This review comes over a year after my visit but this is a restaurant I dream off coming back to one day (I live in NYC right now). Presentation was absolutely through the roof and taste even better. There is communal style seating which I'm not a huge fan of but I realize a few places in Sydney do this so may just be my tourist opinion. Service was attentive without being overbearing, and the wine recommended was delicious. Absolutely recommend this place for a nice date night spot! read more

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Pretty cool restaurant with good atmosphere and so so food. Automata gives you an option of a five or seven course menu. I opted for the five course which also includes two bite sized snacks and bread and butter. The bread and butter was one of the better parts of the meal which is an issue at a place where the individual spend is 100 AUD plus. Food: 3.5 stars Service/environment: 4 stars Value: 3 stars Overall: 3.5 stars The meal started off with seaweed cracker with kombu cream and bbq pumpkin tart. Both were ok and not particularly tasty. The next dish was a pink snapper tartare topped with asparagus and caper. Presentation was nice and the dish was decent but nothing spectacular here. The stracciatelli with olive oil was my favorite dish of the meal. It paired really well with the bread provided. I enjoyed this dish quite a bit. The spinner crab with fermented chili pasta was something that sounded great on paper but The taste profile really wasn't for me. The pasta was cooked a bit under as well for my liking but for those who like a lot of bite to their pasta may like the preparation. The hanger steak was disappointing for me. The steak was cooked really well but the marinade used was overall sour and overpowered the meat. The dessert was a yogurt yuzu with a burnt lemon meringue. I enjoy lemon desserts and appreciated the contrast of the tart lemon with the yuzu ice cream. read more

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I came here with a friend and we both had a very pleasant experience. The setting is welcoming and fosters a relaxed atmosphere for conversation. The food was very very solid-great and the only let down was the service (but only a slight minus tbh). So let's begin with the positives. The beginning snacks were delicious and really well presented. The caviar and dashi custard was well balanced. The storm shell clam and xo chilli bordered on being a tried and done often dish (visit a Chinese seafood restaurant in sydney and they will have this combination) but was well executed and solid. The artichoke and sunflower tart was solid but forgettable and the crumbed anchovy olives were great and not forgettable. The grilled duck, sansho and osmanthus was beautiful and very delicious. The following courses were as follows: poached cuttlefish dish with water kimchi etc 7/10. Inventive use of ingredients but tasted very similar to a thai papaya salad. The Steam hapuka, dory roe, kumbo butter was a highlight of the meal and very very well done. The truffle tagliatelle was a bold move...considering how over done this dish is and was a let down of the meal. It was way too salty and really relied on the already established taste combinations of truffle + tagliatelle with no inventiveness (seemingly) addition. To do an established dish poorly is a shame as the food was very solid before this moment. The Rib eye and grilled cucumber with jalapeño sauce was solid but forgettable. Nice kick to the dish I guess. The desserts were really well done. The Set jersey milk was so inventive and I loved how while each element can not stand on their own as well...together they really worked well together. The pumpkin seed sorbet, bitters meringue was so well done as well. The different elements and their blend together was phenomenally planned and done. Overall, the food is really solid and I would probably come back. However, with that said, I do like fine dining places like Lumi more (and they are around the same price range). So now the negatives.... don't get me wrong. The service was bare basic passable and cordial. The waiters were nice and the chef came over to serve the last dessert dish. What was a slight negative was this weird awkwardness that seemed to hover over the waiters when they talked about dishes and/or introduced themselves. It seemed to be this weird balancing of being casual and fitting with the more laid back atmosphere for this restaurant along with maintaining the professionalism and the "fine" in this fine dining experience. I think a little more work on this identity presentation would be great (what it is and how to express it). The chef at the end (I think it was Clayton Wells) was also unexplainably weird as well? (i'm trying to think of a more fitting word but can't). He seemed muted in his description of his dessert and acted as if slightly entitled to some sort of reaction. Obviously these are just observations...but I do think more work should be done on identity presentation and vibe consistency if there is a desired unity. These are just small things to think about...and notable particularly since this restaurant enters a space with many other fine/high dining places that do consider this aspects because of the price point/experience. A few restaurants that do that well include emp in NY, funky gourmet, tetsuya etc. I also don't know if the food here can be best described as Australian? It seems that some floating descriptions around here about the restaurant say so and the home page of the restaurant is unclear. I know people try to claim the title of Modern Australian food and that basically entails fusion food...but I wonder as well if with more time there will be a clearer description. Regardless, I loved the lucky Chinese cat on the top shelf near the kitchen. Overall, very pleasant experience and with only minor critiques/forward-thinking thoughts that pale in comparison to the inventiveness and success of the food. read more

