Galileo Restaurant - Sydney

I've been eyeing Galileo restaurant for a while now. I've seen it on a few blogs and the photos make the food look deliciousness. So when hubby booked this restaurant to celebrate our wedding anniversary, I was super excited. However, there were a few blunders in the beginning - they didn't have our booking... Luckily, there were spare tables anyway and we were seated before too long.

After making our choice of opting for the degustation menu, we were served with super fresh warm toasty bread rolls. But, we had to ask for the butter as they had forgotten :( We butter arrived, the bread became heavenly once again - crunchy on the outside, warm and fluffly on the inside.

warm fresh bread rolls

The amuse bouche was a smoked oyster served with sauerkraut and watercress. It was actually a good combination. The sauerkraut tasted well balanced and quite fresh, as with the watercress. The oyster, though small, was tasty, slippery and nicely creamy.

amuse bouche - sauerkraut with smoked oyster and watercrest

The first official course was the ocean trout and crispy balmain bug with a small pile of cucumber puree, tiny flavoursome bits of duck prosciutto and beetroot thins. I enjoyed this quite a lot. The trout was perfectly melt in your mouth and the bug was gently crispy and subtly sweet. At first, I had no clue what the little black bits were... just tasty little crunchy things that went well with both the fish and the bug.

ocean trout and balmain bug

The next course was yellow fin tuna - two ways. Tuna in Sydney is almost always a disappointment (esp when compared to the super fatty tuna you get in Japan) and unfortunately, my suspicions were confirmed. They certainly tried though - the seared cube was cooked well and the tartare bit was sweet too.

yellow fin tuna

They redeemed themselves with the next course. Barramundi is a fish readily available fresh in Sydney and the fish on my plate proved it. Perfectly cooked. Absolutely gorgeous and served in a pool of lettuce butter (butter lettuce veloute). There's also bits of mussel and croutons in it.

Barramundi with butter lettuce veloute

The palate cleanser for the night was a raspberry granita. I don't usually eat raspberry so I didn't expect to like this, but I actually did enjoy the freshness and lightness of this granita.

respberry granita

The main protein for the night was the Tajima beef tenderloin. Amazingly tender beef, super tasty too. It was served with heirloom tomato, moist and soft piquillo pepper, parmesan crusted asparagus (which was amazing! I think I'll cook my asparagus this way from now on too), and globs of natural jus. Definately not bad.

beef tenderloin

We also went for one portion of the optional cheese plate and thankfully so cos the cheese was really really yum! There was a cheddar, a gorgonzola and... something else (don't remember >.<). All three were appetising and worth the extra fat/calories. Accompanying this was apricots, pear slices, currents, walnuts and a spoonful of honey. The bread sticks/crackers that came with the cheese plate was likewise good.

cheese platter

Dessert no. 1 was the strawberry soup. I didn't expect to like this but I actually did enjoy the basil sorbet, small glob of vanilla panna cotta, and meringue. It all worked well together. Fresh tasting and sweet but not sickeningly so.

strawberry soup

The second dessert was a french toast with rhubarb compote and Pedro Ximenez ice cream. The french toast was hot and soft and eggy and caramelised and the icecream was YUM :)

french toast and icecream

Because it was our anniversary, we got an extra plate of petite fours. I'm not a macaron person but these mandarin macarons were ok. The strawberry custard tart was heavenly - the crust was super buttery and short. Alcoholic chocolate is not really my favourite and hubby gobbled down the heart-shaped jelly without much comment.

petit fours

All up, it was a lovely meal. Sure there's not a lot of wait staff, but they still managed to cover the field. The food was surprisingly good and I love most of what was served.

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 32/40

Galileo Restaurant
The Langham Hotel
89/111-113 Kent St
Millers Point
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9256 2222