HeartsABeat

8.8 Highly Recommended

Quality  10      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  7     

What an oasis from the city above! A beautiful hidden haven with a wonderful artisan deli selection menu. My partner and I grabbed a secluded corner and ordered a beautiful bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and our own selection of cheeses and antipasto from the menu.

The price is high and portions small but I think this is appropriate when you consider the quality of the majority of the items on the menu (top points for so many locally sourced options as well!). The staff go above and beyond to assist with your choices and are very knowledgeable and pleasant. This is my first experience with any of the GPO’s restaurants and following this, I will definitely be back to try the others!

N.B. Order more Ciabatta then you think you will need.

Feb 22, 2011

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

I highly recommend Wolfies. Beautiful steak, cooked to perfection. I was very impressed with the way that all of the meals arrived for 14 diners at precisely the same time, despite the different orders, and all were very obviously cooked fresh. The meat was succulent, the accompaniments great. Bread was also beautiful and fresh. And with the “2 mains for the price of 1” lunch deal, Wolfies represented very good value. The wait staff were knowledgeable and pleasant.

I feel that there are a lot of higher class steak restaurants in Sydney that could learn a lesson here!

Feb 22, 2011

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3 Below Average

Food  3      Drinks  1      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  5     

I had such a nice dinner with family here on my first trip that when a work team lunch came up I insisted that we have it at Harts. Big Mistake. We pre-ordered the food and were all in good spirits when we arrived. I went up to the bar with some others to place the drink orders with the waitress behind the bar. We ordered 2 separate bottles of sparkling wine (both at the $40 mark), one underneath the other on the menu, along with a number of other drinks.

When the waitress served our wine she did so without showing the label. We all clinked glasses in cheers and began to drink when the waitress ran back to our table and demanded that we stop. She turned to me and exclaimed ‘You ordered the expensive champagne. Did you mean to order that?’ To which I again pointed out the wines ordered on the menu, one beneath the other, the waitress snatched the menu and flicked through several pages before pointing out a $160 champagne and telling me that that was the champagne ordered and poured.

I told her that this was incorrect and pointed out that if she believed that I had ordered that particular champagne in the first place why would she come back and demand that we stop drinking what we had apparently ordered? She became almost hysterical at this point telling us all not to drink any more of it, she then disappeared and came back with the bottle and collected all of our glasses and tipped the contents back into the bottle.

The amount already drunk accounted for approximately a glass at the top of the bottle, she then started demanding where the extra glass was and telling us that we would be paying for it.

When our meals arrived the service was grim and mine was burnt beyond the point of recognition. We were 12 professionals that would all return to this venue for more work lunches, after work drinks, functions if not for this terrible treatment. A simple apology by the waitress for her error would have been the right course of action and we would have gladly handed back the wine if needed, but shifting the blame to our group and reacting so outrageously ensures that we will not be going anywhere near Harts in future.

It also leaves me to wonder what happened to the wine poured back in to the bottle, I hope that it was not then sold on by the glass considering it would have been tainted by all of our saliva?

Feb 22, 2011

7.8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  5      Value  7     

I took my partner to Café Sydney for dinner for his birthday last night. We undoubtedly had the best seats in the house, right at the front of the balcony looking straight at the Harbour Bridge. On such a beautiful, warm and clear night the setting was magical. We started with cocktails which were nice and for starter my partner ordered the scallop dish and I ordered the crab in it’s shell.

The crab was beautiful and fresh and a generous portion and was accompanied by a beautiful homemade lemon mayonnaise, I was in heaven! My partner’s scallop dish, while nice, lacked flavour and we could not discern the horseradish cream stated on the menu.

For mains, I ordered the Lamb while my partner ordered the Barramundi with goats cheese tortellini. We were both so impressed and really enjoyed these meals. The wine and petit fours were also top quality.

All in all it was a beautiful night: stunning location, beautiful food, great ambience and the best company. I would highly recommend this restaurant. The only downside to the night was our bored, uncharismatic waitress whose attitude bordered on rude. She told us off for placing our order with the wine waiter despite him requesting it and despite her very slow service.

The general vibe from her for the whole night was that it would have killed her to smile. The rest of the staff were lovely, I wish you all a wonderful meal there some time at another waiter’s table!

