The opulent, green-marbled interior of a 1936 American-style art deco skyscraper is one of Sydney’s most extravagant dining rooms, headed up by one of the country’s favourite pony-tailed chefs. The whole place wreaks of lavish; bankers, lawyers and Sydney’s entire financial district descend on the restaurant for lunch and dinner. Merely being in the room makes you want to start wheeling and dealing, cast a thought to stocks and bonds. But the immodest surrounds belie Perry’s (extensive) simple menu and his ethos of thoughtfully sourced produce. The room and clientele might be pushing the ticket on hardened opulence, but what’s happening on the plate is elegant, delicate, and bordering on spiritual.

The mega-bistro kitchen spans Sydney’s best steak tartare with chips, to David Blackmore and Cape Grim rib-eyes, rump, skirt, topside and fillet; steaks befitting of a top-shelf chef’s signature. But don’t overlook the sublime Glacier 51 toothfish cooked in a chargrill oven. The fish is buttery, bouncy, firm, and worth every bit of the $49 price tag. This is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of place, and nowhere does this world-class fish better than Perry.

Sides offer nostalgic riffs on British and American classics; a gooey, crunchy-topped mac and cheese, slightly-sweet slow-cooked mushy peas topped with a slow cooked egg (the egg is superb, the peas fine), there’s a whipped bowl of butter they’re calling potato puree and it’s as luxurious as the room, more welcoming.

There are not many places in Australia you can buy a $52 bowl of pasta, but Perry does it here. Maltagliati pasta, offcut pieces left from making the silk handkerchiefs also on the menu (we think), tossed in silken slivers of abalone, King Brown mushrooms and Bottarga. It’s brothy and rich, a perfect, fragrant bowl that feels like a cuddle from your nonna. You just might need to sell a few of those stocks to pay the bill.

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