Is the Rose Bay waterfront restaurant still a great day out?

The sky above Catalina is purple and angry. Shark Island is barely visible through the heavy rain and I wonder how long I can sit for a whiskey instead of facing the trip back to the car. Unless you're Bob Dylan or a U2 frontman, it's not the kind of day that calls for a pair of sunglasses. But suddenly, blue sky! Ground! The guests by the window recede like Dracula at dawn.

This has happened many times before, though, and the well-scrubbed floor staff have a supply of polarized soles for anyone who's left their Barton Perreiras in the glove box. “Would you like to borrow a pair?” If you're looking for a reason why Catalina remains so popular after three decades in business, that level of service, the kind of service that has sunglasses at the ready, might just be it.

There are also this view of the harbour, flanked by Point Piper and Hogwarts Brick School of the Sacred Heart. There's the Sweeping Room with its gentle curves and Brett Whiteley's pelican in bronze, plus a shiny new travertine entrance installed after a refurbishment last year.

When lunch calls for white linen napkins and good old-fashioned hospitality, Catalina nails the brief.

The food is reliable and the winery one of the greats, building on the wine-loving legacy of restaurateur Michael McMahon, who founded the fine-dining restaurant Rose Bay with his wife, Judy, in 1994.

Michael passed away in 2020, but Judy is still very much at the helm as director of Catalina. (Their son James has stepped up to the role of restaurant manager, while daughter Kate handles events.) Since running Barrenjoey House in the late 1980s, Michael and Judy have made Sydney a best place to eat oysters and drink semillon. and lose track of the day.

At Catalina, rock oysters ($7.50 each) are still shucked to order and served on ice, as they should be everywhere.

The prix fixe three-course a la carte menu is $150. If you want the poached marron tail (served as a sort of salad with soft potato, crunchy salt and well-balanced saffron beurre blanc), it'll be $20 more. The roast pig is an extra $60 if you share, or $120 if you want it all to yourself, which would be crazy. A perfect martini is $24.

If, like me, you have an average household income, you probably don't come here every week. But when lunch calls for white linen napkins and good old fashioned hospitality, Catalina usually nails the brief.

All the better if it's raining, I say, and you can relax with a glass of something bold and red. Sommeliers Andrew de Vries and Jarrod Mills were both on deck on a blustery Saturday when I visited recently and more than happy to provide recommendations of affordable wines by the glass (affordable compared to the four-digit bottles of First Growth Bordeaux that they preferred near the elegant seats). , anyways).

Crudo red emperor with amaebi prawns only needs a crisp $16 glass of Bourke and Travers 2023 Clare Valley riesling to bring out the taste of the delicate and sweet sea.

For the butterflied snapper, boneless, deftly cooked in smoked garlic aioli and a spicy demolition of capers, croutons, diced gherkins and green olives, it's a vibrant blend of white Grenache from Chateau La Nerthe in the valley of the Rhône ($20).

The rump of lamb takes on McLaren Vale's rather intense and delicious Yangbarra 2021 GSM ($21). And what a rump, too, coming from the Pyrenees mountain range in west-central Victoria. Four pink slices with ribbons of herb fat sit atop heirloom carrots, potato balls, and thick, gooey jus. Longtime Executive Chef Mark Axisa brings it all together with a rim of celery puree and gets me excited about more root vegetables during the winter.

Our waiter recommends fries on the side, but at $16 a bowl, I expected something…more. Some thick-cut, triple-cooked crunch? A dusting of seaweed powder? These could have been chips from any bistro at a bowling club.

I'm also surprised that when we ask for the petit fours to be packaged (we're stuffed after a slice of textbook lemon tart), the sweets come back in a plastic takeout container. At this price level, you might expect a small cardboard box.

These are small complaints in the grand scheme of a great day. Catalina is the reliable outfit that has been for the last three decades of oysters and caviar complements.

For a restaurant that offers several bottles north of $5,000, the staff is also refreshing and eternally adaptable to every occasion, personal finance, and climate. No sunglasses? Do not you worry.

This review was originally published on Have a great weekend magazine