At Bentley Restaurant & Bar Brent Savage not only brings innovation to the table, but also shows off his effortless flair for extracting the perfect balance of flavors in every dish. Relocated from their smaller Surry Hills space, the bigger and better Bentley is now housed in Radisson Blu Hotel.

Before ur tasting menu gets going, we amuse our bouches with cylinders of potato topped with smoked sour cream and rice crackers littered with bonito, horseradish cream, and seaweed.

A plate of scallop ceviche, green strawberry, and horseradish marks the start of our tasting menu, and it’s all freshness and sweetness on the palate.

One of my favorite dishes of the night is a bowl of pea puree, cremont curd, bay oil, and sourdough crumbs. The cremont curd has a silky texture comparable to tofu, and the sourdough crumbs add such a contrasting crunchy texture. I’m a sucker for that kind of combo.

There’s something awesomely moreish about charred spring onion, and it pairs so well in the next dish of Murray cod, charred spring onion, and scallop roe.

In our next course, I push aside the smoked celery (because I don’t enjoy the flavor of celery), but the quail is beautiful, as is the white soy dressing it’s served with.

Pork is the hero of our next plate. It’s an umami bomb of flavors. The pork cheek is topped with jamon crumbs because obviously pork needs more pork. I love the bitter radicchio sheet that’s served crispy (perhaps baked? I’m not sure, but it’s crispy AF and I love its uniqueness).

As always, the steak is the least interesting dish for me personally. Most people are the opposite and build up their appetites for the steak, the climax of their entire meal. Despite my indifference to steak, there are intense flavors in this Rangers Valley wagyu skirt steak dish, especially thanks to the savoriness of the olive.

The first of our two desserts is a refreshing, fruity palate cleanser made up of coconut sorbet, desert lime, and honeydew melon. It’s the perfect dessert to prep you for what’s to come, ie. the best dessert of your life. Big call, I know – but it’s really good, okay?

Our night culminates with one of the most incredible desserts I’ve ever eaten. Bentley is famous for it, and I can see why. Dainty blueberry meringue sticks are placed atop a mound of creamy, yoghurty whipped buttermilk resting beneath a perfect quenelle of violet ice cream. Scattered around is cocoa honeycomb and blueberry gel. I’m not even a fan of floral desserts normally. Or blueberries for that matter. But ugh, I could just eat this forever.

Note: We dined here in April for our three-year anniversary, so some of these dishes on the tasting menu may have changed.

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Bentley Restaurant & Bar
Ground Floor, Radisson Blu Hotel, 27 O’Connell St, Sydney
Dinner Mon-Sat, Lunch Mon-Fri