Nearly ten years after the once-beloved Marque restaurant closed under intense scrutiny, Mark Best has returned to the kitchen in the most unlikely of locations.
Mark Best had never been up the Sydney Tower when he was asked to take over its iconic revolving restaurant. In 35 years of living and cooking in Sydney, the building had remained something he looked at, but never somewhere he dined.
He stops short of calling it a tourist trap, but admits, after nearly a decade out of the kitchen, this was not exactly the comeback project he had in mind. The venue carried decades of baggage as a “tourist destination” and special-occasion dining room, far removed from the world that shaped his reputation at Marque, the Surry Hills restaurant that once sat at the centre of Australia’s fine-dining conversation.
“At first, when I was offered it [Infinity], I thought, well, that sounds a bit silly and off-brand for me,” Best says. “It was when I went up there, and then I sort of opened the doors, and I saw that view, and I immediately said, okay, this is an opportunity.”
“I walked out that door, and I just saw… well, okay, this is uh, this is the base business model. This is the tourism, the view.”
From there, the plan was simple. The view didn’t need improvement. Everything else did.
“If we add a layer of quality, good service, good food, great wine list on top of that, that’s my thought – we can’t lose.”
It is a calculated move for the South Australian-born chef, whose last restaurant closed under far less controlled circumstances. When Marque shut its doors in 2016, it followed a prolonged and very public unravelling. The restaurant had held three hats for a decade and appeared on the World’s 50 Best list. Losing its third hat proved decisive.
“When we lost that third hat, and that was just part of the um, you know, legacy media… struggling and looking for clickbait,” Best says. “They were just taking down a big dog every year.”
The effect was immediate.
“We lost probably 30% of our clientele on the very day that we lost our third hat. Actual cancellations. From that point on, we were no longer viable as a restaurant.”
Marque was a family-run operation in an industry that had already shifted towards hospitality groups and private capital. Best and his wife, Valerie, were exposed in a way few of their peers were.
“Valerie and I were the last for a long margin of a family-owned business at that level.”
The cost was personal.
“Having the house mortgaged against that business and, you know, all of those things, not complaining at all, but, you know, in the end, you just come away with it with your reputation and nothing else.”
After Marque Best stepped away from ownership and into consulting, admitting he needed the rest.
He says Infinity offered a different structure. The business existed before he arrived, and the risk was not financial in the same way, but what was on the line was his name as Infinity became ‘Infinity By Mark Best’.
Best knew that to make his new jaunt feel like more than a view with food, the menu had to be recognisably his and recognisably Australian. He built it around the ingredients and flavours that he believes define the country’s produce, but without leaning on clichés or gimmicks.
The opening menu includes snacks and starters such as Abrolhos Island scallops with parmesan gnocchi and hot-and-sour sauce, bluefin tuna with brioche, faux gras and pork crackling, and lion’s mane dosa with punchy vadouvan, all of which sit alongside dishes like steamed Murray cod with fish milk, sorrel and fermented potatoes and a 7+ wagyu sirloin on the bone for those who want something familiar.
There are also standouts like zucchini tart with hummus, feta, curry and almonds and pork wonton with pumpkin dashi, peas and lovage, showing how he is threading global technique through local supply.
The wine list matches that intent, curated exclusively from Australian vineyards and producers to align with Best’s belief that this room should represent the country’s producers on a plate and in a glass.
“It’s important to both parties for me to put my name on the door,” he says. “It’s not just a consultancy that I’m at to pass, and I’m treating it as my own.”
“It means that I’ve got skin in the game as well.”
“At Marque it was very much about me and my skill, front and centre on the plate,” he says. “I didn’t want that anymore.”
Best’s influence on Sydney dining extends beyond his own restaurants. Over the years, his kitchens produced a generation of chefs who now define the city’s dining scene. Sixpenny’s Daniel Puskas, Café Paci’s Pasi Petänen, Prince Dining Room’s Dan Pepperell and others passed through Marque at formative points in their careers.
Best is careful not to claim credit. “I make no claim to their talent,” he says. What he does acknowledge is the environment. “What I did teach them was how to be creative and how to manage that and how to come up with a singular voice.”
Verdict: 8/10
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