Affame

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  8     

Weekday lunch here was very pleasant sitting looking out on the green park. Apprehensively ordered the duck confit, as I didn't want something heavy, but it turned out to be delicious with an interesting creamy but light textured sauce. Well, all the food was beautifully presented especially the desserts and delicious. We sat indoors and were surprised to find we had the room almost to ourselves. The service was unobtrusive and well executed. The only discordant note was the lack of cloth or even paper on the slightly shabby and marked white table. With the high price of dining in Sydney these days I thought getting out for under $50 each including wine and coffee was good.

Sep 20, 2011

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  5     

Clearly service is not their strong point. Despite being described as having wheelchair access, there is a very non-wheelchair friendly step up to the door. When we asked the waiter to let us in through the side door which is level with the footpath he refused, telling us they hadn't opened the door in months and the lock was probably rusty. Fortunately we found a nearby restaurant which was accessible.

Aug 16, 2011

8.2 Recommended

Food  9      Drinks  7      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  7     

Ambience: The lively Cuban music from the resident band gives this place a great vibe. Wear your dancing shoes.

Food: Fortunately the food is not authentic Cuban, but the Carribean/Central American/Spanish themed menu is interesting and perfect for the BDM. The
'Comestibles' section (we tried almost all of them) are great light snacks to share. Good mains and the interesting side dishes make a pleasant change from the standard fries or steamed greens you're used to seeing.

Service: Everyone was remarkably friendly and helpful. OK so it's opening week, but it bodes well for the future.

Drinks: Hemmingway is quoted as saying "My mojito in La Bodeguita, My daiquiri in El Floridita". Don't order a dacquiri here, and, to be honest, there are better mojitos in Sydney. The Cuban beer is good. Cubans make rum, but if they want wine they get it from Chile and BDM have some excellent Chilean wines and of course a good selection of rum but after testing mohitos, dacquiris, presidents, beer and wine I thought I'd leave that for next time.

May 05, 2011

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

1.8 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  1      Service  3      Value  1     

Prices are up and quality is down as AZ morphs from patissier exceptionelle to petite celebrite du jour. With frequent TV appearances and an expanding business empire there must be limited time for creativity in the kitchen - and it shows. Recent offerings are insipid compared to former brilliance and there is an increased tendency to rely on the shock factor of inappropriate ingredients (wasabe, mustard, vegetables) in the cakes. To add insult to injury, most of the cheerful friendly staff wearing AZ t-shirts vanished. The new crew look dull in their white kichenhand's tunics.

Mar 03, 2011

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  10      Service  6      Value  10     

Great spot for lunch, grab an outside table on a warm day and watch the parade of local fauna (and avoid the TV screens inside). Order a pasta and it is in front of you in like 5 mins. Have tried a few flavours and they were all yummy. Canolis are good. Coffee occasionally a bit hit or miss. May not be haute cuisine but it 's certainly not haute prix. If you want fancy expensive food and service you want the place down the road. Trop is a good old fashioned bargain.

Sep 29, 2010

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  8     

Weekday lunch here was very pleasant sitting looking out on the green park. Apprehensively ordered the duck confit, as I didn't want something heavy, but it turned out to be delicious with an interesting creamy but light textured sauce. Well, all the food was beautifully presented especially the desserts and delicious. We sat indoors and were surprised to find we had the room almost to ourselves. The service was unobtrusive and well executed. The only discordant note was the lack of cloth or even paper on the slightly shabby and marked white table. With the high price of dining in Sydney these days I thought getting out for under $50 each including wine and coffee was good.

Sep 20, 2011

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  5     

Clearly service is not their strong point. Despite being described as having wheelchair access, there is a very non-wheelchair friendly step up to the door. When we asked the waiter to let us in through the side door which is level with the footpath he refused, telling us they hadn't opened the door in months and the lock was probably rusty. Fortunately we found a nearby restaurant which was accessible.

Aug 16, 2011

8.2 Recommended

Food  9      Drinks  7      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  7     

Ambience: The lively Cuban music from the resident band gives this place a great vibe. Wear your dancing shoes.

Food: Fortunately the food is not authentic Cuban, but the Carribean/Central American/Spanish themed menu is interesting and perfect for the BDM. The
'Comestibles' section (we tried almost all of them) are great light snacks to share. Good mains and the interesting side dishes make a pleasant change from the standard fries or steamed greens you're used to seeing.

Service: Everyone was remarkably friendly and helpful. OK so it's opening week, but it bodes well for the future.

