Vanilla Room

8 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  8     

I went to Vanilla room tonight and really enjoyed the meal. My only negative would be that there should have been more bread served with the Meat starter for 2. The fillet steak was so good.... nothing to say but yum!

I will definitely return and will recommend to my friends.

(I used my entertainment book gold card; which was accepted without question :-)

Apr 14, 2012 

3.3 Below Average

Food  3      Ambience  3      Service  4      Value  3     

Not impressed. Went on a Thursday night and asked whether we could order some food, they said yes only to retract this 15 minutes later saying the kitchen had already closed. Would have gone somewhere else had they told us this earlier, good customer service would have been to offer a free drink for the inconvenience but this did not happen.

Atmosphere was non-existent as the place was pretty much empty on a Thursday night and when we left (around 9pm) they were getting to lock up. Won't return, too many other great places to choose from in Leichhardt.

Nov 12, 2011 

3.8 Below Average

Food  2      Ambience  3      Service  7      Value  3     

Went to the restaurant upstairs and asked for the tapas menu. We ordered haloumi, potatoes, calamari, and lamb cutlets. The haloumi was extremely salty, as if the kitchen staff had bathed the block of cheese in salt. The salt and pepper calamari was average at best. The potatoes were ok but were served with sweet chilli sauce straight out of a bottle. The lamb cutlets were meant to come with salsa verde but didn't come with anything. Perhaps, the only positive I could find was the fact there were a couple of decent wines on the menu. The service was ok too. Just don't go for the food.

Aug 28, 2011 

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  8     

Had a great evening - delicious food and wine, good service. Very pleasant and will definitely return.

Aug 02, 2011 

5.5 Average

Food  4      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  6     

I had the pork belly and my friend had the penne. The pork belly was very hard to cut with a knife and it needed to be cooked longer to render more of the fat out. My friend's penne seemed pretty stock-standard, nothing outstanding. We shared a creme brulee afterwards and it was runny like it hadn't been baked long enough. The service was attentive until the end where he "forgot" to give us our change. We didn't stay to try the bar downstairs.

Jul 03, 2011 

3.3 Below Average

Food  3      Ambience  4      Service  3      Value  3     

Went to the bar last week. The cocktails are overly sweet, the base for all of them seems to be lipton iced tea! The menu states that they are happy to make other cocktails, so I asked for two standard cocktails that were not on the menu (a negroni and a whisky sour) only to be told that they didn't know how to make the negroni and they had no eggs for the whisky sour. There was some decent wine and beer on offer, thankfully.

I ordered tapas and it was not good at all, the oil on all the dishes tasted rancid. I go out in Leichhardt rarely, so I don't know how this place compares to others in the suburb, but it certainly doesn't come up to scratch with similar places in Newtown or Surry.

Jun 17, 2011 

7.3 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  7     

We happened to try this place with the help of the entertainment book and were pleasantly surprised with the quality of food. Its a nice cosy place with the bar and music downstairs. The food is pretty fresh and very well presented. The staff is friendly and service is a bit slow but then its fine gives you more time to spend with your friends. But if you are fan of the creme brulee then don't try it here.

May 16, 2011 

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  7      Value  10     

What a great little gem of a place. We were pleasantly surprised with the standard of the food and service. It was up there with many fine-dining restaurants, but the prices were very reasonable.

We went on a rainy Sunday evening. The upstairs restaurant was quiet and cozy, but we enjoyed the live Soul/RnB drifting up from the downstairs bar. We started with some pre-dinner cocktails. I'm not usually a fan of vanilla, but they have a number of cocktails following this theme and both of ours were delicious, especially at half-price on the Sunday night Happy Hour.

I'm glad that by the time we left, the bar was buzzing with drinkers soaking up the live music. It was too good to be wasted on an empty bar.

May 01, 2011 

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  8     

Great friendly service, great food, reasonable prices, cosy seating upstairs and on the balcony. The only downer is having to wait at the bar downstairs to pay the bill!

Feb 27, 2011 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

I've been here many times. I've never had a bad time. Dinner is always delicious with a good variety of options. The restaurant section upstairs is lovely and you wouldn't notice the bar and DJ downstairs. Cocktails are fantastic. I also tend to direct friends to the bar if people are keen for after dinner drinks when we've been elsewhere in Leichhardt, as there's not many quality options.

Only downside is the DJ usually plays tacky music from the 80s and 90s. If that's your thing, great. And, unfortunately, (?fortunately) people seem to enjoy this. If the DJ modernised, then this place would be perfect. As it stands it's very good. Will be coming back for dinner soon.

Oct 03, 2010