ECQ Bar, Quay Grand, Macquarie St, East Circular Quay

ECQ Bar, Quay Grand, Macquarie St, East Circular Quay
Friday 3 November, 2006

I've walked past ECQ bar so many times and always wondered what it was like inside. Today, a group from work headed down to enjoy lunch for a colleague's farewell. I looked up ECQ bar on Eatability and it has received an absolute caning - each of the 3 reviews posted for 2006 start with 'horrible', 'disgraceful' and 'appalling'. I was looking forward to making my own assessment of the place.

We arrived for our 12.30pm booking, all 25 of us of us. ECQ is located on the 3rd floor of the Quay Grand, so you can take the lift or plush chocolate carpeted stairs. They had prepared by setting up two long tables for us. However, we were shown to our table and then left alone. As many of us had never dined there before we were unaware that you have to order drinks and food at the bar - thanks for sharing that with us. Once this became obvious we got up in small groups and went to the bar and ordered.

The menu is diverse with burgers, schnitzel, pad thai, calarmari rings, fish & chips etc and it is all quite reasonable - noting over $26. One of our lunch buddies enquired about the baguette and was rudely informed it's the same as a club sandwich (so, why don't we call it that then???). Our friendly (not) waiter, Amanda, came right undone when asked if the mayonnaise was prepared with raw egg (another lunch buddy is pregnant). Instead of offering to ask the kitchen, she said they were too busy to ask so I'll bring you ketchup instead. OK then....

I ordered the grilled octopus & spanish chorizo sausage salad with rocket and saffron dressing. It looked amazing when it arrived at the table on a long white rectangle platter. Unfortunately it was dripping in oil. I picked up some rocket with my fork and had to wait for it to drip dry. The octopus & chorizo were delicious but I'm afraid the salad component was almost inedible.

The others meals were served on an ad hoc basis - this is what you can expect when you order & pay at the bar as they are prepared and served as they are ordered. So, everyone ate at different times. The calarmari rings looked superb and were presented in a small steam basket positioned on a white plate. The pad thai arrived in a ceramic bowl and the linguine arrived on a square platter but again was swimming in oil.

There is so much potential here - next time I'll visit for drinks and enjoy the view.

ECQ Bar - Quay Grand, Macquarie St, East Circular Quay - (02) 9256 4000

http://www.ozhorizons.com.au/nsw/syd/qc/fac.htm