Aria Restaurant - Circular Quay

Aria 28^th January 2010

The highlight of my visit was the dessert. I had a Valrhona Chocolate, as seen on Masterchef Australia – I called it the kids chocolate playground because it looks like a seesaw with some jumpy trampolines. I loved the taste because it had a mixture of milk chocolate and dark chocolate. However, most of the dish was dark chocolate so it tasted a bit bitter for my liking.

For my main course I had John Dory roasted with crushed kipfler potatoes, crab, peas, poached quail egg and minted hollandaise. I loved the Dory and I loved the potatoes but I wasn’t fussed on the other items because perhaps they were too adult for me.

The restaurant is very nice. I liked looking out at the harbour bridge and the Sydney opera House – Aria has an amazing view. I recommend this view for camera happy tourists. I also liked the lighting because it was peaceful and blended with the unframed minimalist paintings and furniture.

There were some disappointing things. We had to ask several times for the bread to be brought out and when it arrived the bread was burnt and tough. We also waited a very long time for our meals and my mum’s wine was forgotten. However, they remembered at the end of the evening and gave her a desert wine.

We were supposed to have a view of the Opera House but were sat at the very back of the restaurant like lower class. In addition, the staff need to be more organized because we were made to wait for a long time before orders were taken and meals were served, whereas other customers would walk in after us and were served before us. This compounded the feeling of lower class. Mum suggests that if these customers are rushed through because of the opera house packages, communication with non show customers needs to be improved.

Aria did make me feel angry. However, the waiters warmed up during the service and became more relaxed and focussed. By the end of it, the waiters were the heroes that saved the day.  

I would recommend Aria for a family that are a little older because the food is not quite as accessible for younger children as some of the other restaurants that I have visited. An alternative is that children should order the Aria children’s menu because unlike many of the other restaurants that I have visited, Aria has a healthy children's meal. My sister had a fresh and authentic pasta from the children’s menu and really loved it.

Aria (Sydney) is located at 1 Macquarie Street, Sydney 2000. Parking is close by, either in the opera house carpark or on the street a couple of blocks back.