liquorice powder, which play off the meat like notes of a great pinot noir; a slice of confit lemon makes for a clean, interesting finish."

The Age GFG 2005 "IT may not have the wow factor of a million-dollar fitout or harbour view, but this downtown Surry Hills diner is all about what's on the plate."

Gourmet Traveller Australian Restaurant Guide 2005 "Mark Best describes his restaurant as a distillation of his experience and hard work, and this is evident in the elegant line-up of contemporary French dishes on his menu. The room is undemonstrative and enduring and has a calm about it that's almost tangible. Service s extremely knowledgeable"

Sydney Eats 2005 "We're lucky to have Marque, one of the most elegant small rooms in town. And even luckier to have Mark Best, one of the two most thoughtful, scholarly and inventive young(ish) chefs in town - the other being Tim Pak Poy - whose palate is also heavily influenced by France"

SMH GFG 2004, Score 18/20,3 chefs hats-world class,Good wine list,Award winning restaurant,'Consistency is one of chef Mark Best's great strengths.That,and incomparable classic technique and confidence on the plate...Both,too,have soft edges and like the service ooze a certain warmth which seeps,quite lovingly into your soul.'

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, 2 Red Stars, Excellent wine list,'Marque is an understated and somewhat restrained restaurant....Dishes are innovative but based in French tradition...An altogether splendid dining experience.'