Dine at Galileo

Pete's birthday was on last Thursday, which happened to be my and his company Xmas parties, so we decided to postpone it and celebrate on Saturday. As it's Xmas season, so most of the restaurants already booked out even when I rang them up 2 weeks ahead. Thankfully I managed to book a table for 3 (including Dave), at the Galileo, in the Rocks. If you remember, or have checked my blog before, Galileo is the restaurant where Iron Chef Sakai, came to Sydney to battle with the chef, Harunobu Inukai in last October. Since I love the show, and been having my own cooking battle with friends, thought Galileo will be the perfect restaurant for this special occasion.

Galileo, has awarded one chef's hat for 4 consecutive year, is located inside the 5 star Observatory Hotel at the Rocks, Galileo is Italian, but the decor inside is more english with lots of british old comics framed on the wall, and the cuisine they served is french with japanese fusion. The whole combination is bit awkward but nevertheless is a great dining experience. I've booked for the degustation menu, which is the best choice if you never been to the restaurant and want to try a little bit of everything. However, they didn't make it easier for us because they now having an option to choose between 2 degustation menu with one called the Surprise degustation menu, which cost a little bit more but you'll able to try almost everything on the menu. So what the heck, since we don't do this very often, so we went for the Surprise degustation menu with about 10 courses instead of 8 on the normal. So if you wanna know what we had on the 10 courses menu, read further...

L: Shellfish, Spring Vegetables and Saffron Gazpacho.
R: Top to bottom (clockwise) : Tasmanian Pacific Oyster with salmon roe; Egg Cocotte; Trio of Pressed Duck: Duck Confit, Duck Breast and Foie Gras with Savoy Cabbage Honey Dressing; Escabeche of Sea Perch with Bouillabaisse Froth; Grilled Whiting served with Seaweed Caesar Salad and Japanese black Sesame Sauce; pickled artichoke wrapped in Prosciutto; Capsicum Mousse; and Tartare of NZ Venison served on shortbread with capers, cornichons, egg yolk, eggplant caviar and Sherry Vinegar.


L: Balmain Bug with eggplant puree, served with truffle risotto;
R: Handmade beetroot Pasta Consommé.


L: Ocean trout, Lightly Crumbed with Aonori, Mesclun Salad and Walnut Dressing
R: Spatchcock a la Haru, En Croute de Sel with Spring Vegetables.


L: 600 Day Grain Fed Wagyu Beef (Marble Score 9+) with roasted garlic, spinach, sauteed mushroom stock.
R: Pre dessert, Mango Sorbet; Japanese chocolate mochi served with grapefuit and Tosazu Jelly; Chocolate mousse.

Half way through the meal we were already so full, and by the time we got to dessert, I already forgot about taking picture, so the last dessert meal was Milk gelato serve with Peach sauce or something. It was delicious. We also chatted a bit with our waiter about the Iron Chef event they held 2 months ago, and looks we won't be seeing that episode on TV as SBS won't be sponsoring it. Oh well.... but from what he said, looks like they might have another Iron Chef battle next year. Give Galileo a try if you are in Sydney, I highly recommend it.