Rise, Darlinghurst

One birthday celebration simply isn't enough. After celebrating Sir D's birthday at Masuya, we celebrated again with more food of course at Rise in Darlinghurst, who has (in my opinion) one of the best value degustations in Sydney.

China Blue: a mixing sensation of grapefruit juice and paraiso - $10

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday nights, Rise offers their 7 course degustation at 25% off the usual price, for just $48pp, which is fantastic value. Of course we took up this offer, and we arrived for at the first 6.30pm sitting on a cool Tuesday night.

Spicy pork belly salad with tofu and bean sprouts namuru

The first course is the spicy pork belly salad, which is a soft square of tofu holding up some peppery rocket, slices of roast pork belly and topped with a pile of bean sprouts. Although the pork belly is nice, what really wins me over is the combination of the bean sprouts which have a lovely sesame flavour and the cooling sensation of the tofu.

Sweet corn soup with scallop mousse

Rise, Darlinghurst's 4th Year Anniversary

Although this is my first post about Rise, it is actually my 4th visit which coincides with a special offer they have to celebrate the 4th anniversary of Hideki Okazaki becoming the owner-chef of Rise. For one week, Rise is offering a special 7-course omakase menu for $36pp, and having been completely enamoured by the food during my previous visits, it was simply an offer I couldn't resist.

Rise is tucked away in a relatively residential area of Darlinghurst, away from the numerous restaurants and wine bars on nearby Victoria Street. My first visit to Rise saw me completely at a loss of how to enter the restaurant - I attempted to open the locked door facing the main street, but luckily another of my dining companions found the fire-engine red door marking the entrance to the restaurant. And it was unlocked.

Ocean trout marinated with gochujang miso and porched quail egg