Bilson's

Ph: 8214 0496; Radisson Plaza Hotel, 27 O'Connell St, SYDNEY 2000 www.bilsons.com.au

French, $$$
Open Lunch Fri noon-2.30pm Dinner Tue-Sat 6pm-10pm; Licensed, BYO, Corkage varies, $20 per; AE DC MC V EFT
Chef (Tony Bilson & Manu Feildel, 2007-11-3) Owner (Tony Bilson, 2007-11-3)

Mietta's Review
No longer the enfant terrible of Sydney chefs Tony Bilson has become the city's acknowledged master of French cooking. His dining room isn't an easy one but it's been humanised by a large dose of art - multi layered, paper lamshades and paintings which include the restaurants' (obligatory) 'water views'. This is the quintessential inner city restaurant, enclosed and focussed on the act of dining. The setting is correct with reasonable cutlery, glassware and napery. The food is of course, French. The cooking is precise and the sauces correct these days with a new and exciting edge. This is what a restaurant should be - not a sudden flash in the pan but a constant quest for improvement.

Other published opinions

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "Hushed and expensive, you could mistake Bilson's for the wrong kind of restaurant. But though Tony Bilson is known as a paragon of French culinary tradition in Australia, things here aren't preserved in aspic even if there's one on the menu"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 18/20, Three Hats "Tony Bilson has been on a mission to bring Sydney the finest in French cuisine since opening Bon Gout back in the 1970s"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "Rarefied. Despite the bold art and festive feature lights, this is a room where you'll watch your cutlery and not laugh to loudly - not a vibe common t Sydney restaurants, even at the fine-dining end"

Sydney Eats 2008 "Sometimes, there is no better way to describe a restaurant than to recite from the menu"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2007 Score: 18/20, Three Hats "If Tony Bilson is the godfather of Sydney dining, Bilson's is an offer you can't resist. Despite financial hiccups over the years, Bilson's has settled into its slot at one end of the hotel foyer and revels in a distinct personality: unashamedly French with a contemporary, even light-hearted, twist to serene food in calm surroundings."

Gourmet Traveller 2007 Restaurant Guide Score: ** "Tony Bilson's name is synonymous with hard-core French food, so if that's your interest, you won't be left wanting. Hot tip No 1: dust off your old Larousse and study up on the culinary terms ifyou want to stay up to speed."

Sydney Morning Herald By Simon Thomsen, 25-4-2006 "Tony Bilson has never cooked with more intelligence and finesse. Bilson's is a rare treat that should be loved, adored and honoured by every serious Sydney diner."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2006 score 17/20, 2 Hats "Tucked at the back of the Radisson, unabashed Francophile Tony Bilson carries an elegant torch for the Michelin-starred experience, from padded, damask-clad tables to a well-honed French accented floor and Bilson's intriguing art collection. His classicist inclinations deliver a simple pursuit of beauty - with a flash of decadence."

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide * "You've got to fit your horses to your courses (and no, that's not a French butchery gag). You don't come to Bison's for chilli-and-ginger exclamation marks. You don't come to this understated hotel dining room to see and be seen. You come here because you like your chefs Francophile and your waiters waistcoated."

Sydney Eats 2006 "This warm, elegant room is home to one of the founding fathers of modern Australian cooking (French chapter), Tony Bilson. (Peter Doyle is just up the road.) Bilson is a restless and endlessly inventive chef whose food walks the line between invention and convention."

SMH Good Food Guide 2005 Two Hats Good Wine List "Tony Bilson has shared his love of elegant French dining with us, on and off, for nearly 30 years. On occasions he has misread our interest, usually when Sydney's been distracted by one of its cyclical obsessions with food fashion frippery. At the Radisson he's punting again that we're ready for a dining experience in the Michelin-starred tradition, for food and wine marked by subtlety, refinement and precision."

Gourmet Traveller Australian Restaurant Guide 2005 "Light filters into this tranquil CBD oasis, illuminating the vibrant artworks and classic features of the room. Poised is the mood and confident is the chef with his contemporary take on archetypal French fare."

Sydney Eats 2005 "If there's a more charming, welcoming room in Sydney, with a better portrait of the chef patron hanging on the wall, we want to know. If there is more assured, relaxed and gastronomically literate food than that cooked by Monsieur Bilson and his French brigade, ditto"

SMH GFG 2004, unscored due to Guide going to press before restaurant fully functioning, Good wine list, And-the hotel's bar is a pretty decent place to meet before dinner,'Bilson has set his sights very high, promising to bring a touch of the finery of French three-Michelin-star dining back to Sydney.'

Gourmet Traveller Guide 2004-two red stars for fine dining, classical, good noise level, damask and silver, well psaced tables, classical dining at its best.

SMH, Good Living, 19/8/03, Matthew Evans, Score 16/20,'emphasis is firmly on the dining experience'