Spice Temple

'Chinese' seems almost too tame a description for one of Sydney's most exciting and polished restaurants. Electronic images splash across the heavy front door. Push through and wind down to a series of sectioned-off spaces, pale tones mingling with the dark and night-clubby. Menu-wise, Spice Temple doesn't follow the script either, ditching Sydney's ubiquitous Cantonese for a cruise through lesser-known chilli-, Sichuan-pepper and cumin-loving provinces, with cool (and cooling) cocktails and granitas as contrast. Heat levels are marked on the menu and hot and numbing dry wagyu is exactly as advertised. A stir-fry of diced quail with steamed egg custard is better balanced than an F1 racing car. Excellent produce doesn't need to hide behind rich sauces, as in a salad of shredded chicken lightly dressed in spring onion oil. Occasionally over-formal, the service could have been lifted in from owner Neil Perry's Rockpool. And that's no bad thing.