Pont Dining Room, InterContinental Sydney

*With its understated elegance, Pont Dining Room is comfortable for all occasions.*

On the ground floor of Sydney’s heritage-listed Treasury Building, Pont Dining Room has an understated elegance with French blue walls, polished timber floors, white arched windows, and white linen tablecloths. Silvery-white gingko leaf garlands hang from the ceiling, doubling as lighting and adding an opulent note. A marble bar at one end of the room adds another striking note.

The restaurant has the ambience of a French salon, and it’s surely not a coincidence that pont is the French word for bridge. Pont is the signature restaurant in the InterContinental hotel in Bridge Street, close to Circular Quay. Despite its luxe appearance, the restaurant is comfortable for all occasions, as suitable for a business lunch or a catch up with friends as it is for a celebration dinner.

Under the stewardship of chef de cuisine Kanishka Amunugama, Pont offers an exciting menu highlighting quality produce from around New South Wales. Previously at Mount Lofty House in the Adelaide Hills, Kanishka has found his feet at this lovely restaurant.

Pont Dining Room Chef de cuisine Kanishka Amunugama. — *Chef de cuisine Kanishka Amunugama.*

The menu features grilled meats, seafood dishes and enticing vegetable creations, with elements of char, smoke, and flame paying homage to the kitchen’s char grill. Kanishka’s mission is to celebrate Sydney’s culturally diverse and vibrant flavours. “We wanted to create a menu that maximises the potential of every ingredient, leaving no element wasted and spotlighting sustainably-sourced seasonal produce,” he said.

Pont’s Feed Me Menus, starting from $120 per person, are perfect for group sharing. It was also perfect for our party of two, as every dish on the a la carte menu sounded so enticing and it saved us having to make difficult choices.

The $120 menu with ocean trout main was more than enough for us and in fact we were so full we couldn’t get through the sides that came with the fish. A slightly more expensive Feed Me Menu with brisket for the main is available for those with heartier appetites.

*Fried squid and banana peppers with a deliciously spicy sauce.*

It’s very easy to fill up on the bread for starters, so good is the sourdough with cultured butters that are to die for. So too are the dainty sourdough crumpets with white anchovy chutney, whipped goats cheese and lemon thyme. Just yum.

As oyster aficionados, we loved that some oysters were included in the tasting menu, even if it was just one oyster each. The Sydney rock oysters came with burnt cucumber and lychee granita which was delicious and refreshing.

Other appetizers included fried squid and banana peppers with a deliciously spicy sauce; and a dish with layers of thinly sliced red and yellow beetroot creatively garnished with labneh, raspberry syrup, and smoked wattle seed crumbs.

*Hunted and Gathered chocolate with brown butter crumb and raspberry crisp.*

An entrée of blue fin tuna sliced paper-thin and punctuated with dollops of bonito mayonnaise had fried capers and microgreens sprinkled on top, with a zing of finger lime – an ingredient that seems to make any dish pop.

A surprise addition of vegemite butter to the Bangalow sweet pork entrée was inventive and delicious, adding a umami note to the melt-in-the-mouth pork with chorizo jam on the side.

The ocean trout main had a perfectly crispy skin and was floating in an intense golden-coloured crustacean bisque with a dollop of eggplant purée and a few clams. Accompanying this was a micro herb salad mix sprinkled with olive oil, and a side of roasted kipfler potatoes with caramelised onion jam.

We were so replete that we had to call on our separate dessert stomach to make room for a very enticing chocolate mousse, made with Hunted and Gathered chocolate and presented with brown butter crumb and a raspberry crisp.

*The bar serves a comprehensive wine list and inspired cocktails.*

The comprehensive wine list includes organic and biodynamic wines from local and international producers, while the cocktail menu draws on the nearby Botanic Gardens for inspiration. Botanicals such as Kiwi, Bush Mint, Sage, and Eucalyptus are mixed with Los Arcos Tequila in the aptly named Garden Walk cocktail.

Pont Dining Room has a private dining room for up to 12 guests, and a semi-private dining room for up to 25 guests and wine tastings. With its creative menu and attractive location opposite the Royal Botanic Gardens, Pont Dining Room is the ideal spot to play tourist or impress out-of-town guests.