The signature confit of ocean trout at Tetsuya’s is the single best dish I have personally eaten in Australia. It was just last year when I finally got into the notoriously hard-to-get-into fine dining pioneer on Kent Street. I distinctly remember walking off the busy Sydney CBD strip and instantly feeling like I’d just been zipped straight to a ferociously peaceful restaurant in Kyoto. The kind that effortlessly blends zen with culinary mastery and an infectious sense of occasion, helped greatly by the meticulously maintained Japanese garden perceived through large glass windows looking out from the main dining room.
It’s the type of dining experience that left me feeling like a failure for not discovering it earlier. The setting had a lot to do with it. And sadly it seems I have finally discovered Tetsuya’s much too late in its 22-year life span.
That’s right, as of next year Tetsuya’s – at least in its current form – will be closing down.
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Owner and chef Tetsuya Wakuda announced last week that his eponymous fine dining restaurant, which has consistently been rated as one of the best in the country and is frequented by gourmands from around the world, has called last service in August 2023. After that, the building that currently hosts Tetsuya’s, so perfectly tucked away from Kent Street down a short driveway, will become just another redevelopment site.
This has reportedly been known for a while now. The Kent Street building actually sold back in 2018, with Wakuda and other private joint owners of the site parting with the property for around $53 million. According to Good Food, some expected Wakuda would be reopening Tetsuya’s after redevelopment of the current site was finished, but it’s not being reported that the restaurant will be moving away from Kent Street completely.
This isn’t the end of Tetsuya’s though. At least I hope it isn’t. Wakuda, who most recently established a US presence with a new eponymous fine-dining experience on the Last Vegas strip, announced on the restaurant’s Instagram that he is currently looking for a new site.
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Rozelle was actually the first location for Tetsuya’s back in 1989 when a young Wakuda opened the restaurant to immediate acclaim. It relocated to the city in November 2020, where it has become synonymous with fine dining in Sydney.
Tetsuya’s
Address: 529 Kent St, Sydney NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 9267 2900
Opening Hours: Thursday (5:30 PM – 8:30 PM); Friday – Saturday (12 PM – 1 PM, 6 PM – 8:30 PM); Sunday (12 PM – 1 PM)
