Universal

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  6     

Fantastic food, I absolutely loved every dish. Fantastic and prompt service. My only recommendation to anyone reading who hasn't been there is that 2 savoury dishes and one dessert is plenty for an average sized gal like me. I ordered 3 savoury dishes (as recommended by the waiter)and was so full I couldn't try dessert which was such a shame!

Feb 06, 2012 

6.3 Average

Food  9      Ambience  6      Service  4      Value  6     

Food extremely well done but service leaves room to be desired. We were told "how" to eat: cannot share 6 plates between 4. We rotated the plates anyway but under hawk eyes of the waitress. Made the entire experience disappointing!

Feb 01, 2012 

5 Average

Food  7      Ambience  5      Service  3      Value  5     

I ate at the Universal on the 14th of January. Food is good but not excellent.
But the evening was made a misery by one waiter.

Jan 15, 2012 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  8     

I have eaten at Unversal in Nov & Dec 11. The first time I was blown away by the quality of the food and the care taken to match food & wines - our group of 8 couldn't fault the place and all agreed it was fantastic food and value for money. The second time, I knew what to expect but was pleased to see some items on the menu had changed which meant more variety. I was not disappointed at all and would not hesitate to go back again. Staff attentive, but on the cheeky side if you are up for it. Food beautifully presented and tasted as good as it looked. Wine matching thoughtful and a little out there which was great. Dish of the night - Gaytime Goes Nuts for dessert - brilliant!

Jan 04, 2012 

9.5 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  9     

I've always wanted to try Universal and it was a fantastic experience! The food was sublime, the service excellent and atmosphere was lovely and relaxed. For 2 people, 3 savoury dishes each was more than enough for us (kingfish, scallops, tofu, eggplant, duck and pork), each dish unique in terms of flavours, aroma and presentation.

The entree sized dishes were perfect, the flavours are so punchy that you really couldn't have too big a serve. Dessert (sigh!) was amazing! The Gaytime Goes Nuts - Wow! The Ruby Rose, subtly sweet and tart, was a beautiful contrast to the richness of the Gaytime. It was a birthday dinner and we scored a birthday candle and some sweet treats with our tea and coffee. A fabulous 2 Hatted restaurant.

Dec 01, 2011 

9.5 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  8      Service  10      Value  10     

The best food and best service I've had anywhere in Australia! Stuart is one in a million! Personal and knowledgeable, attentive and unobtrusive!

Nov 24, 2011 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  8     

I'm amazed that so many people reviewing this place are surprised by the dish sizes and prices. It's a 2 hat restaurant which serves entree sized tasting dishes for about $30 each, which I think is quite reasonable. We ate as much as we could eat (5 savoury, 2 sweet), and had a cocktail, 2 beers, a glass of bubbles and 2 glasses of wine, and it cost us $240.

We got seated outside on a beautiful warm spring evening on the early sitting, so the ambience was beautiful as the sun set. The cheapest glass of french sparkling on the menu was pretty average, but the rum cocktail was solid.

We had the scallops, flathead/squid, beef masala and the rabbit tart. The first 3 were good and had some very interesting flavours, the rabbit was beauitiful, the gruyere cloud (fluffy gruyere white sauce) on top was a perfect accompaniment. It was so good, we ordered another one! The wines by the glass recommended in the menu were nice wines and well matched.

The wine menu is a litle bit too different for my tastes though, I like to be able to recognise at least a few styles and regions to know what is available.
The desserts we expected to be the stars of the show, and they didn't disappoint. We had the chocolate mousse one, and the gaytime one. Both were visually stunning, intricate and tasted wonderful. The salted caramel snap with the mousse was perfect.

Service was quite good all night, not overly warm, and on occasion we had to search for eye contact, but we got a very effusive goodbye and got our food promptly. For us it's a special occasion type place, and we loved it.

Nov 14, 2011 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  9     

A spontaneous decision to dine at Universal with visiting American foodies left us all in raptures. The mousse on the rabbit was incredible, the pork belly taster was outstanding... the dessert was all we expected of a Christine Manfield creation. Our friends said it left Quay in the dust... service was good although the portion sizes were larger than described. I would wholeheartedly recommend the Universal experience.

Nov 12, 2011 

3.5 Below Average

Food  7      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  1     

On my third visit to this restaurant I was looking for to having the usual exceptional experience I had on my previous three visits but was left bitterly disappointed. What disappointed me further was the reply I received from Christine fro my feedback around the evening which shows her total lack of respect to the old saying "the customer is always right". I have rated the value at 1 given this service or lack there of.

Sep 30, 2011 

6 Average

Food  6      Ambience  6      Service  7      Value  5     

With two hatted quality in mind, we decided to try Universal on a friday evening. Unfortunately it didn't live up to expectations. The menu was slightly confusing, but we were recommended to get three savory dishes and one dessert, which would equal to a three course meal. The lightly savory dishes were good, including seared scallops, octopus watermelon, mahi mahi. However the heavier dishes - chicken sausage and wagyu beef was very disappointing. Chicken sausage tasted weird and had a strange texture, and the wagyu had an overpowering coriander flavour with a very watery soup.

Gaytime dessert was quite nice, however 'queen bee' had a scoop of sorbet that also had an unexplainable strange flavour. The tea selection was interesting, although slightly pricey. One complaint was the quality of the napkin - a poor quality resulting in sticky white fluff all over our outfit, and a dry cleaning bill of $30 was hard to swallow Don't go with two hat expectations (although expect to pay a two hatted price) because you may be disappointed.

Sep 09, 2011