After 18 tense months, the Sydney Opera House’s Bennelong restaurant set to open. But what’s it like?

Chef Peter Gilmore and financial backer John Fink confirmed yesterday that the city’s most anticipated restaurant relaunch had finally had a date.

The new restaurant will feature a $125 three-course a la carte menu, plus a more casual dining area featuring food that is “cold and cured”.

Gilmore said the new restaurant, which will now command half his time, will be a total change of pace from his usual home across the harbour at Sydney’s pre-eminent fine diner, Quay. Rather than offering complex, technical food at three-hat level, Bennelong will feature brasserie-style food driven by top Australian produce. Dishes will include whole john dory roasted and served on the bone.

“The menu is very much crafted in partnership with the farmers, fishermen, breeders and providores with whom our chefs work every day,” he said. “It’s a two way process: we’re responding to what’s in season and the best of what producers are bringing us, but on another level, we are planning menus a season or two seasons ahead, working hand-in-glove with our producers to develop bespoke ingredients for the restaurant.”

The launch of Bennelong, which will seat 99 in the dining room plus up to 45 in the bar area, comes after a long and torturous tender and development process plagued by scandal and disappointment.

After former tenant chef Guillaume Brahimi was forced out so the space could provide a “more accessible” dining experience, the next occupant — Melbourne’s Stokehouse Group — were compelled to back out of opening after a fire at their Melbourne flagship venue.

It is expected Bennelong will be the Fink Group’s equivalent of Neil Perry’s Rockpool Bar + Grill or Matt Moran’s Chiswick. Bookings will be taken from June 23.

Source: The Daily Telegraph, Elizabeth Meryment, June 16^th 2015