I ate at Sydney's highest rated fine dining restaurants... was it worth it?

A video that took three years to make! I've always loved the art of food and the holistic way fine dining becomes an experience and wanted to reflect on which ones really blew me away and why, from the perspective of an outsider to the scene. I'm very lucky and privileged to be able to dip my toes in the fine dining scene, but I'm certainly no expert so please take this with a grain of salt. I'm aware this is a major indulgence and I'm hoping this video finds its target audience who can afford these experiences responsibly, and gives you some food for thought. Timestamps 0:16 - Caveats! 1:07 - Criteria 1:59 - Atmosphere and Setting 3:50 - Service and Hospitality 7:02 - Food and Execution 11:22 - Final ranking -- Additional thoughts I didn't have time to talk about: -- I'm taking the 'ratings' at face value here, but fine dining 'ratings' are not an infallible system! There's plenty of criticism about Michelin and Good Food guides, in particular the bias it tends to hold towards French and Western food traditions and aesthetics in shaping what is considered 'fine dining', and the commercial manipulation behind things, so take the 'best' moniker with a grain of salt. -- The final prices have changed slightly since we visited since this happened over three years (which also explains the varying quality of my videos, sorry!) -- note that Sixpenny is now $265pp, Oncore's price has also gone slightly up (I think it was $385pp when we went) and I'm pretty sure Firedoor's price shown here was down from when we went. -- We picked the 3 course meal from Bentley Restaurant and Bar instead of their full tasting menu, which explains why it's more affordable, along with Quay's 5 course menu, and the Lumi menu was a mix of the smaller and Omakase menu. I don't think the cheaper/simpler menus should affect the food quality at all - if anything, I'd expect the highlights to be even more in the spotlight, but we aren't fully comparing apples to apples. -- I'm a non-drinker, which was interesting since fine dining seems to almost be ubiquitous with expensive wines. The learning is that my stomach capacity is potentially not cut out for temperance pairings, but I am extremely happy when I see it offered, and would love to see the same playfulness and thought put into the range of liquids on offer as sommeliers do with wines. -- I do think chemistry of a menu with your personal palate is a matter of luck, so again - GRAIN OF SALT/YMMV about what your preferences are, and also how highly you weigh each of the categories! For example - very aware Saint Peter is quite high on the Sydney list but I think I would struggle with a wholly fish/seafood focused menu, -- I'm being extremely nitpicky about service and small details because of the price point of these restaurants and the reputations the term 'fine dining' holds - it's not the standard I expect from most, but exceptional service is truly exceptional for a reason! Highly rec Alexander the Guest's reviews and thanking him for the inspiration -    / @alexandertheguest   ✧˖°. Music credit from Youtube's Audio Library Modern Attempt, Smoke Jacket Blues, Smokey's Lounge (TrackTribe)