Mark Best puts a fresh spin on Sydney Tower’s revolving restaurant

After a lengthy spin as 360 Bar & Dining and then a brief twirl as Infinity at Sydney Tower, Sydney’s revolving restaurant is back in full swing under celebrated chef Mark Best.

Perched 81 floors above the city, the tower-top restaurant delivers 360-degree views of the city skyline, capturing the harbour, sea and mountains in one dramatic sweep. A complete revolution of the restaurant takes 77 minutes, although there is a second, faster option that completes the loop in 24 minutes.

“At the end of the night, we just turn it up to Gravitron speed, and everyone leaves,” Best says.

Infinity by Mark Best is the first restaurant Best has led since closing his three-hatted Surry Hills restaurant Marque nine years ago.

Best said he was keen to challenge preconceptions about high-altitude dining. “There’s the old maxim, ‘The higher you are, the worse the food’,” he said.

His contemporary Australian menu brings together different cultural elements, as well as past memories of Sydney.

The line-up includes a winter salad that features heirloom radishes, tiny spring onion bulbs, baby fennel and lightly fried purple cabbage sprouts served with a cheddar custard. It’s dressed in a mandarin agrumato, made by pressing whole mandarins along with olives.

“It’s a celebration of produce. We don’t do too much to it and that will always stay on the menu, morphing through spring into summer.”

Another standout is the parmesan gnocchi – a dish that Best developed at Marque. Made from parmesan-infused milk and Japanese mountain potato starch, it’s soft and silky – served with Abrolhos Island scallops and Misty Valley mushrooms in a hot and sour sauce.

“It’s my nod to Golden Century nights where we’d have the hot and sour soup, so we did a version of that,” he said.

The 90-seat restaurant and bar was already given a $12 million redesign only a few years ago, but has had a few soft changes before launch, in navy, charcoals and warm browns to maximise the view.

Best sought some inspiration from Dietmar Sawyere’s Forty One restaurant in the 𝄒90s and noughties, which didn’t spin but delivered penthouse-level glamour and high dining standards. And there’s Sydney’s long history with revolving restaurants.

Restaurateur Oliver Shaul was the first to get the motor running and the dining room spinning with his 1968 launch at The Summit restaurant, atop the Harry Seidler-designed Australia Square. Mount Everest slayer Sir Edmund Hillary made the ascent for opening night, as did the then-soon-to-be prime minister Sir William McMahon. A generation of Sydneysiders were soon singing along with the See You at The Summit jingle on the telly.

Food with Sydney vistas was such a success that a throwaway quote from Shaul that he could buy a Mercedes car every year from the sale of garlic bread became part of Sydney folklore. Shaul claimed he was trying to make a point about garlic bread, but the quote stuck.

Sydney Tower opened in 1981, followed by the 1994 launch of Hi-Lights (later Cucina Locale) at Blacktown Workers Club. Hi-Lights was unlikely to give you altitude sickness, however, being located on the fifth floor.

Best had built an impressive legacy by the time he closed Marque in 2016: for 10 consecutive years, it achieved three chefs’ hats and was named restaurant of the year in 2011. He describes the consultancy work he’s done since Marque closed – with cruise ships and hotels in Melbourne and Brisbane – as different from the deal he’s struck with hospitality giant Trippas White Group. “It’s a partnership,” Best said. And the partnership is for a minimum of five years.

Best said the experience he gained operating out of challenging spaces, such as cruise ships, is useful in an environment like Sydney Tower, where everything and everyone arrives by lift. His history and network also allowed him to lure talent, including sommelier Polly Mackarel.

Trippas White has given Best free rein over produce and menu. He was given only one instruction: “Be bold and make a profit.”

The timing for revolving restaurants, both in Australia and overseas, is seemingly on the upswing. Chef Michael Moore brought his pedigree to O Bar and Dining, where The Summit previously traded at Australia Square, and New York restaurateur Danny Meyer recently added revolving restaurant The View to his portfolio.

The New York Times gave the born-again 1980s spinner a good review. Best particularly liked this line from the piece: “Early on, revolving restaurants offered a sci-fi glimpse of the future; now they’re a comforting retreat to the past. (The future is here, and we don’t like it.)”

As Best ponders the majesty of Sydney from his new workplace, he’s been working on a new motto: “Come for the view and stay for the hospitality.” Even he is in awe of the vista. “Yes, I can see my house,” he said.