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The hype had been big for us and so were our expectations, and as it turned out this was an extraordinary experience. It had a real wow factor dare I say it was a (wow) to the power of 2! So what did we enjoy? cherries, fermented juice & capers steamed hapuka, cured roe emulsions & seaweed smoked lamb heart, barley koji & daikon wagu intercostal, dill pickle & turnip peach, sunflower seed & sherry vinegar caramel Every dish had a distinctive flavour and a most delightful taste.....my words frankly cannot do justice to the outcomes of the chef's great creations. The menu is fixed and was $88 for each....add the optional pairing and it is another $55. On this occasion we shared a fine French Riesling between the four of us. Tucked into the reasonably newly developed precinct in Chippendale everything about this restaurant has a style and feeling of uniqueness. The fit out is minimalist, a lovely dominant blend of steel, wood and concrete, the dining layout provides generous space and the service is at the highest end of professionalism. The best lunch experience I have ever had the pleasure of.....an utterly extraordinary experience of the highest quality. read more

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Automata by Clayton Well's, formerly of Momofuku Seibo has just opened. It's a beautiful space by the Old Clare Hotel in the revitalised Chippendale, aka Hippendale. The menu will change depending on local ingredients available, but as it is it's a 5 course menu for $88, and $55 more if you want wine/sake pairings. The whole place oozes cool with an accompanying soundtrack to boot. They serve you housemade bread with this divine butter...seriously it's divine, ask for seconds. The current menu is up on the website, but I'll go through them one by one. -Entree red witlof, violet mustard storm clam, rosemary dashi, cream **The witlof was nicely done, but I enjoyed the storm clam more. The dashi and cream went very well. -Mains asparagus, sesame leaf, umeboshi & dulse **weakest dish of the night, had a very interesting taste but in the end was kind of apathetic about it. steamed hapuka, cured roe emulsion & seaweed **fantastic dish, the hapuka was awesome and the emulsion gave a great balance slow roasted quail, burnt eggplant, cape & blackberry **was a very good dish, but I liked the hapuka more, the eggplant was pretty good inside skirt, walnut, shiitake, tamari & brown butter **the star of the show, I would come back just to have this skirt and brown butter again -Dessert pumpkin seed sorbet, bitters meringue & mandarin **I don't know how they made this dessert but it was awesome. All in all a great experience, can't wait to see what's on tap when the menu changes. Really enjoyed every dish while one or two were just OK to decent for me. read more

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Trying to sum up this place in a single word is pretty hard... But I'm going to give it a crack and label Automata as intriguing . First of all the service here is exceptional, I'm not just talking about one good staff member I'm talking about the entire waitstaff, they have a very high attention to detail that makes your experience special and to top this off the kitchen was very accommodating of food allergies and intolerances. The menu left me feeling conflicted. It was complex and at times uncomfortable. Duck hearts, beef tongue, and lamb neck were all part of the offering. But at the end of the night I didn't sit back and feel nourished or really have a dish I would talk about to friends. For me it was more about the conversation triggered by the dishes on the night and not their deliciousness that I'll take with me and remember. The cost of the degustation was very reasonable at $88, especially when you're able to experience the level of skill required to execute these dishes. read more

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I'm not sure if our expectations were too high but unfortunately Automata didn't live up to the hype. Some dishes (or parts of the dishes) were amazing (the prawn dish!) but others were just sub par. Here are the pros: - great restaurant vibe with an open kitchen to see our dishes being plated - Very creative dishes which were beautifully plated - 3 out of 5 dishes were tasty - prawn dish was amazing - smoked duck cooked perfectly but none of us (5ppl) seemed to like any of the accompaniments - dessert of macadamia nut ice cream with strawberries could have been one of the highlights - the staff were friendly Here are the cons: - thought the dory was ok - the asparagus dish was really quite ordinary - a 5 course tasting menu took 3 hours - our waitress wasn't really attentive and we would constantly have to get her attention to ask for a drink and did not come over once to check on what we thought of the food I would give this restaurant a 3.5/5 read more

