Magma Cabramatta Review Restaurant Novotel

Sydney's South West has a new restaurant. Magma at Novotel Cabramatta is where Chef Dany Karam showcases flame fired cooking with exclusive wagyu beef and fresh seafood. All within a brand new hotel!

It's Friday night when Mr NQN and I make our way to Magma restaurant located in the brand new Novotel Cabramatta. The restaurant is the hotel's main restaurant located on the ground floor of the hotel with Chef Dany Karam at helm and is part of the $230 million redevelopment of the Cabravale Diggers Club.

Dany is on location along with Executive Chef Sebastien Geray and Restaurant Manager Tim Chen. Tim points out the finishings like the vintage repurposed fireplace to the animal skin tiles and furry panelling on the walls. All of the details were chosen by Chef Dany.

The whole idea behind the new restaurant is open flame cooking from charcoal to wood. Piles of logs rest on the benches of the 300 square metre open central kitchen that cost $2.6M. Dany was formerly the Executive Chef at the steakhouse Black at The Star and during COVID once delivered me a stupendous meal of perfectly cooked steak - never did I think home delivery would be that good.

Dany describes Magma as CBD style dining brought to the South West of Sydney, near where he lives which is just 15 minutes from the club. Magma is the main drawcard of the three eateries that he is opening here that also includes Primitivo and Caffe Vicini.

There is also a dry ageing fridge with beef on one side and a tuna on the other. His longtime partnership with David Blackmore wagyu also sees Magma as one of only two restaurants in Sydney that exclusively serve Blackmores grass fed Rhone wagyu (the other restaurant is Margaret in Double Bay). Dany sees that as a victory for Cabramatta exclaiming, "There's Double Bay and there's Cabramatta!".

We start with the entrees including the wagyu served in beef tartare with a perilla dressing, confit egg yolk, pickled eschallots and crispy potato straws. Mix this up and eat it quickly so that the potato straws are crunchy in each bite.

The Queensland spanner crab dish is a two parter and a must order. The first part is the shell of the spanner crab filled with olive oil poached spanner crab meat with dashi cream and coriander that is perfectly seasoned to bring out the flavour of the spanner crab. The other part are the four soft, sweet buttery brioche bread buns that come with a dollop of creme fraiche and salmon roe. The buns and the cream roe are delicious on their own but even better with the perfectly seasoned crab. The crab also goes very well atop buttered sourdough.

We also try the salad with prosciutto, peas, broad beans, asparagus, baby artichokes hiding a mound of stracciatella cheese and dressed with a hazelnut vinaigrette. The star of this dish are the sweet spring peas that pop in the mouth.

It's time for mains and the Mooloolaba Murray Cod is served as slices of dry aged, crispy skinned fillets bathed in a crispy chilli and shallot sauce with pumpkin seeds, sunflowers seeds, navel orange segments and is like a chilli oil or salsa macha with orange. The fish is perfectly cooked so that it isn't dry at all and the sauce is a powerhouse of flavour for the fish. I'm glad I still have some sourdough to dunk in the sauce.

The main event here is of course the David Blackmores Rhone steak from wagyu cattle raised in Alexandra, Victoria. The whole carcasses are aged in house in a walk-in coolroom. The boneless striploin is served perfectly medium as befits wagyu. There is still marbling but the steak does have some texture to it rather than being that uber unctuous buttery-ness. It is still a very rich steak but not as much as say a A5 Kagoshima wagyu where you can only eat a small amount. The steak is served with bearnaise and green peppercorn sauces and I particularly like the latter. This is everyone's favourite dish at the table.

For vegetarians there is the house made semolina gnocchi paired with an exotic mushroom fricassee with brown butter and crispy sage.

There's no dessert as this is an event but the lingering taste is of steak and I'm not mad about that!

We are also staying at the Novotel Cabramatta hotel this evening. The reception and lobby is actually located on the first floor and the hotel is adjacent to the Cabravale Diggers Club.

Our room 1515 is one of the executive suites, merging a single king bedroom with a separate room from which to work from. Our room has a view of the hotel entrance below and the train tracks.

Some executive suites have a lounge in their separate room but as its early days ours doesn't. There is a large tv on the wall. Mr NQN does some work at the desk there while I make myself a cup of tea.

The bed is comfortable and we have a great night's sleep with soft, sinkable pillows. The main bedroom also has a television and a table with two chairs. There are hooks for coats as well as drawers and a closet. Soft robes hang on the closet and there is also a large safe. And there are plenty of easy to access plugs near the bed and desk as well as easy marked lights.

The bathroom has a single sink and a good sized shower with Deep Nature toiletries like hand wash and body lotion in a floral scent. The drawer holds the rest of the amenities.

There is also a coffee machine and tea making supplies. Complimentary filtered water is available on each one of the floors. There is also complimentary unlimited wifi for guests.

The hotel's poolside bar on the first floor features a partnership between the hotel and the French brandy house Remy Martin and features cocktails like a "Gold Fashioned" with Remy Martin XO, sugar syrup and aromatic bitters or the "Remy Pineapple Rock" with Remy VSOP, lime juice and pineapple juice of their version of an espresso martini called the "Remy Espresso" with Remy Martin 1738, Tia Maria, coffee and sugar syrup.

Breakfast the next morning is back at Magma. As we tend to arrive just before the buffet closes the dishes do seem a bit empty but a request for more smoked salmon is quickly fullfilled.

There is mostly a buffet selection although eggs can also be ordered with staff. I end up adding some smoked salmon to a hash brown with onions and capers along with some dumplings and it's the perfect way to start the day.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever pair a stay at the hotel of a restaurant you are dining at?