Restaurant Of The Year

After modern Australian restaurant Whitegrass opened at Chijmes in 2016, the fine-dining circle waxed lyrical about the stellar food produced by chef-owner Sam Aisbett who used to work with Sydney’s venerable Peter Gilmore (Quay) and Tetsuya Wakuda (Tetsuya’s). The media also gushed about his inventiveness and flair for fusing produce both local and farther afield (mostly Japan and Australia) in interesting ways.

- Amy Van

So when we went to this elegant restaurant for the first time, we had rather high expectations, and we weren’t let down. Aisbett thinks outside of the box (and far beyond) for his creations. He cleverly uses ingredients in the most unexpected but successful ways. He focuses on clean yet distinct flavours, interplayed with different textures.

For instance, his dessert of shredded milk with honey. He first dries milk into thin layers, and shreds the sheets of milk by hand. The edible confetti is then showered over a plate of Hokkaido milk jelly, milk ice cream and honey from Thailand.