Revolving restaurants transport us to the past and the future.
I’m not sure I can dine at a stationary table any more. What’s the point? It’s not getting me anywhere. I’ve been ruined by the revolving restaurant, which, while seemingly going around in circles, actually transports us to the past and the future.
Sadly, I missed dining atAustralia’s first (and the world’s second) revolving restaurant, the Skyway at Scenic World in the Blue Mountains, which opened in 1960. And I never made it to the famous Rob’s Carousel, on the edge of Albert Park Lake in Melbourne, which opened in ’63.
But I was there for the rebirth of The Summit atop Sydney’s Australia Square tower in 1999, 30 years after it was first set in motion by restaurateur Oliver Shaul. Re-envisaged as a cool nod to the 1960s by hospitality visionary Anders Ousback and design firm Burley Katon Halliday, The Summit was a marvel of Eero Saarinen tulip chairs, terrazzo and retro (yes, even then) prawn cocktails and duckling a l’orange. Now in the expert hands of chef Michael Moore and known as O Bar and Dining, it’s still a classy way to do wheelies 47 floors above the city.
Nobody needs to fight for a sought-after view when every table gets exposed to the 360-degree panorama.
Dining while spinning slowly in the air is a strange combination of excitement and the everyday. You watch the sun set and the darkness close in, then neon lights spring up, sketching the outlines of the city as you spread butter on bread, sip cocktails and slurp oysters. The very act of eating normalises what could seem surreal, telling the nervous system not to be nervous.
Australia’s latest meals-on-wheels sits on the 81st floor of Sydney Tower, reopened in August as Infinity by Mark Best. A determinedly modernist chef, Best has installed potato and duck-liver fritters and slow-braised short rib with Javanese pepper instead of garlic bread and prawn cocktails. It’s democratic, too: nobody needs to fight for a sought-after harbour or bridge view when every table gets exposed to the 360-degree panorama.
Eating in a revolving restaurant shares some DNA with dining on a train as it tracks across the country, or on a cruise ship as it skirts a spectacular coastline. You sit there having a wonderful time, doing nothing but eating and drinking yet feeling as if you’re going somewhere – and getting a fresh perspective on the world every time you look up from your risotto. It’s revolutionary.
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Terry Durack has been reviewing restaurants and seeking out new food experiences for three decades. Author of six books and former critic for London’s Independent on Sunday and the Sydney Morning Herald, Terry was twice named Glenfiddich Restaurant Critic of The Year in the UK, and World Food Media’s Best Restaurant Critic. Australian-born and a resident of Sydney, he brings a unique perspective on the global food scene to his travel writing.