Drinks: Hemmingway is quoted as saying "My mojito in La Bodeguita, My daiquiri in El Floridita". Don't order a dacquiri here, and, to be honest, there are better mojitos in Sydney. The Cuban beer is good. Cubans make rum, but if they want wine they get it from Chile and BDM have some excellent Chilean wines and of course a good selection of rum but after testing mohitos, dacquiris, presidents, beer and wine I thought I'd leave that for next time.

May 05, 2011

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

1.8 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  1      Service  3      Value  1     

Prices are up and quality is down as AZ morphs from patissier exceptionelle to petite celebrite du jour. With frequent TV appearances and an expanding business empire there must be limited time for creativity in the kitchen - and it shows. Recent offerings are insipid compared to former brilliance and there is an increased tendency to rely on the shock factor of inappropriate ingredients (wasabe, mustard, vegetables) in the cakes. To add insult to injury, most of the cheerful friendly staff wearing AZ t-shirts vanished. The new crew look dull in their white kichenhand's tunics.

Mar 03, 2011

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  10      Service  6      Value  10     

Great spot for lunch, grab an outside table on a warm day and watch the parade of local fauna (and avoid the TV screens inside). Order a pasta and it is in front of you in like 5 mins. Have tried a few flavours and they were all yummy. Canolis are good. Coffee occasionally a bit hit or miss. May not be haute cuisine but it 's certainly not haute prix. If you want fancy expensive food and service you want the place down the road. Trop is a good old fashioned bargain.

Sep 29, 2010

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

6 Average

Food  6      Ambience  5      Service  7      Value  6     

Been wanting to try Emma’s for a while. It’s one of a handful of leb restaurants mentioned in my good food guide so I hoped it would be pretty special although it only rated twelve and a half. On the night it was a little disappointing.

I love a good smoky babaganoush but didn’t find it Our plate of 3 dips all seemed a little bland. The “golden balls” on the other hand were absolutely delicious. 4 small sized balls of mixed cheese etc deep fried to perfection. It was nice to find bread and dipping oil/zaitar on the table when we sat down.

A model of a hangman’s gallows complete with effigy of the hanged man is not the sort of decoration you’d expect in a restaurant, neither is a model of the victim of a lynching nailed to a cross which is what hung over our table. Otherwise the décor seemed a bit dull compared to other leb restaurants. There’s no cushion rooms or belly dancers here. Yes the place is crowded, that’s not necessarily bad, but the small table made it difficult to fit the multiple plates.

Staff were friendly and helpful.

Sep 15, 2010

5.3 Average

Food  8      Ambience  6      Service  4      Value  3     

Our waitress on being reminded there was no candle on our table said there weren't enough to go round. Asked how we could read the menu she suggested taking it and standing under a light. Consequently we were the table holding our nokias up to the menu to try to get enough light to read in this dim and dingy establishment.

Service was ok but like the candles there wasn't quite enough to go round. I was impressed that the waitress did not need to write down our orders, and equally impressed by the speed with which she was able to replace the main I did not order so that I waited no more than 5 minutes watching my companions eating.

Food was of a uniformly high quality, with matching price. When you order a steak, you get a steak on a white plate. That's it. A more helpful waitress might have pointed this out so I could have purchased some more food to go with it. On the whole a pleasant enough venue with some excellent food, but let down by average service.

May 09, 2010

4.8 Average

Food  6      Ambience  5      Service  5      Value  3     

The large black and white portraits of businessmen and politicians lining the walls suggest that this may once have been a desirable place to eat. The youthful E.G. Whitlam looks like 70s vintage and some of the wait staff look like they could have been here then as well.

The food was ok for what it was but the menu is 20 years out of date, and slightly dog-eared, an impression not helped by the small shower of breadcrumbs which tumbled out as I opened it. On the plus side, servings are large and one antipasti misti entree could satisfy 3 people. The scallopini parmigiana came with a full accompaniment of veges making the sides unnecessary. But for this sort of stodge I'd rather go to Norton street and pay half the price.

Service was patchy. When the parmesan, olive and grissini entree was dumped on the table minus grissini, we called a waiter over to query. It was explained that they had run out of grissini in a tone which seemed almost to suggest that we were foolish for ordering it. No offer of any replacement was made and they charged full price on the bill.

The bottom line is, this place is expensive for what it offers. For pricey city Italian, Pendolino seems much better value.

Dec 11, 2009

5.4 Average

Food  7      Drinks  7      Ambience  1      Service  6      Value  6     

Good range of beer on tap, good selection of food. Can get a bit busy so you might have to wait a bit for the food but the staff are friendly and helpful. The big negative here is the smokers. The smoking area is right beside the restaurant and both times I ate there the smoke was quite noticeable while eating - yuk. Won't be going back.

Oct 23, 2009