Review : Glass Brasserie

Glass Brasserie
Level 2,
488 George Street,
Sydney

Tel: (02) 9265-6068


Mon-Sun 6pm - late


So after our fabulous breakfast at Glass Brasserie, we decide to return for dinner and then a night at the Hilton
We have been needing a little time out - what with our current rental being up for sale and the endless open homes. Yep, time for a little relaxation.


We arrive at the Hilton and settle into our room at around 3.30pm. It is a cold, wet, miserable Sydney day and the first thing we notice is how cold our room is.   
A quick check of the air-con tells us the room should be a pleasant 22 degrees - not so, the room is freezing. 
We try to up the ante on the air-con, but it seems stuck at 22 degrees - a quick call to reception is no help, they offer blankets - come on this is the Hilton - we don't want blankets!  So we shiver for the next hour or so. 
Another call to reception results in an engineer coming to our room - he can't seem to sort out the problem either.
We head down to dinner hoping the air-con situation will be sorted by the time we return.

Once seated for dinner we knock back a couple of cocktails and decide on what to order. 

We are in a 'share plate' kind of mood, so we go with 3 dishes from the Tapas menu to begin with.


Unfortunately, the 3 dishes aren't brought out one at a time and somehow room for all three has to be found on our smallish table.

Bresaola, onion relish, grilled bread - is very good. The bresaola has great flavour & the onion relish adds a lovely sweetness.

Chicken liver parfait, truffle butter & pear chutney - is spectacular. The parfait surrounded by a thickish layer of fat is smooth, rich and creamy. The pear chutney counteracts the richness, sadly - I am not aware of any truffle butter.

The highlight of the tapas menu for us, however, is the baked bone marrow with shitake duxelle, parmesan & black olive. The buttery marrow, is enhanced by the deep earthiness of the duxelle, while the parmesan and black olive, with their subtle saltiness, really help to bring out the flavour. The crispy grilled bread and fresh crunchy parsley salad complete the dish - truly a memorable moment in our meal.

Buggles orders the Rangers Valley NSW sirloin, sauté spinach, tempura zucchini flower with corn & goats cheese - what she receives, however, is the Rangers Valley NSW scotch fillet French fries and béarnaise. 


When the error is pointed out to the waiter his annoyance is palpable. Not sure why his annoyance seems to outweigh hers.


Finally, Buggles receives the correct dish and she is quite impressed. 
The steak  is cooked beautifully and has a bold meaty flavour, the zucchini flower is plump full of creamy goat's cheese and is fantastic- not remotely oily. Buggles declares her sauteed spinach to be an absolute winner - not often you can say that about spinach! 

My Beef fillet, braised Wagyu brisket, parsley puree, mustard leaf, honey roasted garlic is also very good. The fillet is a lovely medium rare, while the brisket is rich, flavoursome and melt in the mouth. I top my fillet with the sweet honey roasted garlic & the combination is quite divine. 

The parmesan and truffle French fries that accompany our meal are to die for - so often parmesan/truffle fries fail to deliver on those two key components, these deliver in abundance!

The mixed leaf salad isn't too bad either.

Onto dessert and Buggles is surprised by the rich toffee flavour of the toffee soufflé with pecan butter ice-cream. So often a souffle can be nothing more than a soft pillow of egginess - this one packs a punch and really delivers on the promised flavour. The pecan butter ice-cream is rich, creamy & nutty. 

I decide on the Liquorice parfait 2012 “Signature”  - it is very good, but I would have loved the liquorice flavour to be a lot more pronounced.


Service from our main waitress is very good, she is very friendly & efficient. 
The waiter who brought out our food, we feel, was quite rude & shouldn't have displayed his annoyance at THEIR obvious mistake.


Anyway, meal over we head back to what we hope is a warm room.


Alas, this is not to be - the engineer could not fix the air-con and room smells like an electrical burnout.


So it is time to pack up our things and move to another room, when really at 10.30pm, all we want to do is relax - that was the whole point of this exercise after all!


Squeak