There’s been a lot of home in our food lives lately. Home-cooking. Home-baking. Home-delivery. Close-to-home eating and neighbourhood shopping. And a distinctly home-style spin as favourite local eateries simplify to more home-y fare.

So it’s almost a leap back in time to head skywards up the gleaming look-at-me tower that is Crown Sydney, and emerge into the plush and hushed surrounds of a serious fine-diner. And an international one, at that.

Chef Clare Smyth has been in the restaurant game for some 20 years. She’s the name behind Core, a London landmark with three Michelin stars and this is her new Australian outpost, with harbour views everywhere and a pointy-end menu to match.

Behind kitchen glass as you enter Oncore, white-jacketed chefs bend attentively over delicately assembled edibles – from petals to crisps to miniature dumplings and vegie discs.

Your leather-topped, pale-timbered table is an elegant pale caramel, your cream chair cleverly curved, tableware is of the finest bone china, embossed with a signature Smyth thumbprint. In contrast to its shiny casing, the restaurant is “nature” themed – natural wood, table bouquets, a twist of decorative branches across the ceiling.

Happily, for this once-upon-a-time serial fine-diner, it’s not so hard to adjust to a pre-pandemic restaurant experience. Whether opting for Chef’s Tasting Menu ($300) or a three-course selection ($210), you’re instantly elevated to the excitement of “The Beginning”, teensy tastes delivered on sea-fronds, pebbles, gilt skewers and mossy logs. From a rich pea-mousse, curd and parmesan bomb (aka gougere) to the springy lightness of a mouthful-sized eel tart, and smokey chicken-wing roulade, crisped skin and all, it’s easy to slip into the sheer luxury of it all. Canapes conclude with a jellied parcel of chicken liver parfait, glinting gold on a gold-thumbprint plate – harking back to Chef Smyth’s days leading the kitchen at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.

Next, a breathtakingly pretty garden of succulents, blossoms, shiny lilly pillies and yes… green beans (!) encases a floral masterpiece – rose-rimmed petals of kingfish and radish in a sea vegetable broth. On the side, there’s a hunk of chewy, treacle-y, sticky malt sourdough served with salt-sprinkled Long Paddock butter. Thank you, bread gods.

To describe every arrival might spoil the surprise for those keen to snare an Oncore booking. A few hints though: the signature Clare Smyth potato, poached for eight hours in konbu butter and embellished with crisps, roe and weeny herbs, has a seaweed beurre blanc sauce you’d happily spoon up for the rest of your days. And the ‘lamb carrot’ is layered with a rich ragout and crunchy lamb fat crumbs, alongside sheep’s milk yoghurt and a fluffy, meaty, pie-meets-bun roll.

Sauces are poured tableside, wines are matched (from a heavily European list with a few well-known Aussie heavy-hitters) and plates are swept away. A shiny toffee-apple pre-dessert hides a very British baked-apple filling. And a dome of perfectly formed cherry and meringue discs reveals a gorgeous mousse-meets-ice almond and cherry interior. Divine.

And of course there are petits fours.

Service is friendly but polished professional. Flavours are classic, presentation is high on tweezer-action and there are no rakish Aussie-Asian or native Australian notes, or left-of-field local wines. (Chef says she’s keen to explore more local influences for her next season menu, with lots of Aussie truffles.)

Quite simply, this is serious, traditional, immaculate fine-dining in a special occasion room with breathtaking views.

Welcome back. It’s nice to see you.