Arabella

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  8     

What a good Restaurant. The food was great the service friendly and was good value for money. Will definitely return soon.

Feb 07, 2012 

9.8 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  10     

Always a delight to dine here. Food and service are excellent. The belly dancers just made the whole experience all the more enjoyable. The moment you walk through the door it feels as though you are in a different country. Highly recommended.

Feb 02, 2012 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  8     

Very good service, quality food, tried baklava at the end it was one of the best and the most fresh one in Sydney. I would recommend this place to people who want to try a good Lebanese food.

Jan 31, 2012 

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  9      Value  8     

Went with friends last night, welcomed by staff, very quick service. Tried mansaf lamb. Lamb was very tender, the best mansaf I had in Sydney so far. A bit pricey, but I would say it was worth it. Friend ordered mixed grill, it was looking nice too. Will go next time and try the mixed grill out. Wait staff was nice and friendly.

Jan 31, 2012 

3.8 Below Average

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  1      Value  1     

Quite good food but I can't really say the same of the service... I was given a discount voucher for xmas and used it and the senior waiter made us feel like we were 2nd class citizens because of it.

He was so rude and had very bad manners and also made nasty comments "You like the food when its cheap eh girls". And also made nasty comments because we are gay and commenting to the other female waitress.

So disappointed, will never go back again and don't recommend to anybody.
Especially when you have a restaurant in newtown which is a gay friendly area, this is unacceptable.

Also there was a kid (don't know if probably part of the family that own the place) serving alcohol to the tables... RSA to a 9 yo?

Jan 26, 2012 

2 Not Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  3      Service  1      Value  1     

Ushered in by a beautiful waitress but shortly after entering this restaurant was confronted at our table by the very pushy, aggressive senior staff telling us to get on with our order in a most unfriendly manner, then trying to add a list of unwanted extras to our order. Here is no concept of service, they have a thuggish attitude just trying to grab the maximum money from patrons. Definitely a place to keep well away from.

Dec 19, 2011 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  8     

Great service, very friendly, the food was good but I have eaten better lebanese restaurants, value is acceptable, have been here before and planning to come again, though, I don't like crowded atmosphere so most likely I won't go on friday and saturday.

Dec 10, 2011 

2.5 Not Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  1     

There are better Lebanese restaurants out there and this was not value for money and had poor service.

The look of the restaurant is nice and we got seated quickly but then the waiting began. We waited ages to get our order taken and at all points during the evening it was very hard to get the waiting staff's attention, they didn't have many people serving which didn't help and in a restaurant that size you expect it to be adequately staffed.

We were having a mix of starters to share, and the waitress told us that we had not ordered enough food, knowing other places we've eaten at I thought we'd be fine but the portions were tiny, and the lady fingers puny. The mixed dips was a rip off, and the coriander potatoes too acidic. We continued waiting for bread and our salad, at last when we got the waitress' attention we asked 'does bread come with these dips' and she looked a bit confused and said 'oh, yeah' and we asked for our salad again. The bread came, the salad never did.

Belly dancing was fun but went on too long so don't go here on a Friday if you're looking to chat with your friend, and they seemed to run an advert over the loud mike which was cheap.

On leaving I asked for the salad to be removed from our bill, the waiter then blamed the girl who had been our waitress as she was new. This only added to my poor impression of the place, you just apologise, you don't blame individual members of staff and if they are new you train them!

Won't be going back, much better Lebanese restaurants out there.

Nov 19, 2011 

1.5 Not Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

Well what can I say, not a very enjoyable dinner at all. Though the food wasn't terrible it was the senior staff who ruined it all.

Firstly my friend went in to book us a table and when he asked how the night was looking the senior staff replied "busy, very busy!" My friend said “are you busy all night?”, "Yes busy all night!" My friend of course said "oh well I’ll try somewhere else then!" to which the senior staff then said “oh we can fit you in".

We arrived at 6:30 and noticed straight away that though he said it was busy there were only 2 other tables in there. We actually only had an hour to eat as we had to see a show so we called a waiter over and told him and said we were ready to order. His reply was that he couldn't take our order, only the boss could. So the senior staff comes over, we order, he then tells us that’s not enough we should order some more so we order another plater of meats.

The food starts coming out quite quick but the first thing I notice is that the Lady’s fingers, which normally have mince in them, are wrapped in filo pastry and are quite long, come out wrapped in spring roll pastry, have only fetta in them and some herbs, and are the size of a spring roll. Next a platter of potatoes appears to which I reply "we didn't order these." the waiter goes and tells the senior staff and he then comes over and rather than saying my apologies, goes on to accuse us of how he read our order out to us twice, but it's ok he will eat them for his dinner! He didn't read the order out twice and I never ordered any potatoes.

We finish the meals that are brought out and we are now waiting for the meats. We decide we better check as we really need to go so we ask a waiter and he goes and speaks to the senior staff who then comes over and tells us he thought we wanted a restful dinner so had split the meats from the rest as a main! We tell him no we never wanted that and we really need to go asap! He tells us the meats will be 2 minutes and runs off to yell at the kitchen which we can hear as its open.

Meanwhile, when all of this is happening he has been having some renovations done to the restaurant while people are dining and we get to hear the lovely sound of drill! We discuss this with the table next to us who aren't happy about it either! When we mention it to him instead of apologising he tells us it was only for a minute, as in why are we complaining?!

The meats arrive but it's too late, we have to run so we get up and go to pay, when we say we don't want to pay for the meats his reply is "this is a restaurant and you ordered them", before my friends can start an argument I say "don’t bother lets pay and go!" so we pay and one of my friends tells him we'll never be back to which the senior staff replies by patting my friend on the arm condescendingly and says "we are busy enough".

As you can imagine we left that restaurant quite angry and some words were exchanged with the senior staff telling us to go of, we ourselves never resorted to this language and wouldn't while other patrons were inside! So a very horrible night and I would recommend taking your business somewhere else! There are plenty of other Lebanese restaurants in the area, please go there instead!

Nov 12, 2011 

7.8 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  6     

We had the Arabella platter, food was nice, starters were great! meat (at end) was good, although not too much - good considering I'd already eaten so much yummy stuff!

The Belly dancing was excellent!! Great Fun! Loved the way she got people up - but accepted if you said no. Staff in uniform would look nicer, & radio ad at end was not so cool. I have been before & will definately go back again, Good atmosphere, fun night, with good food.

Oct 31, 2011