William Blue Dining, North Sydney

William Blue at North Sydney is a Hospitality Management college training the next generation of hospitality staff and chefs. As part of their studies, they run William Blue Dining, a restaurant which lets the students put their skills to the test and gain experience in a real restaurant environment.

For a bargain price of only $32, you can enjoy a 3-course fine dining meal which sounds too good to be true. It’s a bit confusing to find the restaurant because it is situated on level 9, but little did we know that the street level entrance is actually level 8 instead of Ground level, so you only need to go up one flight of stairs. Once we did find it, we were greeted by very professional and polite wait staff who took our orders promptly.

Char grilled harissa lamb fillet, chickpea puree, pomegranate, quinoa tabouleh salad, mint tzatziki

Our entrees came out really quickly (<10 minutes) and I had the lamb, which was very tender and soft, reminding me of the authentic Turkish food of Efendy I had recently. It was accompanied with some bread, salad and puree which added layers of flavour when eaten all at once.

Seared scallops, celeriac cream, smoked bacon, truffle and chive dressing

Yvn got the scallops for her entree and these were perfectly seared and juicy on the inside. There’s also some crispy chips on the plate which add a tasty crunch to the dish.

Daube of beef, pomme puree, sauce bourguignon

Parmesan, potato and ricotta gnocchi, forest mushroom veloute and asparagus

Next up are our mains which were the beef and gnocchi dishes. The beef was accompanied by a hearty sauce and scattered with mushrooms, and was very soft, falling apart on touch. The gnocchi was also quite soft and cooked quite well, and once again served with lots of mushrooms in a creamy sauce. It’s our fault for ordering two mains featuring mushrooms but we certainly had our fair dose of mushrooms that night!

Broccolini; Thick cut chips with aioli

We also chose to get some sides to accompany our mains. This included some soft broccolini which featured a slight lemon flavour similar to The Hudson, but actually tastier as it was cooked through more thoroughly. Our other side was some thick cut chips that weren’t that crispy but was served with an amazingly creamy and garlicky aioli.

Lemon curd mousse cake, gingernut crumbs, lemon popcorn

By this stage we were quite stuffed but continued to soldier to our final course, dessert! I opted for the lemon-based dessert which featured a super delicious lemon curd on a tart base, some lemon flavoured popcorn and also rich vanilla bean ice cream with crumble which cuts right through the tangy lemon flavours from the rest of the dish. I loved this dessert as I am a massive lemon-dessert fan and demolished it in no time.

Hot chocolate fondant, berry compote, vanilla bean ice cream

The other dessert featured an impressive hot chocolate fondant with a crusted exterior that encased a completely liquid chocolate centre. It was a rich and delectable dessert, matched with a sweet and sour tang from the berry compote and tempered by the lemon flavoured ice cream on the side too.

By the end of the night, we both left William Blue dining feeling extremely satisfied and impressed. It’s a bargain price, amazing food and the wait staff were very professional and polite, albeit slightly nervous (can’t blame them though as they are students!). The chefs in particular delivered very refined flavours and I am sure following graduation they will have some amazing careers ahead of them. I can’t wait to return the next time the seasonal William Blue Dining restaurant opens to check out what is on offer. Make sure to visit the website for their opening hours and also to book to avoid missing out.

William Blue Dining
Level 9, Northpoint Building
171 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060
Ph: (02) 9492 3299


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