The Gantry, one of the only restaurants right on Sydney Harbour, is reopening November 17. Not only does it have a new look and new menu, but there’s a whole new vibe as well.

The fine dining restaurant at Pier One has always had a reputation for being forward-thinking. Under previous head chefs, including Joel Bickford and Thom Gorringe, it was known for being a formal restaurant complete tasting menus and dishes that could push you out of your comfort zone.

New head chef Rhys Connell is going in a different direction. The food is going to still be refined, but the experience as a whole will be a lot more approachable. “The restaurant is a different thing. Over the years it’s had some real world-beaters in the kitchen and it’s a hard act to follow for me to just do what they were doing,” Connell says.

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“We’re adding a different, fresh approach.” When the restaurant reopens in November, Connell will stick to a structured menu to give the new staff and space time to settle in. From January, he’ll introduce more flexible dining options. “We want to be a lifestyle restaurant and offer a lot more choice. It’s much more about a guest-centric experience,” he says.

“I don’t want it to be a formal restaurant, I want it to be a place where you can relax. We’re by the sea, if you come on a sunny day you probably don’t want to eat 12 courses, which is why we have to be much more flexible.”

Connell stresses that a flexible menu doesn’t mean casual food. It just makes the experience more approachable. The popular tuna caprese dish has been given a makeover and turned into a bruschetta.

“Instead of eating a raw tuna dish, we serve it with nice piece of grilled bread,” he says. His cheese and pepper crab dish is a combination of the classic salt and pepper crab and the less traditional cacio e pepe.

“We use the Pyengana cheddar instead of parmesan and the dish is constructed with palm heart, stone crab and pink peppercorns,” he says. A dessert of ‘violets’ is made out of purple sweet potato.

“We’ve taken the well-known flavour combo of ube, coconut and rice and refined it. Ube has a real floral characteristic to it, so we added other floral notes such as violets and early grey which has very floral and herbaceous characteristics,” he says.

Connell hopes the restaurant’s new menu and design appeals to a broader audience than just Pier One hotel guests. He wants The Gantry to be a place where people feel comfortable popping in for a drink and snacks by the water as well as diners whose tastes run from a main and dessert to a full tasting menu.

“Dawes Point is a tough part of the city. It’s five minutes from Circular Quay and Barangaroo but feels like nowhere at the same time. We almost had to make The Gantry a destination restaurant,” Connell says.

“For me, it’s trying to change the dining perception. This isn’t just a hotel restaurant, I want to create a dining precinct. It ties back into wanting to make it accommodating to everyone. Whether you want to have a drink or stay for longer, we have those levels of offerings.”

The Gantry
Reopening Thursday, November 17
Thegantry.com.au

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