Feb 03, 2011

6.3 Average

Food  5      Ambience  8      Service  6      Value  6     

I held off on writing a review for Baffi & Mo the first time I dined there as I walked away with mixed feelings, however, as I have now dined here twice, I feel I can give a pretty fair review.

It's a gorgeous looking cafe in Redfern with a very exciting menu, healthy and tasty sounding options for both breakfast and lunch that look just as good on the plate as they sound on paper, when they finally arrive.

The first time I was here we had to wait over an hour for our breakfasts to arrive, we forgive this as they were very busy, the surliness of the wait staff and having to ask for water 5 times before it was brought to us was a little less forgivable. However, the potato hash stack and the asparagus with poached egg and truffle oil was lovely.

Today though, we had to wait an hour again from when we ordered until we received our food and they did not appear at all busy. When the food finally arrived it was barely edible. Their famous potato hash had obviously been cooked well in advance of the rest of the meal and as well as being over cooked, was stone cold. The Eggs Benedict's eggs were overcooked and the toast they were on was almost as cold as the hollandaise sauce that seemed poured straight from the fridge.

Despite all of us being very hungry, none of us completed our meals and the two sets of eggs benedict were barely touched. The coffee was great and one waitress was lovely. The rest of the staff, however, cleaned and stacked furniture around us while loudly talking about how absolutely 'trashed' they got last night.

We didn't pay for the eggs and the waitress apologised for their poor quality, however, we still had an unpleasant taste in our mouth when we left. There's so much promise in this cafe and it's menu, but I'm not sure we'll give it a third opportunity to disappoint.

Jan 30, 2011

8.8 Highly Recommended

Quality  10      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  7     

What an oasis from the city above! A beautiful hidden haven with a wonderful artisan deli selection menu. My partner and I grabbed a secluded corner and ordered a beautiful bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and our own selection of cheeses and antipasto from the menu.

The price is high and portions small but I think this is appropriate when you consider the quality of the majority of the items on the menu (top points for so many locally sourced options as well!). The staff go above and beyond to assist with your choices and are very knowledgeable and pleasant. This is my first experience with any of the GPO’s restaurants and following this, I will definitely be back to try the others!

N.B. Order more Ciabatta then you think you will need.

Feb 22, 2011

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

I highly recommend Wolfies. Beautiful steak, cooked to perfection. I was very impressed with the way that all of the meals arrived for 14 diners at precisely the same time, despite the different orders, and all were very obviously cooked fresh. The meat was succulent, the accompaniments great. Bread was also beautiful and fresh. And with the “2 mains for the price of 1” lunch deal, Wolfies represented very good value. The wait staff were knowledgeable and pleasant.

I feel that there are a lot of higher class steak restaurants in Sydney that could learn a lesson here!

Feb 22, 2011

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3 Below Average

Food  3      Drinks  1      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  5     

I had such a nice dinner with family here on my first trip that when a work team lunch came up I insisted that we have it at Harts. Big Mistake. We pre-ordered the food and were all in good spirits when we arrived. I went up to the bar with some others to place the drink orders with the waitress behind the bar. We ordered 2 separate bottles of sparkling wine (both at the $40 mark), one underneath the other on the menu, along with a number of other drinks.

When the waitress served our wine she did so without showing the label. We all clinked glasses in cheers and began to drink when the waitress ran back to our table and demanded that we stop. She turned to me and exclaimed ‘You ordered the expensive champagne. Did you mean to order that?’ To which I again pointed out the wines ordered on the menu, one beneath the other, the waitress snatched the menu and flicked through several pages before pointing out a $160 champagne and telling me that that was the champagne ordered and poured.

I told her that this was incorrect and pointed out that if she believed that I had ordered that particular champagne in the first place why would she come back and demand that we stop drinking what we had apparently ordered? She became almost hysterical at this point telling us all not to drink any more of it, she then disappeared and came back with the bottle and collected all of our glasses and tipped the contents back into the bottle.

The amount already drunk accounted for approximately a glass at the top of the bottle, she then started demanding where the extra glass was and telling us that we would be paying for it.

When our meals arrived the service was grim and mine was burnt beyond the point of recognition. We were 12 professionals that would all return to this venue for more work lunches, after work drinks, functions if not for this terrible treatment. A simple apology by the waitress for her error would have been the right course of action and we would have gladly handed back the wine if needed, but shifting the blame to our group and reacting so outrageously ensures that we will not be going anywhere near Harts in future.

