Review: Woodcut, The Jewel at Crown Sydney

Woodcut open kitchen restaurant is a venue to get excited about, offering a rockstar dining experience you rarely find in Australia.

The level of polish, detail, and finishings at this spectacular venue over 1000 square metres in size would be fitting in New York, San Francisco or Singapore.

This is a Sydney restaurant to get seriously excited about. Sitting in Barangaroo overlooking the water, the restaurant seats 300 people and has four expansive open kitchens. The sparkling, slick design is not just clever, but delicately, meticulously thought out to ensure every corner of the restaurant has a buzz all day and night.

You can choose to sit at a table with water views at Woodcut, at one of the seats surrounding any of the four open kitchens watching the action, at the long, bustling bar or at one of the many tables inside or outside the restaurant area. An elegant group table sits right in the hub of the restaurant with a huge white feather-style chandelier – super modern, fun and inviting.

The staff are unusually and pleasantly passionate about their work here. My dinner companion and I wandered around looking at the open kitchens, and a waiter came over and offered us intimate explanations and a mini-tour of the steam kitchen, explaining what and how food is prepared there, how it is cooked and so on.

Just watching any one of the four kitchens in action is pure theatre, and thrilling for any foodie. In Sydney terms, this is the stuff the 1980’s hey days were made of. Spacious, glamorous restaurants with mind blowing interiors, spectacular food and global staff who are passionate.

It’s the work of creative hospitality wizards Ross and Sunny Lusted, last seen in Sydney at The Bridge Room. But this is a project and a dream they’ve had for over a decade and it shows.

Our waiter Daniel showed a level of attentiveness, warmth and intimacy I haven’t before experienced from wait staff within Australia. He introduced himself by name, and told us how long he had worked there, where he grew up, where he had last worked – and shared his passions and tastes for food.

We couldn’t help but select his recommendations, even though some were dishes we wouldn’t ordinarily have gravitated to as he made us feel like we could trust him with anything.

He had the bar staff mix us cocktails not on the menu (a fabulous list of mocktails is also on offer), which was a celebratory way to start a magnificent night out.

The diverse, highly creative and enticing menu at Woodcut has been created by chef superstar Ross Lusted whose global CV reads like the ultimate international travel guide.

It showcases an impressive selection of seafood including a raw bar as well as steamed options, meat with 7 steaks, wood-roasted cuts including brick chicken, four bread types including black garlic bread (and black butter), and and more uniqeally divided into wood, coal and steam options. There are many vegetarian choices too. Plus there is a specials menu, so a lot fo choice here.

The wine list is cutely written in chapters, but is overwhelming for the untrained palette with so many choices. An experienced eye is needed to assist, and the wines by the glass are a delight as there are so many I had never seen served by the glass anywhere else. Many were Australian with some European highlights on offer as well, and Charles Heidsick Brut Reserve champagne by the glass, which is simply delightful.

This restaurant is all about sharing, and trying unique flavours and textures. The menu items are well thought out so that nothing is too rich, leaving room to really try a few different flavours. Prices are surprisingly reasonable given the five star setting, service and produce.

The Sydney rock oysters eaten whilst the sun was setting were a neat, fresh and juicy start to the meal, and they were served with lemon, a vinaigrette as well as salt and pepper.

We chose the WA fresh lobster which was served sitting erect in the shell for effect, and was a generous, thick, dense serving size served with classic seafood sauce as well as woodcut salad cream. The restaurant is big on sauces which I loved, and this dish was as decadent as they come.

The grilled black garlic bread was tasted with trepidation at first, but was presented as a crunchy french tasting bread with black, charcoal infused within it. Fabulous and fun.

Pippies came piping hot from the steam kitchen, and were as fragrant as a wok in a back alley of Penang. They were cooked and served in a shallow South-East Asian style yellow vadouvan (French curry), dripping in chickpeas with fried curry leaves on top which are apparently grown in the nearby Barangaroo underground garden.

The Woodcut waiter’s choice of Ox-heart tomato sounded conservative (and a touch ordinary) to our minds but was anything but, and both of us agreed it was one of the highlights of the meal. Served with aged goats cheese, it was a flavour bomb, of fresh, ripe red tomato and rich, smooth, creamy goats cheese and fresh herbs. Extraordinary.

The meal was perfectly placed. We didn’t fell rushed not full, and had time to really savour each dish – although we did over order.

The wagyu beef skewer with lime chilli and green onion was another of the waiter’s suggestions which blew us away with the mix of spicy but light Asian flavours and tender meat.

The only other location I have had duck this good is at Le Petit Canard restaurant in Paris. The Maremma spiced duck with rhubarb and softened dates was the richest dish we had at Woodcut, but was a taste sensation of sweet, soft, tender meat perfectly cooked, and not overly fatty. A highlight of the meal.

We had to have the Stone Axe Full Blood 9+ Wagyu Sirloin Steak from New England, NSW, as the steaks are what a lot of returning diners come for. I can see why. Again the meat exceeded expectations with just the right amount of marbling, and it was served with bernaise, two mustards, Paris butter and veal jus. Heaven for a meat lover.

There are a range of sides including wood roasted spaghetti squash with parmesan butter and parmesan , natural, flavoursome and delicious. Red velvet lettuce with woodcut salad cream and miche crumb was fabulous with the dishes we selected.

The cheese platter is more like a work of art with cheese, raisins and dried fruit delicately arranged around ringed dry biscuits.

Chocolate wood roasted hazelnuts and hazelnut milk is a quirky dish of rich chocolate mousse topped with pastry style balls that look like hazelnuts as well as halved, roasted hazelnuts and hazelnut milk. The presentation was underwhelming compared to the rest of the meal, but the flavours were richly delicious.

This is dining, theatre and pure culinary fun and elegance at its very best any day of the week.