When you take that first bite of a new dish, and the intensity and immediacy of the flavours makes time freeze over – it does something to your brain. It makes it log the newcomer in a file marked Unforgettable. Here are 11 Sydney dishes I’ll never forget, from half a lifetime of restaurant reviewing.

Paris mash, Pond, Kings Cross

Pond was my first review for The Sydney Morning Herald, back in 1994. I’d heard that a young French chef called Guillaume Brahimi had worked with the famed Joel Robuchon in Paris. Having eaten recently at Robuchon’s Jamin, I dropped by. The basil-infused tuna was something altogether different for Sydney (I hailed it a new culinary icon), and the thick, glossy, buttery, almost elastic Paris mash, based on Robuchon’s renowned puree de pommes de terre, was a marvel. Bang! 16/20 on the spot. (1994-1996)

Chicken liver Paris-Brest, Cafe Paci, Newtown

Cafe Paci is one of the most rewarding dining experiences in Sydney, and Pasi Petanen’s ever-changing menu runs a dream team of superstar players. This crusty, crunchy, almond-flaked choux pastry from 2020 is just one of them; the rococo ruffles of rich, silky parfait hand-piped on a bed of sweet onion jam. Want it now.

King George whiting with lemon and Cobram Estate hojiblanca olive oil, Margaret, Double Bay

Produce, produce, produce – and the smarts not to get in the way of it. Thank you, Bruce Collis, for the fish, and Neil Perry and Richard Purdue for the purity and care of the grill.

Laksa bombs, Ho Jiak Town Hall, Sydney

All the things you ever loved about spicy, coconut-creamy Singaporean laksa soup – but inside a dumpling? Ho Jiak owner-chef Junda Khoo sends out big floppy, silky dumplings filled with prawn, chicken and two types of noodles bathed in a spoonful of heavily reduced laksa soup. Kapow.

Berkshire pig jowl with maltose crackling, Quay, Sydney

I’ve been eating Peter Gilmore’s intuitive, elegant food since reviewing De Beers in Whale Beach in 1999 (“One of the most exciting chefs I’ve come across all year; everything works”). But it all really happened for him with the patronage of the Fink Group at Quay, from 2001 onwards. This slow-braised, jelly-soft pig jowl was sent out with richly marinated prunes, prune kernel oil, and smooth cauliflower cream and a crackling made from maltose toffee. To this day, “one of the most exciting chefs I’ve come across all year; everything works”.

Char kwai teow, Temasek, Parramatta

I first reviewed this fast, no-fuss Singaporean family favourite in 1998 and called it a bloody gem. Now run by the founder’s son Jeremy Cho, it still is. I like it all: the dusky curry puffs, the fish head curry, the lightly jellied Hainan chicken. But best of all is the char kwai teow, with its straight-from-the-stove char. The smoky, stir-fried flat rice noodles soak up the dark, sticky, sweet and savoury sauce, studded with bean sprouts, crisp lap cheong sausage and decent small prawns. Comfort food for my inner noodle freak.

Japanese stones, Sepia, Sydney

As a chef, Martin Benn has a love of beauty that drives him to create high-concept, high-technique dishes that are works of art. It won him three hats at Sepia in Sussex Street (2009-2017), which he ran with his partner Vicki Wild. The Japanese stones dessert (2011) was an extraordinary thing to eat, as the crisp, smooth shells of cocoa butter cracked open to reveal soft hearts of chocolate, coconut cream custard and cherry, on a bed of green tea moss. An edible rock garden.

Lumache a l’escargot, Bistrot 916, Potts Point

Bistrot 916 was a fever dream of French bistro romance, candlelight and cocktails (2021-2024), where chef Dan Pepperell evoked a sense of Parisian tradition while at the same time sending it up, gastronomically. His snail-shaped lumache pasta shells came lolling about with snails, in the same mossy herb, shallot and garlic butter that the French like to serve with snails. It was snail-on-snail-on-snail, and made me laugh out loud.

Dry-aged tuna wellington, Saint Peter at the Grand National, Paddington

This is a fish restaurant, and a beautiful one at that, although you may leave thinking you have eaten meat. Take Josh Niland’s pastry-clad wellington – immaculate, precise, and classically made with pastry, crepes and duxelles of mushrooms. Its crimson heart isn’t beef, however, but 18-day dry-aged big-eye tuna. It’s cleaner, leaner and lighter, but still beefy enough to match with red wine. Not something you forget in a hurry.

Potato and roe, Oncore by Clare Smyth, Barangaroo

The signature dish at ritzy, high-level Oncore is a nod to Clare Smyth’s Irish upbringing – a whole potato. Cooked low and slow in kombu butter, it’s then topped with herring and trout roe and tiny fermented potato chips planted among baby shoots of sorrel, chives and rocket. With the uncompromisingly talented Alan Stuart leading the Sydney team, it’s a three-hat potato, every time.

Pork and century egg congee, Royal Palace, Chinatown

Rice congee is such a yum cha staple and late-night saviour that you forget to even think about it as you’re wolfing it down. Until such time as it is so ridiculously creamy and studded with goodies that you actually stop and stare, as if it just spoke to you. It did once, at a trolley-laden Royal Palace yum cha lunch, and I’ll never forget it.