Pony Lounge & Dining The Rocks, Sydney

Located in the Rocks on the corner of Argyle Street and Sydney’s oldest cobblestone laneway, Kendall Lane, designer Michael McCann transformed the historic former bond warehouse into a unique dining space. The interior features a dramatic open kitchen with pony hide clad kitchen counter, heritage brick walls and commissioned woven art hangings on a mesh-clad side wall. The restaurant is intimate with chocolate tones and moody timber and features an outdoor deck with a stunning communal dining table and lounge bar.

User Reviews of Pony Lounge & Dining, The Rocks

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Displaying: 1 - 10 of 179 reviews

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food 9 Ambience 8 Service 9 Value 8

This is a great place to try for the different type of smaller dishes on offer.
Indoor area is great for groups of 2-4 but can be a little hard to hear when the place is full. Service was very good. Prices, perhaps, a little high, however, I will go back again.

Jan 22, 2012

roosterintheshire
9

4.5 Below Average

Food 4 Ambience 5 Service 5 Value 4

My friends and I were very disappointed after our dining experience at Pony - and we had been looking forward to it for a while! The food is very bland and lacks any creativity (the prawn linguini lacks any taste whatsoever, the salad is purely lettuce leaves with no taste of dressing). I wouldn't say it was 'bad' but with so many amazing options in Sydney for the same value, I wouldn't dine here again.

The desserts are fine. The wait staff were pompous, sarcastic, not very helpful and kept trying to rush us out even though there were tables available. Strange place.

Jan 09, 2012

putdaforkdown
3

10 Highly Recommended

Food 10 Ambience 10 Service 10 Value 10

Corporate lunch - 15 people. Couldn't fault anything. All dishes were cooked to perfection, service was faultless, ambience to die for. Definitely be back.

Dec 15, 2011

ivy34
12

6.8 Recommended

Food 7 Ambience 6 Service 7 Value 7

I visited Pony for the second time just a few weeks back. I raved about the food after my first visit but not this time.

Both times we have chosen a number of the small plate options. Everything on the menu reads really well and is clearly beutifully prepared. On my first visit all of our choices had that little something extra that either gave them subtlety and balance or ratcheted up the flavour. That was missing on my most recent visit.

The long bench table on the outside verandah does make it difficult for anything more than a group of 4 and does occasionally interfere with the quality of service.

Dec 04, 2011

longreefhedgey
15

3.5 Below Average

Food 4 Ambience 6 Service 3 Value 1

Went for lunch as part of the Crave Sydney food festival. Waitress asked if we wanted water and gave us menus, we asked for sparkling. We then said we wanted the Crave Sydney option, so she took that as our order. Some time later, we were served our beef flank on spinach with a mushroom and a glass of Shiraz. The beef had good char-grilled flavour, but wasn't exceptional, and the dish as a whole was fairly plain - beef, wilted spinach and a mushroom with some sauce.

I'm not sure whether coffee was included, as when the waitress asked if we wanted some dessert, we declined, and she left us without offering coffee. We weren't that happy with the service or food so we just decided to ask (a different waitress) for the bill, and then left.

My wife got the impression that our waitress was "just doing her job" and I agreed with her - not overly pleasant or helpful, but did keep our water glasses topped up. However, $87 later, we won't be coming back.

Oct 19, 2011

Angus M.
1

7.3 Recommended

Food 8 Ambience 8 Service 8 Value 5

I came here with in a group of 17 to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday on Saturday 24th September. We were seated on the balcony overlooking the laneway under the gas heaters as it was chilly with intermittent spits of rain. It was a long table with bench seating and it made conversation with anyone other than your immediate neighbour somewhat difficult but I still enjoyed the atmosphere of the place.

The service was quite outstanding: unintrusive, water glasses constantly topped up and drinks delivered promptly. We shared entrees of: kingfish ceviche salad, italian flat bread, olives, oysters with balsamic dressing,buffalo mozarella with eggplant (very yummy) and sizzling slices of chorizo.

For main I had the salmon with Hunter Valley feta, baby beetroot and orange segments - which I enjoyed but I would leave out the orange on this dish if I were the chef as I don't really think that raw cold fruit and pan seared fish are a very good combination. Other mains were steaks, chicken etc.. and they all looked very good and portion sizes were adequate.

Dessert was creme brulle or pavlova or a chocolate with pear concoction. I had the pavlova which was just too sweet for me even though I have a sweet tooth. I have scored quite low for value as the three courses with two glasses of sauv blanc cost me $90 - just for me. I guess they charge according to their very touristy location.

Highlight of the lunch werre a group of inebriated young rugby boys in gold Australian track jackets doing their take on a haka in the adjoining lane. They had been drinking in the courtyard of the pub across the lane and we figured they may have been on an all night bender. In summary: whilst I thought the food was quite delicious and the service truly outstanding I would hesitate to come back unless I got a substantial raise in salary.

Sep 25, 2011

topazmooncat
'love eating out'
89

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food 7 Ambience 9 Service 10 Value 7

Dined here last night and found the service attentive, warm and genuine, unfortunately, the overall food was just average. The offerings on the menu were very standard and nothing really stood out as a must try. So if you want a decent meal, nice ambience come here but don't expect to be blown away.

Sep 25, 2011

MaryannLee99_123
5

5.8 Average

Food 4 Ambience 7 Service 9 Value 3

Great service but, unfortunately, food and presentation average at best. Disappointing.

Sep 01, 2011

303
1

7.5 Recommended

Food 9 Ambience 6 Service 8 Value 7

We've been here twice now, both times for lunch, and on both occasions the food and service has been great.

Jul 23, 2011

Al P.
2

2.8 Not Recommended

Food 2 Ambience 1 Service 5 Value 3

After visiting Pony last night, this was one of the worse meals we've had in quite awhile. We ordered the Frittata and Pan-seared Calamari. Both dishes were tasteless and cold, calamari was very tough. Ordered the Tortellini and Pork Neck for mains, yet again both dishes were dry, tasteless and very over cooked. Tortellini again was cold.

Service was ok although the staff seemed to be flustered. Nobody checked on us in regards to our food at any stage and everytime our water was topped up, the waitress managed to spill some water on the table. After hearing some rave reviews about Pony in the past, we won't be going back.

Jul 16, 2011