Métisse Restaurant

Overview

Métisse in Potts Point is a restaurant that's been conceived and designed specifically for special occasion dining. The culinary genre here is best described as haute cuisine — artfully presented, meticulously constructed food delivered with white glove service within a moody atmosphere created by intimate low lighting.

The restaurant, which opened in 2019, is helmed by the charismatic owner, chef and restaurateur Opel Khan who will greet you at your table and give you a personal introduction to each course of the degustation (there is 'the Journey' degustation and 'the Earth' a planted-based degustation — both $175 per person, and the Luxury degustation which is $300 per person).

Before any food even gets to the table a bowl of rose water with fresh rose petals is presented at each place setting as the amuse bouche course is eaten by hand.

Chef, restaurateur and creative director Opel Khan

The amuse bouche is presented on a series of porcelain objet d'art, commissioned specifically by Khan to pair with each dish. Each inclusion is a single mouthful, each incredibly light (as in: it doesn't weigh much) and each dispatches astonishing flavour. The caviar with white truffle custard served on a small white vessel is something special. A very promising start. Cold lobster meat wrapped in paper thin cucumber carpaccio on "avocado snow" is a terrific showcase of the sweetness of the shellfish.

One of the most photogenic courses is called 'Mosaique', raw bluefin tuna, ocean trout and kingfish presented to look like stained glass and generously bathed with a burnt butter beurre noisette. The dish is more beautiful than it is a taste sensation but the construction is inspired; the 'vegetable carbon' between each piece of fish is made from the unused vegetable parts that aren't the hero of the dish, just one example of the focus on sustainability that is a driving inspiration behind the workings of the Métisse kitchen.

The 'Fruits de Mer' course is particularly special — a bowl with four types of seafood, prepared with such simplicity to show off the flavour of exceptional produce. The Yamba prawn and the scallop are among the more delicious you'll try. Similarly, the 'Canard' course is very bloody good — a perfectly rendered rectangle of duck breast with crisped skin, served alongside a duck "cigar" a luxurious pie made from the leg meat.

The 'Fruits de Mer' course at Metisse

Chef Opel Khan's approach to the menu is "no boundaries" and what is delivered to the table really does stretch the boundaries of luxury fine dining. It's food as high art, combined with technique and — critically — delicious, satisfying food.