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Forty One

There is an old adage that attaches to restaurants that revolve, float or reside atop buildings: such spectacular sites are not matched by their food. For many years chef Dietmar Sawyere has defied this. His 42nd-floor eyrie has the best big-vista harbour view in town – the ideal backdrop for serious corporate lunches (and they still happen, in and out of private rooms). Talk of AAA-ratings intersperse delicate mouthfuls of the citrus sugar-cured salmon and the slow-cooked silky, rich ocean trout that tilts its fin to Tetsuya Wakuda. Liquidity and mergers pepper the more meaty mains, which may include wagyu steak with wood mushrooms and spaëtzle – a nod to Sawyere’s Swiss origins. The food still delivers unto the view, but regrettably not the service (slapstick on the day we lunched), nor the slightly tired-looking fit-out. This icon needs some TLC to bring it back to its lofty heights.