sixpenny

restaurant sixpenny, we learn is named after the sixpence restaurants that operated in the late 1800s in australia. generally these were 5 or six courses with pastry for six pence. now, be sure to save your pennies to dine here, for it costs a fair tad more than that today. your seven course degustation will set you back $175 pp. despite its high cost, it is one worth saving for a special occasion and it is one of a few restaurants awarded the prestigious 3 hats ingoodfood guide to back it up.

service was exemplary and we were taken suchgoodcare of.
food was good, however it was heavily influenced by various seafood. having had similar experience at seibo, i had specifically asked to temper their menu. however, that request was overlooked and it ended up in me having a rather unpleasant confrontation with two of the five main courses! starters and desserts were reallygoodand innovative. drinks menu is exhaustive. i am going for 3 stars much against my wishes but that should be motivation enough for improvising.

service is excellent. very attentive to details and superb friendly staff.
food could be better given the three hats rating and the price. best dish is the house made bread which is delicious. need more thoughts for the dessert, not agoodidea to serve icecream in a cold winter.
overall service is 10*
food is average.

what a wonderful experience at sixpenny tonight. recently rewarded 3 hats from the sydneygoodfood guide. a small restaurant in a little suburb of stanmore but the food was certainly big and delicious! particularly fond of the snacks in the beginning, the grouper dish was sensational and the last savoury dish being the beef was divine. dessert was a freeze dried raspberry custard in strawberry soup and that was so refreshing after 5 courses and some wine. last dessert was a coconut ice-cream surrounded by chocolate caramel. a little rich but still quite delightful. i will definitely be going back!

you may not expect a restaurant of the year and fine diner like sixpenny in sleepy suburban stanmore & the surprise does not end at the door. walking into this modern, minimalist yet inviting space you feel immediately welcome & warm. every single member of the staff are professional yet friendly with the right amount of humour, chattiness, professionalism and knowledge. the wine list offers some familiar and lots of interesting drinks and each recommendation and description was spot on. so definitely trust the sommeliers and staff on the wine front. and the food is no exception - simple, elegant, clean, packed with flavour yet so refined and beautiful. you can choose between the 6 or 8 course degustation although from 2019 there will be only one menu of 7 courses. the kitchen staff bring the dishes to your table and it is a lovely concept and being able to see and speak to the people behind the beautiful food. the 3 amuse bouche definitely awakens the palate and is light and tasty especially the cheese gougeres which i would happy to eat more of! the stand out dishes for me was the venison tartare, swordfish which i am not usually a fan of as it is often tough and overcooked, but here it is tender & sweet. the pork belly was superb with the skin akin to breaking the top of a creme brulee. then the beef... so tender, full of umami flavour & the sticky, port like jus was perfect. dessert looks simple but dont let that deceive you. its creamy yet refreshing and not heavy. the white chocolate dessert with poor man's orange particularlygoodespecially the caramelised white chocolate. a wonderful, special restaurant that is well rounded with service, ambience and food.

tbh, this restaurant is amazing. i really can’t fault it. i loved everything about it. it’s a small cosy dim lit restaurant that is perfect for a date night out. i just want to start off with how amazing the customer service is. the wait staff are very polite and knowledgeable and seem very passionate about the food being served.

i decided to go with the 8 course menu for $155 dollars per person. very standard price for a dine dining place. i do think that this place was worth every penny. the food here is amazing and definitely worth the visit.

first thing first, the appetisers. like always, three appetisers were placed on the table. pickled apple with rose geranium. i think originally it was supposed to be pickled cucumber but i’m not a huge fan of cucumber so they changed it to apple. the apple had a sour hit to it and was a delight to eat. next i had the green tomato and cheese gougeres. yummmmm!!! the cheese melts in your mouth, it was so delicious, i could eat another 10! the waiter recommend that i ate the pumpkin scallop last because it was still hot! and boy was it hot. it was like a donut with pumpkin inside. the batter was crunchy and oily, in agoodway tho, and the pumpkin inside was gooey and sweet. definitely warmed my heart. a great start!

anything with crab and i’m down! the presentation doesn’t give away much but the next dish was hand picked spanner crab with clam butter and yarra valley salmon roe. it was like a like a little treasure hunt. if you keep digging you’ll find the gold, in this case, the spanner crab. i loved the crab it was tender and the roe gave it a nice hit of salt. such a cleaver little dish!

i love venison and i love agoodtartare, so the next dish was made for me. the venison tartare with artichoke and cheese was scrumptious. i liked the gamey and musky flavour of the venison against the cheese. it was definitely a stand out dish for me.

