Just In: Quay, One of Australia’s Most Influential Fine Diners, To Close

The experience at Quay is singular. To Sydney and Australia, but also the world. There’s the view, looking out over our icons (the harbour, bridge and Opera House). There’s the exceptional, polished hospitality. And then there’s Peter Gilmore’s flawless set menu, with his signature precision, technique and flavour. Now, after serving diners since 1999, Quay will close in early 2026.

“For more than two decades, Quay has been the most ambitious creative pursuit of my life,” Gilmore tells Broadsheet, of the Fink Group restaurant he’s captained since 2001. “It has been a place where ideas were realised and refined, being able to work so closely with farmers and producers to expand the diversity and quality of produce available to work with. I’m especially proud of the hundreds of young chefs we mentored along the way, and deeply grateful to the diners who supported Quay and believed in what we were creating.”

The fine diner is, definitively, one of Australia’s most influential restaurants. “It’s a gastronomic world-beater that demonstrates just how good Australian cooking can be, cemented by its nine-time appearance on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list,” food writer Alexandra Carlton wrote in 2024. “The location helps, of course: those matchless views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. A bold renovation in 2018 was also cause for much excitement. But the true brilliance of Quay sits squarely on its hand-shaped plates. Gilmore’s food hits that near-impossible bullseye of impeccable produce (including heirloom or near-forgotten vegetables and fruits, a personal passion he documented in his 2018 book From The Earth), sublime presentation and cerebral flavours that have more depth than the harbour outside.”

And while the entirety of Quay is a study on fine dining done well, it would be remiss not to mention the dessert that cemented the harbourside venue as a household name: the Snow Egg. The restaurant is near synonymous with Gilmore’s fluffy sphere of poached meringue – hiding a yolk of ice-cream, sitting on a nest of fruity fool and granita – that dazzled on the small screen in 2010, when Adam Liaw and Callum Hann took it on in season one of Masterchef.

In its decade on the menu, 500,000 serves of the famed sweet were made. And there were more than 100,000 hits on the Quay website the night the episode aired. While the show-stopper was put to bed in 2018 – making a triumphant (yet brief) return for Vivid Sydney one year – it’s never left the conversation.

Before Fink (Bennelong, Otto, Beach Byron Bay) opened Quay, the space was Bilson’s, which opened in 1988 under the eye of founder Leon Fink and Tony Bilson. Putting Australia on the world’s culinary stage was the goal, a legacy Quay continued when it opened in 1999.

“Quay has been part of my life’s work – a place where creativity, hospitality and the beauty of Sydney Harbour come together,” Fink said in a statement. “I am immensely proud of what we have achieved alongside Peter and the outstanding teams who have shaped the restaurant’s legacy.”

For more than two decades, Quay has elevated Sydney’s hospitality scene with its dining room and menu, but it’s shaped it further through its kitchen. Alumni include Nik Hill, who’s behind Paddo’s award-winning French bistro Porcine; Tassie-based Analiese Gregory, the esteemed chef, forager, author and TV presenter; Black Star Pastry founder Christopher Thé; and Darryl Martin of Marrickville’s closed Barzaari, who’s now in the Bentley Group’s Watermans kitchen. Plus, Love, Tilly co-founder Matt Swieboda spent time as the sommelier.

The Quay space will be taken into its next era by Australian Venue Co (Brewdog, The Winery, Cargo Bar, The Squire’s Landing), with details of the new venture yet to be announced. The Fink team is yet to elaborate on the reason for the closure.

“After many years devoted to this remarkable restaurant, the timing felt right to bring its story to a close,” Fink says. “Life presents moments when you feel a natural sense of completion, and for me, Quay has reached that point – at its pinnacle, globally celebrated and proudly carrying one of the most significant legacies in Australian dining. 

The final service at Quay will be Saturday February 14, 2026.

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