Why this harbourside hotel dining room chilled out and amped up the comfort factor

Mornay, Rockefeller and Kilpatrick have a lot to answer for. When you love a cool, raw, freshly opened oyster, it’s almost a travesty to dump cheesy bechamel, creamed spinach or Worcestershire-spiked bacon on top of it. It’s not exactly the point.

But I’ve just met a warm oyster that puts the oyster first, gently plumping it with minimal heat and sending it out awash in warm, smoked wagyu fat and coconut vinegar.

It’s a smart opening statement from a hotel dining room that has shaken off its fine-dining years. What was The Gantry at Pier One Sydney Harbour hotel is now a simpler affair, with new head chef, French-born Dimitri Damman, recruited from the ranks.

This has happened before. When Joel Bickford left The Gantry to move to Matt Moran’s flagship Aria in 2018, management plucked a young Thomas Gorringe from the kitchen as head chef. Gorringe is now executive chef of Aria, Bickford runs Shell House Dining Room, and The Gantry’s most recent chef, Rhys Connell, is opening Soluna in North Sydney for Etymon. Damman has worked for all three chefs over the past five years. Now it’s his turn.

The oysters ($6 each) come nestled in a lively, green bed of samphire, purslane and kelp, placing them firmly on the edge of land and sea. The wood-floored dining room – still bearing the hallmarks of its industrial, working-pier heritage – is similarly placed, looking west over more restored piers and choppy water.

The last time I was here in the Gantry days, some disgruntled hotel guests walked out because it was too fancy, and there was nothing they wanted to order. It’s easier now at Pier Dining with crowd-pleasers such as chips, Bermagui catch of the day, steak and potato scallops on the menu. My fellow guests reflect that: small family groups have strollers tethered to the side, and smartphones discreetly play TikTok’s kindergarten teacher “Miss Rachel” to the under-threes.

But there’s still plenty for the over-threes.

There’s kangaroo tartare ($18) that’s lush and nubbly, the hand-chopped Paroo ’roo meat nutty with macadamia on a pine mushroom emulsion, topped with cured egg yolk and encircled with buckwheat crackers.

Even the comfort food has more done to it than you might expect. Mostly, that’s a good thing. There’s a play on carbonara made with excellent bell-shaped campanelle fresh pasta from small-batch producers Duro Pasta ($32). Inspired by Josh Niland’s re-purposing of fishy bits and pieces at Saint Peter, Dammon swaps the guanciale for chopped, dry-cured kingfish collar, tossed in a lightly eggy sauce and showered with black pepper. For a quick dinner, that and a glass of vibrant, graceful Mount Pleasant aged semillon ($20/$95) from the Hunter Valley would do nicely.

Sometimes, there’s too much of a good thing. The King George whiting parma ($42) is so crisp-crumbed and overlaid with gooey Heidi Farm tilsit cheese that the whiting gets lost. Which isn’t the point, really. A tropically inspired dish of coral trout crudo with green mango ($32) is brought on a trolley, its tangy dressing – chilli, ginger, coriander, lime – mixed at the table with mortar and pestle. Nice idea, but the finely sliced fish is difficult to lift from the plate, which takes a bit of the fun out.

I know everyone says they want dining that’s more relaxed and casual – but they always want a fancy dessert. My pick isn’t the signature “Pierlova”; it’s a slice of Valrhona chocolate tart with a buttery, biscuity Dulcey ice-cream ($21), from pastry chef Jitender Awasthi. All balance and elegance, with layers of chocolate ganache and crunchy feuilletine and hazelnut paste on a crisp base of chocolate sable, it’s a bit of Euro precision worth shelling out for.

Food and wine service is pleasant, if distracted, and there’s a covered area for those who want to be nearer to the water. Pier Dining is now a hotel restaurant that gets most things right, doing that bit more than it has to, in trying to give its guests the experience they want. Which, you’d have to say, is the point.