Happy Birthday to Me! (oh, and that other dude...)

Tetsuya's. For Seeeedneysiders one restaurant stands on its own as the pinnacle of culinary mastery. Named simply Tetsuya's after legendary head chef Tetsuya Wakuda, the exclusive restaurant is nestled in its own private Japanese garden in the midst of the skyscrapers of downtown Sydney, a haven for the powerbrokers of the city looking to momentarily escape the hectic pressures of the markets or seal a deal over a lesiurely 10 courses. At least, it was exclusive until they made the mistake of letting a pack of washed up C-list wannabes through the front door...

Tetsuya's trademark is their 10 course degustation menu, a unique fusion of French and Japanese influences. The meal begins with a superbly fresh set of oysters topped with a lavish ginger sauce, and eventually builds to a crescendo with the restaurant's signature dish - confit of ocean trout garnished with trout roe and giant kelp seeds. Each course is matched with a carefully selected choice of wine. The highlight for Rock was undoubtably the aforementioned trout; the hightlight for Jared (above) was not falling out of his chair as the fifth glass of wine was poured. At least it did give him ample opportunity to enjoy the luxiouriously appointed bathroom facilities ;)

Rock also showing the signs of a few too many glasses... Fortunately, the alcoholic effects lingered long enough for the bill to appear as an illegible blur...

Cheers! The birthday boys pose with their legion of admirers and the organisers of the surprise dinner. The problem is, with Tesuya's recently being rated recently as the fifth best restaurant in the world (see the full list here), how does one top it for the 25th milestone next year? Over to you, girls...

(As an aside, Jared dug up this piece of trivia on head chef Tetsuya: Back in Japan, Wakuda has appeared as a character in a manga cartoon, Oishinbo, where he appeared as a hardworking Japanese chef who wears plain black polo shirts, drinks Krug and works in a suburban Sydney restaurant. Now is that cool or what?)