It also leaves me to wonder what happened to the wine poured back in to the bottle, I hope that it was not then sold on by the glass considering it would have been tainted by all of our saliva?

Feb 22, 2011

7.8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  5      Value  7     

I took my partner to Café Sydney for dinner for his birthday last night. We undoubtedly had the best seats in the house, right at the front of the balcony looking straight at the Harbour Bridge. On such a beautiful, warm and clear night the setting was magical. We started with cocktails which were nice and for starter my partner ordered the scallop dish and I ordered the crab in it’s shell.

The crab was beautiful and fresh and a generous portion and was accompanied by a beautiful homemade lemon mayonnaise, I was in heaven! My partner’s scallop dish, while nice, lacked flavour and we could not discern the horseradish cream stated on the menu.

For mains, I ordered the Lamb while my partner ordered the Barramundi with goats cheese tortellini. We were both so impressed and really enjoyed these meals. The wine and petit fours were also top quality.

All in all it was a beautiful night: stunning location, beautiful food, great ambience and the best company. I would highly recommend this restaurant. The only downside to the night was our bored, uncharismatic waitress whose attitude bordered on rude. She told us off for placing our order with the wine waiter despite him requesting it and despite her very slow service.

The general vibe from her for the whole night was that it would have killed her to smile. The rest of the staff were lovely, I wish you all a wonderful meal there some time at another waiter’s table!

Feb 03, 2011

6.3 Average

Food  5      Ambience  8      Service  6      Value  6     

I held off on writing a review for Baffi & Mo the first time I dined there as I walked away with mixed feelings, however, as I have now dined here twice, I feel I can give a pretty fair review.

It's a gorgeous looking cafe in Redfern with a very exciting menu, healthy and tasty sounding options for both breakfast and lunch that look just as good on the plate as they sound on paper, when they finally arrive.

The first time I was here we had to wait over an hour for our breakfasts to arrive, we forgive this as they were very busy, the surliness of the wait staff and having to ask for water 5 times before it was brought to us was a little less forgivable. However, the potato hash stack and the asparagus with poached egg and truffle oil was lovely.

Today though, we had to wait an hour again from when we ordered until we received our food and they did not appear at all busy. When the food finally arrived it was barely edible. Their famous potato hash had obviously been cooked well in advance of the rest of the meal and as well as being over cooked, was stone cold. The Eggs Benedict's eggs were overcooked and the toast they were on was almost as cold as the hollandaise sauce that seemed poured straight from the fridge.

Despite all of us being very hungry, none of us completed our meals and the two sets of eggs benedict were barely touched. The coffee was great and one waitress was lovely. The rest of the staff, however, cleaned and stacked furniture around us while loudly talking about how absolutely 'trashed' they got last night.

We didn't pay for the eggs and the waitress apologised for their poor quality, however, we still had an unpleasant taste in our mouth when we left. There's so much promise in this cafe and it's menu, but I'm not sure we'll give it a third opportunity to disappoint.

Jan 30, 2011

7.3 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  6      Value  7     

We arrived at Giovanni’s 2 weeks ago with a reservation and were told that although we had informed them that we had a voucher when booking the day before, they would not be honouring vouchers that week. Needless to say none in our party were impressed and we dined elsewhere.

However, being that we had bought the voucher and we did not want to waste our money we went back to Giovanni’s today for lunch. Armed with that first experience and a quick look at the reviews on line, our expectations were very low. So we were all pleasantly surprised when we received food that was not just adequate but instead beautiful! Lovely crisp pizza bases, very fresh bruschetta and great salad. The house wine was a crisp New Zealand Marlborough region Sauvignon Blanc that would have been found in other restaurants with a much higher price tag.

The moody waitress described in other reviews was still there- and just as miserable as described- but the male waiter was lovely and jovial. Our only real complaint is that the chocolate fondant was actually a slice of chilled chocolate mud cake… not at all as described. However if this is all we have to complain about then it’s not really a complaint at all!

