There are several moments when reading through the menu at The Bridge Room when your eyes boggle. There are, of course, the menu descriptions themselves, of dishes that sound so wonderfully evocative and alluring. (Shaved snapper, single-origin trout roe cured in soy, dashi, sea parsley and white sesame oil. Or perfumed fruit, long pepper ice-cream, guava, persimmon, lime curd, gingerbread.)

But it’s when your eyes scan the price structure that you really need to read what’s in front of you twice.

One course — $60.

A single course for $60? Is that where Sydney dining is at now? Apparently it is. Keep reading and see that if you add a course you’ll pay $90, and for three courses it’s $110. Included in the price are sides (of mashed potato and a green salad). A new six-course tasting menu is, alternatively, $165.

So it’s expensive. But for all that, The Bridge Room on this lunchtime visit is full. By about 1pm, the room — a luxe Scandinavian design that’s all air and light, sleek lines and warm curves — emits a delightful hum; the mixed crowd of business suits and well-heeled tourists, wealthy couples and food lovers contribute to an eclectic grace that makes you pleased to be part of it.

It will be five years next month since Ross and Sunny Lusted launched The Bridge Room in partnership with the Fink Group. The restaurant now holds three hats — putting it in league with Quay and Sepia — and sits at the upper echelon of fine dining. The new prices are a leap, it’s true, but so far customers are prepared to buy it.

For mine, $60 is too much for a single course, so we are immediately upsold into the three-course option, where we can convince ourselves that $36 a dish is terrific value.

So to the entrees list, a joyful place where Lusted’s love of fine ingredients cooked with a blend of European elegance and Asian elan comes together. Start with the aforementioned shaved snapper, a cold dish of subtle flavour brought to life by salty pops of trout roe and a scattered garden of microherbs. Excellent. Superb too is a wondrous construct of a steamed scallop pudding, a domelike light-as-air souffle, effectively, that wears a jaunty cap of shaved biltong, mushroom and mushroom dust that lifts the flavour in surprising ways.

Sensibly, the serving size of the mains is generous, especially for food of this level. On a dish of (dare I say, slightly tough) ash-grilled duck are no less than four hefty wedges of bird and other bits and pieces of perfect harmony including prune puree and skinned grapes.

Find too Murray cod in butter with clams, robata-grilled lamb with walnut cream and a dramatic, Japanese-inspired dish of Alpine salmon with silken eggplant and puffed rice. Your $36 dessert of, say, perfumed fruit will be lovely if, well, not quite Quay’s Snow Egg.

Throughout, though, these are dishes of elegance, refinement, art and technique that eat beautifully and don’t leave the impression of over trying. Rather, it’s the simple and unpretentious elegance of The Bridge Room that’s its main selling point. It’s wonderful, and it’s easy.

Yes, you pay for it. But that’s Sydney for you, isn’t it?

Originally published on dailytelegraph.com.au