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
Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 18/20

Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "Bilson's is transcending its hotel location and finding a groove. Traces of old-world polish and formality in the service and the decor marry with the brightness of Tony Bilson's collection of paintings and the wit of the waiters to pleasing effect"

Sydney Eats 2009 "A subtle mirrors-and-marble makeover of one of Sydney's grandest dining rooms has made a meal here seem even more special, but detracts not one jot from the artworks adorning the walls"

Courier Mail Food and Wine Guide 2009 Queensland "Founding father of the Australian style - French division-Tony Bilson and his talented kitchen crew are creating superb dishes in this gorgeous room in Sydney"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 18/20

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

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

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

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2006 score 17/20

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."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2005

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"

Sydney Morning Herald GFG 2004

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.

Sydney Morning Herald, Good Living, 19/8/03, Matthew Evans, Score 16/20