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Not sure if our expectations are too high. But we are quite disappointed at the food. The presentation of food is average, the taste is quite average. Our favourite dish is actually the first starter, a seaweed cracker. read more

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I'm sorry but anything less than a 5-star review doesn't even do Automata justice. I would bother describing the menu but if you are picky about your food or conservative in your feeding habits, it probably wouldn't convince you. Chef Clayton Wells mixes a traditional approach to fine dining with the countries and cuisine that have made him, one sense at a time. Australia is there in front of you, with a relaxed atmosphere, a casual setting of the dining room and an out-of-nowhere decoration based on purely mechanical industrial items. Asia and Japan in particular meet your taste with a beautiful modern European cuisine, which benefits from his past experience. Five courses that change regularly walk you into a world of simple yet subtly and masterfully combined ingredients. You can smell France on many an occasion as it is one of the wine lists contributing country. Europe is during your experience one arm length away with a warm, moist yet crunchy bread, the kind you enjoy softly tearing and buttering to transition from one course to the next. Automata is a raw experience of senses, the art of taming complex ideas and fine dining into their simplest and most enjoyable forms for all to share. read more

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I don't know how cabbage could be a chef's most talked-about dish, but Chef Clayton Wells somehow does it. Mushroom butter and dried venison and sugarloaf cabbage, and I think one other ingredient I'm forgetting... it lived up to the hype. Dishes you'd more conventionally expect to be delicious such as the lamb rump and the torched bonito live up to expectations or better as well, with the grilled gai lan and the pickled shiso doing something friggin' amazing to compliment the bonito. The cuttlefish atop the gentle flavor of the water kimchi was excellent, as was the salmon skin and enoki mushroom starter. Not to knock the morbier (cheese) with caramelized carrot and pickled witlof-- that was a nice set of contrasts-- or the smoked milk sorbet for dessert-- both of the final two dishes were held up the tasty and unique standards of the rest of the meal. The space is modern and clean, with a long central shared table for larger groups. Delicious. read more

Great food and service. A real treat. Very upmarket and the perfect place to take a date or friends from out of town if you want to impress. A great price for 5 meal degustation. read more

Automata - what's a matter? First and last visit. Wife and I each tried the 7 course meal. While some dishes were interesting overall it was not very exciting for the price of $260. We opted to choose our wine rather than an additional $180 for pairing. Our total bill $400 to sit on bar stools for 2 hours sampling bite sized portions. Laughable ambiance of background music such as Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers followed by eye of the tiger from rocky. Table of older "women" with identical men's haircuts and shoulder pads offered some entertainment. Spice alley nearby looked promising if I were to return to the area. read more

An amazing meal. Wonderful food, the hapuka tonight was a particular standout. The wine selection is extensive and complements the food wonderfully, a true credit to the sommelier. The service was outstanding and there was a cracking soundtrack to go with the meal (the volume was still perfect for conversation). read more

Automata - Australian Near Me - Chippendale, NSW

Poor judgement in flavor combinations. Highlights: - Deep fried salmon skin. Picture a fishy tasting, chewy version of a pork rind. - Cherry preparation with onion. I struggle to remember the exact dish although these two flavors did not combine well at all. - 'Main' was lamb heart, primary seasoning being cumin and some other flavors. Overall, the meat was bland and the seasoning did not make up for it. - Dessert was some sort of tahini ice cream (or sorbet). Didn't taste good and I struggle to think when tahini as a primary frozen dessert flavour would make sense. The food was $88 which was a surprise because the menu on the website said $65. For either price, it was not worth it. The preparation (flavors aside) was OK but without the right flavor combinations you might as well not bother. Amendment: To be clear how poor the flavors were, my travel companion who selected the restaurant (a foodie) apologised for having taken me to Automata and insisted he pay for my meal. read more