Review - Tapas Dancing, The Australian Jul 05
I've recently banned tapas from my life. Now, I don't take banning an entire cuisine lightly, especially one that has the impressive feature of being able to extenisvely sample amny dishes. But idecided I'd had jack of the whole concept after a night in Sydney's Spanish quater. The restaraunt we ate at had it all: the ambience of a cramped stable, a chicken dish that turned up raw, $7.50 per bottle corkage, wines not much better than metho.
So I decided to leave the whole tapas thing to the groups of girls on hens' nights and to 19-year-olds lining their stomachs for a big night out. Besides, you can score some good chorizo practically anywhere these days.
Despite stictly speaking being a wine bar, Firefly, near the Sydney Theatre and Wharf Theatre, has created quite a buzz for its tapas, meaning it has its work cut out when we visit. The rehabilitation of an entire style of eating rests on its shoulders.
The first task, though, is finding the place.It's on the water side of a wharf-apartment conversion in Walsh Bay, past the touristy bits of the Rocks. From the street, the only clue to its existance is an understated sandwich board at the opening of an alley between two buildings. The reason for its discretion is obvious - the small, open dining room is intimate to say the least, an area that would stuggle to accomodate more than 50.
The combination of being hard to find and hard to fit into no doubt contributes to the place's mystique, but the view of Milson's Point framed by two Sydney wharves is hard to argue with and the muted design, in wood and steel, speaks for itself. It's certainly a better atmosphere than what we experienced during our previous tapas experiment.
Tim Brebner, who has worked under the double Michellin-starred Raymond Balnc, has created a tapas menu that will cause traditionals to choke on their olives, including as it does Peking duck pancakes ($14), chicken...... person, but keen to sample as much as possible, we decide to try three dishes each, plus a salad, which we end up polishing off, no problem. As well as the aforementioned dishes, we also select pan-fired haloumi ($9), Latino-style chorizo ($13) and mushrooms and goat's cheeze ($13).
I'm not a huge fan of the too-damn-cool-to-write-down-your-order school of service and with so many dishes out sashimi gets lost. But the staff are attentive without being intrusive and quickly rectify the problem. Most of the dishes are satisfying, if not rave-inducing, with the only misstep being the sashimi. Why you'd arinate something as perfect as a good sashimi is a mystery and when we taste what is supposed to be a citrus marinade, we find it dominated by olive oil. Not good. On the haloumi, which can easily turn into pan-fried salty-rubber, is worth a shout-out.
The desserts are generous, so it's probably worth taking the share approach here. We sample a decent bread-and-butter pudding ($8) that is big enough for three.
Being a wine bar, Firefly takes its drinks seriously and the wine list is not only extensive but has a large number of by-the-glass offerings: we have a bottle of Kooyong pinot noir ($54). Iv'e also got my eye on Firefly's signature cocktail, the Feijoa donkey, a refreshing mix of lime, mint, 42 below Feijoa vodka served in a pewter tankard, making it quite possible the most macho cocktail ever devised.
Adding to the intimate vibe, regular visitors can purchase spirits by the bottle and drink......... hip, hidden Sydney or want fantastic view with your pre-theatre drinks, Firefly has much to recommend it. As for the perfect tapas, wee, my search is back on.
All Tables visits are unannounced and meals paid for.
