Sailmaker’s New Menu: A Seafood Affair with Serious Credentials (and Parmesan Potato Churros, No Less).
- T
- Aug 9
- 4 min read
Let’s be honest - Sydney’s seafood scene is as crowded as a Bondi beach towel in January. Everywhere you turn, there’s a restaurant boasting “fresh catch” and salt-flecked sincerity, usually served on a rustic plank with a sprig of micro basil for gravitas. But Sailmaker, tucked within the Hyatt Regency Sydney’s heritage-listed Corn Exchange, isn’t shouting to be heard. It doesn’t need to. It walks in with the quiet swagger of someone who knows their fisherman by first name, a menu that reads like a love letter to Australian waters, and yes -
parmesan potato churros that strut the fine line between sin and self-care - the sort of gloriously reckless idea you’ll congratulate yourself for having.
This isn’t a token seasonal refresh. It’s a full-blown culinary mood swing - less a meal, more a meticulously stamped postcard from the coast, penned with the kind of precision and quiet swagger Executive Chef Sven Ullrich and his crew have down to an art. The dinner offering champions native ingredients, working almost exclusively with trusted farmers, sustainable suppliers, artisanal growers, and boutique winemakers. It’s a flavour-mapped journey across the nation’s edible landscape - where regenerative farming, eco-minded dining, and deep-rooted Indigenous heritage are woven straight into the plate. No soapbox speeches, just a calm, exacting craftsmanship that lets the ingredients tell their story in their own unmistakable dialect.
From the first plate, the menu plays a sly game of comfort and curveball. A silky dome of burrata may whisper “classic” - until it’s ambushed by pickled zucchini, a sharp fennel chutney, and native muntries, those tart little gems cherished by First Nations communities for generations. It’s creamy, bright, and unapologetically local, the kind of entrée that has you Googling “where to buy muntries” before the main arrives.
The Silver Trevally Crudo is a diplomatic summit of flavours where Sydney, Kerala, and Cairns find common ground - coconut cream, lemon aspen, chilli, and curry leaf meeting in a bright, aromatic détente. Meanwhile, the Yellowfin Tuna politely declines every overplayed cliché: no syrupy soy, no novelty wasabi pearls, just a tangle of peppery rocket, sun-warmed heirloom tomatoes, roe that pops like punctuation, and golden potato shards posing as garnish but secretly engineered for your own guilty delight.
Then comes the showstopper: Glacier 51 Toothfish. Sourced from the frigid depths near Heard Island and proudly MSC-certified, this decadently tender fish flirts with downright sinful, resting on a bed of luscious creamed warrigal greens (think native spinach for the curious), sun-kissed tomatoes, and a velvety fish jus. And those golden parmesan potato churros? They’re made for dunking - if you’re not savoring every morsel swiped through that jus like it’s liquid gold, you’re missing the whole point.
Sailmaker doesn’t rest on seafood alone. Skull Island Prawns from the Gulf of Carpentaria land at the table lacquered in native garlic butter - part seduction, part standing ovation. Far West scallops lounge in a house-made XO sauce with the kind of confident swagger that politely erases the memory of every scallop that came before. Fremantle octopus, Blue Reef coral trout - each is a postcard from a different coastline, proof that the supplier list reads like an atlas of Australia’s most pristine waters.
The land-based dishes play just as hard. Grain-fed Portoro sirloin with pepperberry jus is as precise as a Swiss watch, Margra lamb chops come cloaked in wild thyme-mustard cream, and rotisserie chicken emerges from the oven with skin so crisp it almost shatters. Even the vegetarian gnocchi refuses to be a wallflower - soft with rosemary perfume and drenched in macadamia and confit garlic cream.
The sides deserve their own round of applause. Grilled corn gets a miso makeover, sprouting broccoli wears a dusting of native spices like tailored couture, and creamed warrigal greens settle into your memory with the persistence of a great chorus hook. Even the humble garden salad can’t resist showing off - most of its leaves and blooms are plucked from the hotel’s own micro farm, practically waving at you from just metres away.
Dessert, meanwhile, is an event in itself. The roving trolley makes a Wes Anderson-worthy cameo, stacked with cheesecakes that demand full commitment, not polite nibbles. Burnt-crowned Basque, grassy intrigue in matcha, unapologetic depth in Sao Thome 70% chocolate - plated at your table with just enough ceremony to feel special, without a trace of pretension.
All wines hail from New South Wales, each one chosen to echo the locally driven menu. And the sustainability credentials? Serious. Hyatt has cozied up with the big green leagues like WWF and GoodFish, insists on fancy badges like MSC and ASC, and sources from local legends such as Grima Farm Fresh Produce, who champion the beautiful chaos of “perfectly imperfect” harvests, joined by the ethical charm of Hilltop Free Range Eggs and the pristine quality of Aquna Murray Cod. Meanwhile, out of sight but far from unnoticed, GoTerra’s whirring “Maggot Robots” (you read that right) deploy Black Soldier Fly larvae to devour food waste with surgical precision, trimming leftovers by a staggering 95% within a single day.
At Hyatt Regency, even the bits you don’t eat get the VIP treatment - because why should the uneaten scraps miss out on the party?
Dinner is served Thursday to Sunday, 6:00 PM to 9:30 PM, and while Sailmaker never feels like it’s trying too hard, every bite reveals that it very much is. Not trend-chasing. Not concept theatre. Simply confident, effortlessly assured cooking that honors origin, authenticity, and unapologetic indulgence. The kind of dining that lingers long after the churro crumbs are gone - though frankly, good luck leaving any.
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Words by AW.
Photos courtesy of Sailmaker / Hyatt Regency.
