Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- High rollers get to pay high prices, and in Sydney that means a A$1,000 ($900)-a-head menu, Australia's most expensive, on top of the city's only casino.

The personalized menu by Australia's newly crowned chef of the year, Sean Connolly, is custom-designed from an A-list of gourmet ingredients: king crab, foie gras, abalone, morels, and triple helpings of Petrossian caviar.

The restaurant, Astral, above the Star City casino, has glass- wall views on three sides of the city and harbor, tempting big winners from downstairs to return some gains to Tabcorp Holdings Ltd., Australia's biggest gaming company, which owns both operations.

Connolly honed his skills in the QE2 cruise ship's Princess Grill and alongside Anton Mosimann at his eponymous club in London. After winning the Australian Hotel Association's chef of the year award in 2006 and 2007, he was named top chef by the Sydney Morning Herald in its 2008 Good Food Guide.

``Being on top of the casino, I never thought I'd get that recognition,'' Connolly, 40, said in an interview. The A$1,000 menu was introduced as a ``publicity stunt'' when Astral was re- launched in 2005, he said.

In the first week, a table of 12 splashed out. These days, a handful of diners each month fork out the four-figure sum, he said, including the odd big winner from downstairs, where 200 gaming tables whirr and clatter 24 hours a day, every day, over an area the size of 27 American football fields.

Gourmand Option

If your stack of chips ends up back in the croupier's corner, try instead the seven-course ``Tasting Menu'' (A$125, or A$195 with matching wine), or the eight-course ``Gourmand'' (A$240/A$325 with wine). (If you've really fed all the rent money into the ``pokie'' slot machines, there's always the ``Trophies'' food court next to the gaming floor, offering fish and chips and sandwiches from A$6.50.)

I went for the Gourmand, which started with two teasers: a near-weightless Yorkshire pudding -- a nod to Connolly's homeland until 1988 -- and a shot glass of cold asparagus and vanilla-oil soup.

A triple offering called ``Flight of Seafood'' followed on one oversized plate. On the left was a slice of seared tuna with celeriac remoulade and apple that was overpowered by its mustard sauce. On the right was a Tasmanian black oyster topped with cucumber foam and verjus vinaigrette that softened the mollusk's marine flavor. Between them was Astral's signature: a glass pipe the size of a cigarette filled with caviar, beside a quail egg, draped with 24-carat gold leaf.

It was tasty, despite the glitz, especially if you follow the waiter's advice and suck up the last of the caviar along with the egg yolk. Each dish had an accompanying New Zealand wine.

Almond Gazpacho

Next came scampi in a silky smooth almond gazpacho soup, paired with a German Riesling. A plate of ``heirloom'' tomatoes followed, with creamy goat cheese, olives, basil and balsamic dressing, with a 2006 First Drop Arneis from the Adelaide Hills.

This isn't a quick bite between the blackjack and roulette tables. By the time the fifth dish came -- Poussin breast with vanilla veloute -- we'd been there almost two hours. The hundreds of golden, tubular lights shedding a warm glow from the middle of the room; the high-backed lounge chairs and the large, well-spaced tables help ease the passing of the time, providing privacy and comfort.

My guest and I didn't enjoy the young chicken. The vanilla was too strong and the veloute sauce washed out the fresh flavors of the earlier tomato dish.

Wagyu and Lobster

Connolly has designed his menu to take diners through raw and cooked seafood, game, and on to more substantial main courses. The entrees are small and infrequent enough that there is still a tinge of hunger by the time the wagyu beef and rock lobster arrive. The wagyu was excellent, as was the warm mushroom salad that came with it. The lobster was shelled, with a spring cassoulet and lobster fumet.

Our waiter had a comprehensive knowledge of the ingredients, cooking methods and genesis of all eight courses, a result possibly of the fact that tips at Astral are allocated depending on how staff do in a weekly test on the menu.

The effects of a cheese trolley are erased with a ``pre- dessert'' of berries to clear the palate for a trio of desserts: vanilla pannacotta, passion-fruit sorbet and tomato and passion- fruit salad, served with a glass of Moscato D'Asti Vietti.

After five hours of dining, umpteen glasses of wine, a much- needed coffee and some totally unnecessary hand-made petit fours, we were left wondering what kind of gastronomic stamina would be needed to survive the A$1,000 menu.

Mostly the difference is with the accompanying wines, such as a 2000 Jasper Hill, Georgia's Paddock Shiraz, from Heathcote and a 1999 J.J. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling from Mosel.

``It's all about making people feel like they've been wrapped in cotton wool and taken care of,'' said Connelly.

Astral, Level 17, Hotel Tower, 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont. Tel. +612-9657-8767; http://www.astralrestaurant.com.au.

The Bloomberg Questions

Cost? A$325 with wine for Gourmand tasting menu.

Sound level? Muted.

Private room? Yes.

Inside tip? Start with a cocktail at the sleek bar.

Special feature? The chance to recoup your outlay (or add to

it) on the tables downstairs.

Date place? Yes.

Will I be back? Yes.

Rating? ***

What the Stars Mean
****         Incomparable food, service, ambience.
***          First-class of its kind.
**           Good, reliable.
*            Fair.
(no stars)   Poor.

(Malcolm Scott writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Malcolm Scott in Sydney at Mscott23@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 11, 2008 09:38 EST