Wildfire Fast Festival Feast: Dinner with a view

After a huge Festival First Night last weekend, I’m back for more of Sydney Festival with the Fast Festival Feasts across a number of Sydney restaurants. One or two courses at $30 or $55 respectively at set times, with a glass of McGuigan ‘The Shortlist’ wine and a bottle of Tasmanian Rain water isn’t too shabby.

Tasmanian Rain sparkling mineral water at Wildfire, Overseas
Passenger Terminal, Circular Quay

Ahead of a show at the Sydney Opera House, options for the two-course deal in the vicinity are limited (Aria is only doing Fast Festival Feasts at lunch) so we find ourselves seated outdoors at Wildfire in the Overseas Passenger Terminal, facing the show venue.

It’s a curious dining location that I’ve rarely been privileged to, populated by couples dining alfresco and business dinners inside the restaurant, and many a passing, inquisitive tourist.

Booked in for the Fast Festival Feast, I was a little surprised that we weren’t offered the regular menu as well, should we have wanted extras like bread or sides with our meal. As part of the deal, we each get a glass of the McGuigan ‘The Shortlist’ Chardonnay and a bottle of Tasmanian Rain sparkling water.

Yellowfin tuna sashimi with smoked eel parfait, buttermilk ‘snow’,
dashi, cucumber and dill emulsion

I wasn’t aware that Wildfire has a rather modernist approach (they also have a churrasco menu, which frankly baffles me). The presentation of the entrée confirmed this with the presence of fairly flavour-free buttermilk “snow” atop the perfect ruby discs of raw tuna.

Thin rolled lengths of cucumber added to the subtle flavours, while the verdant dill emulsion and the caviar topped quenelle of creamy smoked eel parfait were highlighting flavour matches.

Kurobuta pork belly with spherical yoghurt, compressed watermelon,
liquorice, prosciutto and baby fennel

The pork belly main dish was very well sized and topped with a gloriously golden, bubbly layer of crackling. The block of meat wasn’t overly fatty and had great flavour, enhanced with the uber sweet rounds of watermelon and slivers of candied peel (possibly grapefruit), but not helped by the extremely sour grapefruit segments.

The spheres of natural yoghurt were much fun to play with and eventually burst, adding a sauce of sorts, albeit mostly flavourless against the salty shaved fennel. A strike of liquorice added to appearances, but didn’t do much for the sum of all parts in terms of overall flavour.

We ditched the eventually-quite-full restaurant and dessert menu in favour of a quick gelato before blazing back up the other side through the crowds to the Opera House, just in time for an 8.30pm performance. Thank you, Fast Festival Feast.