Jan 21, 2011

6 Average

Food  9      Ambience  6      Service  1      Value  8     

I went to the MoS Café for one of our work Christmas lunches at the end of last year. Our assistant had called and booked the set menu for us, however, when we arrived, we were told that they didn’t do a set menu (this was following no welcome from staff on arrival and a churlish woman telling us to find our own table before we discovered that it still hadn’t started to be prepared for us despite it being empty and us running 10 minutes late).

The manager cleared up the set menu misunderstanding and informed his staff that they do in fact offer a set menu, as advertised on their website and as being enjoyed by the 5 or so tables surrounding ours (?!).

The food was lovely, the service abysmal. One waitress pushed past one of our party so violently and so often, pushing her chair in each time, that our staff member had bruises on her ribs the next day. When the waitress was made aware of what she was doing, she only rolled her eyes and continued to do the same.
We won’t be going back and I would advise MoS that if they do not reconsider their staff’s attitude and behaviour then they may end up facing some serious problems.

Jan 17, 2011

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

7.8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  7     

I won’t say that Allpress was a reason for us to move to Rosebery, only that it is a definite perk! I have been enjoying Allpress’s coffee and food for a long time now, coming for Breakfast every time that a free Saturday appears. It has beautiful, simple food that impresses everyone that I take there and the coffee is just perfect. If you are there for breakfast, have the Green Goddess, it’s a first time must.

However, past the first time you should definitely order the breakfast plate- it works so well due to the fresh ingredients and its simplicity. The breads are amazing and you cannot beat the Roast Pork baguette for lunch. They have suffered some bad reviews below, especially for service. However, I disagree wholeheartedly.

Considering how busy this café is I have never thought the service anything less than pleasant. There is one tall, young waiter who will not smile for anything, but he is pleasant and competent and the other staff more than make up for this!

Jan 17, 2011

10 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  10     

How refreshing! I didn’t expect a lot when I saw the outside of Bogota, crammed between other faded shops on the main stretch of Botany Road in Mascot, however, the high recommendations from Eatability kept my mind open and my curiosity piqued. Wow! The coffee was every bit as wonderful as the other reviewers have suggested and the food was very fresh and very tasty, again, as suggested.

However, the highlight would have to be the wonderful, unrushed service. These ladies know exactly how to make everyone feel welcome. Bogota has me imagining long Saturday brunches sipping numerous beautiful coffees with my girlfriends… I will be back this coming weekend!

Jan 17, 2011

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3 Below Average

Drinks  1      Ambience  6      Service  1      Value  4     

Wow! What an experience! And not in a good way. A group of co-workers and myself dined at the Argyle last Friday lunch, perhaps, we should have taken the fact that it was empty as a sign. We decided to order tapas for the table, however, as one of our group is allergic to onion we asked the waitress which dishes she could eat. The waitress rang the kitchen and then pointed out 2 dishes that came without any onion. These were ordered along with a number of other dishes.

When the food arrived at the table there was an additional dish that had not been ordered and the two dishes that supposedly did not have onion were both visibly smothered in onion. When this was brought to the waitress’s attention she insisted that the additional dish had been ordered and paid for and there was nothing that she could do about this now, and that she would check with the kitchen re. the dishes supposedly without onion.

The waitress then returned to the additional dish and informed our allergy sufferer that the kitchen had told her that she could eat this as there was only a small onion in it! When our co-worker explained that even a small amount of onion would severely set off her allergic reaction the waitress told her that, perhaps, she would be best just ordering some bread and olive oil.

Our co-worker informed her that this is not lunch and as such she would like to speak with the manager about getting her meal refunded as time was running out on her lunch break and almost everyone else had finished eating their meals (which for the most part were far too oily anyway).

The waitress reluctantly went to fetch the manager and proceeded to have an animated discussion with him not far from us gesticulating wildly at us before sending him over. The manager was apologetic and amicable and ordered a meal without onion be sent to the table along with providing a refund for the dish. This should have been the end of it, however, as the rest of us now had to wait for our co-worker to eat her meal before we left we decided to order some more drinks.

When one of our party approached the bar to order, the waitress glared at her and turned and stomped off instead of taking the order. She also continued to glare at our whole group and mutter under her breath for the rest of the unpleasant time spent there.

Wholly unprofessional and extremely disappointing. Do not go here. The quality of the food, the service of the kitchen and the extremely poor customer service from the wait staff make this a definite place to avoid!

Jan 10, 2011