LOCATION
The Art Gallery of NSW is located in the Domain, a short walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens from the CBD.
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The interior of The Restaurant is as minimalist as its name, an anaemic room only coloured by an excitable blush of scarlet carpet. This isn’t a bad thing as the architecture and design cunningly direct your attention to the oft-ignored view from the rear of the Art Gallery of NSW. The floor-to-ceiling windows take in a view of the blue and white finger wharf at Woolloomooloo, the tall terraces at Potts Point and navy snippets of the harbour.
It’s a view you could linger over all day, but in a move to attract a larger lunch crowd The Restaurant is offering a lunch special that can have you in and out within 45 minutes, if you so wish. For $45 you are granted a main course, a dessert and a glass of wine – not a bad choice if you want to be satisfied but have little time in which to do it. On my visit the crisp-skinned salmon was cooked medium rare and served with an interesting salad nicoise, the potatoes buttery and a spot-on match to the rich salmon. The a la carte menu is brief, featuring a handful of entrees, five mains (including a token vegetarian dish) and five desserts. Luckily therefore, that each dish is as neat and polished as the gallery’s marble floors.
Jennifer Miller, March 2007