in highschool, we had something called scallop potatos and the next dish reminded me so much of that. confit potato with oyster and raw mushrooms. if i read it on the menu, i wouldn’t appeal to me as much. only because where’s the damn protein?? but let me tell you all something, forget the protein, this dish was sooooo good. the potatoes was in a cream soft texture and full of flavour. to be honest, if you hate mushroom, this dish will make you love mushrooms. the mushrooms were so light and worked so well with this potato. really got me salivating for more.

they served me to kinds of bread, one of them was a unique coffee flavoured bread which i really enjoyed! i’ve never had coffee flavoured bread!

first seafood dish of the night, the swordfish with green chard and salted red cabbage. loved this dish. let me start by saying that the presentation of this dish was quite interesting. it had foam surrounding the whole dish. reminded me a lot of the foam in the sea. on to the fish, the fish was cooked perfectly. it was flakey and tender and everything a beautifully cooked fish should be. dig a little deeper, and there was the salted red cabbage which tied together the whole dish.

the winner of the best dish of the night goes to this beauty, the ranger valley chuck tail with mushroom and masala. yummmmmmmmm! the meat just was sooooo good. i can’t explain how juicy and tender this was and the sauce went perfectly with the beef. it was cooked to perfection and i wish i had maybe another 10 of those. it was also paired with a beautifully dressed salad.

by this time, i was soo full. on to desserts. i received a nice palate cleanser, mead vinegar custard with frozen raspberry and strawberry consommé. it was nice and refreshing. i liked the combination of the custard and the tastiness of the raspberry and strawberries. next i had the white chocolate with caramelised white chocolate and poor man’s orange. very delicious especially the contract between the orange and the caramelised white chocolate. last but not least, the cocoa ice cream with chocolate caramel and puffed buckwheat. this was definitely more of a richer and sweater dessert, nonetheless, it was a delight to eat.

overall, i really enjoyed my experienced here. the food was to die and i would love to come back! :) if you love fine dining then you would definitely enjoy this place.

thegood- excellent service, and was nice to have the chef of each dish bring it out. quite and cozy environment. were able to accomodate vegetarian requirements.

the bad - pretty basic food, nothing was really creative (especially for the price, many othergoodtasting menu options out there). the dishes were not so tasty that you would want to come back for more. the desert was too sweet for my liking.

our restaurant this week is listed as one of the top restaurants in australia located in a very quiet street in stanmore, sydney. they have held two hats status for as long as i can remember. their chef, daniel puskas, is the chef of the year in this year’sgoodfood guide. sixpenny only has two degustation menu: 6 courses and 8 courses. they also cater for children with a 2-course menu for $65 on some days – we actually got 3 for our little one as he really wanted our dessert. as usual, the dining starts with warm bread and butter. halfway through the service, they gave us a different kind of bread (but not pictured here).

prettygoodresto and left full which is rare when you go for degustation. best meal was the starters (a cheesy puff thing, simply amazing). love the truffle dessert too!

wow! i had the set the bar high for this restaurant as had wanted to go here for a long time. it did not disappoint.

it is an unassuming small place and you would easily miss this 2 hatted restaurant if you walked past. the service was impeccable. it is the small details that count. all the staff were lovely and the nice touches like bringing fresh napkins, constantly refilling the water glasses, cleaning up the water marks as they saw we were taking pictures, and even bagging the petit fours as we had an extra course of dessert and thought we would be too full. personable and able to gauge the diner, it certainly elevated the evening.

we went with the large menu which included canapés, 5 courses of savoury dishes and 3 courses of desserts, and an optional special dessert. the chefs present each course to you and explain the components of the dish. this is a nice touch.

we were brought house made sourdough bread and malt & honey bread.goodfresh bread is always appreciated. this was served with a mascarpone butter. interesting and yummy.

to begin we were served canapés of lightly pickled cucumber with rose & raspberry which was fresh and crisp. green tomato & cheese gougeres. very tasty and the choux puff was oozing with the delicious filling. i don't usually like pumpkin but the pumpkin scallop reminded of a potato scallop but with pumpkin instead and it was nice and crispy.

onto the venison tartare with boudin noir baked beetroot & hazelnut. the venison was soft and tender, the beetroot added a fresh zing to the dish and the hazelnut crumb gave it a wonderful crunch.

next was the potatoes with oyster & raw mushroom. it was not the most inventive dish and kind of paled in comparison to the other plates of food. it was a boiled potato topped with raw shaved mushrooms. the oyster emulsion that came with it was nice but not as exciting as it could've been.

