Heritage meets corporate hotel at Sydney's Dixson & Sons

According to the website of Accor Hotels' new CBD restaurant, "Dixson & Sons is a contemporary interpretation of a modern brasserie, underpinned by sophisticated simplicity." If that tells you anything about the place except that it has food, and probably tables and chairs, you're better at interpreting marketing drivel than me.

"Drawing on [Chef's] global experience, our a la carte menu weaves Asian influences and Australian native ingredients into a menu that favours premium, seasonal New South Wales produce." Bloody hell, that's not much better. I think what the website is trying to say is, "Here's another hotel restaurant run by a chef with a thing for kumquats."

Dixson & Sons is part of Accor's luxe Porter House Hotel Sydney, which opened last month in a heritage-listed site that was once a tobacco factory. Shanghai-backed property company United Development Sydney is its key investor, and a fair chunk of cash has been spent fitting out the first-floor restaurant in brass, white marble and tan leather upholstery.

Arched windows look down on Castlereagh Street, and the natural light at breakfast must be quite splendid for hotel guests paying a starting price of $359 a night. It's a shame the space feels so corporate and manicured – like an interior designer's computer rendering rather than a real place.

Originally, we're seated close to the back of the dining room, at a table with about as much vibe as a podiatrist's office. "Um, it seems to be a quiet night. Could we maybe have something closer to the windows where there's a view of, er, Priceline?"

Chef, by the way, has previously held a senior role at the excellent Fish Butchery in Waterloo. If "sophisticated simplicity" means throwing a hodgepodge of ingredients on the plate and hoping for the best, the kitchen has largely nailed the brief.

"Cured Ora King salmon, dashi cream, gordal olives, asparagus and fermented kumquat" ($28) is a bare-knuckle brawl of flavours smothered by fishy-tasting goop that looks like clag.

The earthy, gamey notes of hay-aged, pan-roasted duck breast ($56) are lost in house-made hoisin sauce sweet with rhubarb, honey and molasses, although an accompanying bowl of red rice with confit eschalots is a pleasant side. 

Ditto the velvety mashed potato served with a hulking tranche of beef Wellington. It's $120 and designed to feed two, and the lattice work on its golden pastry sarcophagus is near perfect. The idea to brush wasabi paste on the fillet, however, will likely have beef Wellington's namesake duke bashing on his coffin lid.

I actually don't mind the wasabi buzz; my problem is the sucker punch of nori seaweed lurking in a middle layer of mushroom duxelle. Add to this a sticky bordelaise sauce, plus a dollop of eggplant miso puree pumped up with squid ink, and you're left with a plate of black-on-black muck with no beginning or end. It's all a bit much.

Suspecting I haven't let Chef play to his strengths, I return a week later for more fish. This is the right idea. Filleted John Dory ($52) is barbecued over coals so one side is blistered and blackened, while underneath is all juicy, sweet, fall-apart flesh. The menu's promise of desert lime was a worry, but the tangy native fruit adds just the right amount of spark to a mustard veloute sauce. A smashing dish through and through.

Beef tartare ($30) is another winner. Crimson-red tenderloin and rump are vigorously diced, and reinforced with a house-made infusion of smoked soy and bonito. There are flimsy rice crackers to pile it on, but you're better served by the crunch of fat-wrinkled, triple-cooked chips ($12).

Staff are young and green across the board, but eager to please. A light and balanced 2019 Handpicked Collection pinot noir from Tasmania should be poured at the table for $19 a glass, but I suspect that's the fault of management directions.

I'm not sure who to blame when a $22 martini is ordered "very dry" and arrives wet and briny.

There's potential here, especially with further staff training and restraint on the plate; Chef can definitely cook.

"Dixson & Sons is an okay brasserie with an uninspired dining room, but one knockout piece of fish and great tartare." Porter House can put that on its website instead.

Vibe: Heritage meets corporate hotel

Go-to dish: John Dory, wilted greens, mustard and roe veloute, desert lime ($52)

Drinks: Good-enough list of French and Australian wines; cocktails and whisky of varying quality

Cost: About $170 for two, excluding drinks

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine