Rockpool

9252 1888, 107 George St, The Rocks. NSW 2000 www.rockpool.com
Open Tue-Thu 6pm-10pm Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm, Closed Xmas Day; Licensed, BYO, Corkage $35 bottle; AE DC MC V, Seats inside 120, Private room 20, Kids welcomed
Chef: Neil Perry & Phil Wood (21-9-11) Owner: Neil Perry & Trish Richards (20-9-10)

Mietta's Review
Today, the once outrageous interior-design looks as if it should be heritage listed like the sandstone building which it inhabits. After operating since 1989 the restaurant runs like a well serviced roller. If anything, it looks and feels even better than when it opened - use and time has mellowed the style and staff all know their jobs and perform them well. The food has taken on a depth and flavour. There is more refinement in the dishes. Gone are the aggressive hits of acidity and of over spicing. The menu is thoughtful and intelligent and has a wine list to match. Both at a price. The food, now that Neil Perry is spending time in the kitchen, is more Asian in character and the flavours are stronger but the balance is good and the restaurant is a pleasure to visit.

Other Published Opinions

Sydney Morning Herald Food Food Guide 2012 Score: 17/20

Gourmet Traveller 2012 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: Three Stars "So great is the shadow cast by its Bar & Grill sibling that it's easy to lose sight of the fact that Rockpool is where the magic began more than 20 years ago. And the culinary sorcery is still here: a dish of warm soy milk is brought to the table, stirred with an arcane setting agent"

Age Good Food Guide 2012

John Lethlean, 23 July 2011 "Call Rockpool for a table and they'll go to lengths to make sure you don't really mean the Grill. It's understandable; it's the monster that ate its mother. And the mother has fallen off the radar. It frustrates Perry; probably costs him money. But you can't have the Rockpool brand without the original Rockpool, I guess, even if it doesn't quite rock the way it used to when the glamorous of Sydney ate constantly at its luxuriously damask-draped tables. ... Rockpool's food in 2011 is a revelation. Totally unique. Part Perry and his career-long interest in Chinese flavours, part chef Phil Wood, who won Sydney's coveted Josephine Pignolet Award when he was at Tetsuya's, worked 18 months at The French Laundry in Napa and has run this kitchen for two years. And all talent
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Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 17/20, Two Hats

Gourmet Traveller 2011 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: *** "Rice congee ennobled with fat shreds of lobster meat and star anisescented peanuts. The texture of abalone played off against red-braised goose and XO-dressed noodles. In distinguishing itself as the finedining elder sibling of the Rockpool family, 21 this year, this most zestily grown-up-feeling of Sydney restaurants conjures a fantasy of luxe, often Asian textures in a big-city setting"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010

Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: *** "After a spell as a fish restaurant, then the tumult of Rockpool Bar & Grill opening up the road and personnel changes. Neil Perry's fine dining flagship is more or less back to business as unusual"

Sydney Eats 2009 "So long, and thanks for all the fish. The brief flirtation this institution had with a casual image and lower prices (that never were) has been shelved and the Rockpool of old is back"

Courier Mail Food and Wine Guide 2009 Queensland "If you heard Rockpool had changed, forget it: it's changed back"

Age Good Food Guide 2009

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 16.5/20

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: *** "Rockpool has changed. What was once Neil Perry's flagship is now a branch of a brand that extends to the steak-focused Grill in Melbourne (and another to come in Sydney). Despite the more casual makeover and more open, user-pays approach to extras like canapes and petits fours, the core mission is the same"

Sydney Morning Herald Simon Thomsen, 11-12-2007 Score: 16/20

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 17.5/20

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: *** "Rockpool, in a word, rocks. Opinions have come and gone, but for the faithful, this biggest of big-night-out restaurants has stayed true t its mission of exciting dining underscored by drilled technique, affinity with ingredients and a seemingly endless wellspring of inspiration"

Sydney Eats 2008 "This Sydney institution, here since 1989, is now twinned (well, sort of) in Melbourne's Crown Casino, still with the eternally optimistic Neil Perry in charge of the kitchens and still the place to go for the best of contemporary Sydney food"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2007

Gourmet Traveller 2007 Restaurant Guide Score: *** "We've been consistently impressed by this model big-night-outer for years, but the team's constant push for betterment has seen them putting the rock in Rockpool latterly like never before. Doubts about the move from a la carte to set menus evaporate in the face of the seamless segue from salad of lobster, crab and green mango topped with nahmjim foam to the accurately named 'world's best bacon and egg sandwich'- black truffles, crisp pancetta and an egg cooked to sigh-point at precisely 60 degrees."

Sydney Morning Herald Simon Thomsen

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2006 score 16/20

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide *** "A restaurant which can set butterflies of excitement in motion days before your visit and then impart a warm glow of satisfaction with each returning thought days, even weeks later, is a special thing. This is the foundation for all of Neil Perry's reputation and success, and Rockpool remains the very definition of a big night out."

Sydney Eats 2006 "For 16 years, the well-heeled and food lovers with savings have turned up to experience the flawless functioning of Neil Perry's well-oiled machine delivering fusion food made with the best available ingredients."

SBS Eating Guide to Sydney 2005 " 'Knock-out food, brilliant flavours, good textures,' says one fine food-loving friend who 'blew away' the relues from Singapore when he brought them here. It's all Asian, Australian, Mediterranean, plus an amazing wine list (and Sydney's highest prices). Book well ahead. The highlights include Thai-style fish mousse, tea-smoked duck, fabulous fruit platters and great cheeses to finish."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2005

Age GFG 2005

Gourmet Traveller Australian Restaurant Guide 2005 "Anyone serious about food in Australia should eat at Rockpool at least once a year. Not just because it's a landmark in modern Australian dining nor because it's the definition of a big-night-out restaurant, but because the food is brilliant, inventive and unlike anything else served in this country."

Sydney Eats 2005 "The team of chefs here, led by Neil Perry, offer an experience of audacious inventiveness in a space that just goes on giving. We suggest at least one visit to see what the fuss is all about to anyone interested in what food in Sydney can be."

Sydney Morning Herald GFG 2004,Score 18/20

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2004, 3 Red Stars, Excellent wine list,'one of the more focused kitchens in Australia.Prime produce is a major factor in the food's success...Service and wine list are still superb.'

Age, Epicure, 2/12/03, John Lethlean,score 15/20

Restaurant, British food magazine Top 10 Restaurants of the world Rockpool number 3

Sydney Morning Herald, Good Living, 1/4/03, Matthew Evans, Score 18/20