spanish mackerel with radicchio & fermented cucumber is the next course. i wouldn't usually choose mackerel as my first choice of fish but this was utterly delicious. moist and well flavoured it paired well with radicchio to add a bitter note to this dish. the sauce was rich and added a depth of flavour to the fish.

following this was kangaroo consommé with smoked eel & turnip. the consommé had a rich depth of flavour and very meaty in taste. the eel was perfectly cooked and enveloped in turnip and topped with grated egg yolk. again eel is not my first choice of seafood but i enjoyed this.

the duck was replaced by cowra lamb with pumpkin sauce and endive with garlic and pecans. lamb was tender and melt in the mouth. the endive salad was crunchy and went well with the lamb.

the dinner was rounded off by the following;

mead vinegar custard with frozen raspberry & strawberry consommé. the custard was silky, the bits of frozen raspberry gave it a great tartness and bursts of texture to this dessert and the consommé was nice and sweet. well rounded it was my equal favourite dish.

reduced milk sorbet with cucumber & peppermint granita was nice but i really dislike mint so although the sorbet was lovely and cucumber gave it an interesting twist, i had to pass all the granita to my dining partner so i didn't have to taste most of it. there was a base of apple purée.

my other favourite dish was mascarpone ice cream with lime jelly & sweet rice custard. the ice cream was so smooth and creamy. a hidden treat of lime jelly gave it a sour note to balance the ice cream. i couldn't really find the rice custard. topped with freeze dried mandarins, it was crunchy and zesty.

we couldn't say no to the st honore torte (puff pastry, hazelnut creme patissiere, vanilla chiboust, profiteroles, winter truffles). the pastry was nice and crisp on the bottom. wish there was more creme patissiere as it was really delicious. i think there might have been too much chiboust and it overwhelmed the dish a bit. profiteroles were just right, crispy on the outside with a toffee coating and creamy custard in the middle. the truffles were the decadent touch to this dessert. generous shavings on top it added a savoury and earthy element.

overall i would highly recommend this restaurant. the service was highly professional and thoughtful. the food was inventive and well constructed.

i went here for a birthday dinner a deux - what an amazing meal. a small dining room reminiscent of the 70s for me with innovative well presented and nicely balanced mini-courses. fun to be able to look into the kitchen through the smaller dining room. verygoodfor foodies.

sixpenny has been on our ‘to dine list’ for a while. we recently noticed that the restaurant was promoting a special spring menu ( $75 for four courses ) and decided to take the opportunity to dine at a restaurant recently awarded two hats by the smhgoodfood guide 2015. the spring menu turns out to be a surprise menu – upon arrival the waiter explains that we will be getting a four course meal and we were asked if we had any special dietary requirements that need to be catered to. we were excited and curious and as we were seating near the kitchen ocassionally we took a peek at the kitchen but it was too hard to guess.

worth a visit but.... definitely agooddego - "modern australian" food at its best with interesting flavours and unique ingredients. the crab with macadamia was definitely a highlight but - and this is not just the effect of the 8 matched wines - it was pretty forgettable and expensive to boot. $230 was spent and yes i'm happy i went, but nothing was really amazing about my experience. as expected, i left comfortably full and slightly drunk - and i have absolutely zero plans to return. come here only after you've tried the greats of the sydney dego scene.

what a greedy guts i am. when the opportunity arose to attend a once off dinner at sixpenny with guest chef dan hunter , it was a complete no brainer. it's been almost a year since i first visited this little stanmore restaurant and i've been singing its praises ever since. dan hunter  ex- royal mail hotel  just happened to be between jobs, as  he is on the cusp of opening his own restaurant called  brae . all the better for us sydneysiders to nab him for an exclusivegoodfood month dinner. this dining room for 30 is a scando minimalist gem photo credit: foolscap studio tonight's event would be a special treat, a 'clash' of food philosophy and the finest ingredients our country has to offer. call it the sustainable food brains trust . hunter has spent the last several years as head chef at the much lauded royal mail hotel , known for its play on modern australian cuisine (which remains a rather cryptic phrase if you ask me). previously head chef at mugaritz (ranked #4 restaurant in th

the bread!. the bread here is absolutely amazing! it was tasty, dense and very freshly baked.

came here for a birthday with my other half and whilst the food was superb - much to my dismay, there was no recognition of my partner's birthday at all by waitstaff or chefs. this was after multiple calls to confirm my reservation and notification by both phone and email of this occasion. whilst service was friendly, this little detail would have topped off our night.

left with our bellies bursting full ofgoodfood, but a little underwhelmed by the service.