dagface

5.8 Average

Food  8      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  9     

First of all, I'm all for the low key chinese eaterie. In fact I love them. I'm sure you agree that, the reason for going to a chinese restaurant is never the service, it's the yummy food. And of course the added bonus is that you never leave with a big hole in the wallet. That's pretty much the go here, the service really was appalling, but that wouldn't put me off going here again, it's something that is easy to laugh off.

We stopped for yum cha on Queen's holiday lunch. The place was empty, which I know is never a good sign, but what the heck! We had pretty much everything x1 on the yum cha menu, gow gee, s&p calamari, prawn rolls, spring rolls, sang choi bau, you know all the regulars! All the food was good, with the sang choi bau and gow gee being the best things we had.

The service is really hopeless though. We had to ask for a lot of things repeatedly. All up we ate all we wanted and it came to $15 a head, on a public holiday. I think that's pretty good. And if you can laugh away the service then this place is ok. Not great, but ok.

Jun 14, 2010

3.8 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  7      Service  1      Value  2     

The food is ok. I would echo some other statements here in that you seem to be paying a lot for what you actually get. If you want some great bread, just go to your local Vietnamese bakery (there's a great one on Marion St for example).

Anyway, the place is pretty well laid out and has a good ambience. I liked the courtyard out the back too. And re price, customers know how much things are going to cost before ordering. The main complaint I have is that I was in the gents with one of the kitchen staff who left without washing his hands! I'm sorry I like the big bowls of coffee, but I can't ever go back. Yuk!

Dec 21, 2009

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.8 Average

Drinks  5      Ambience  6      Service  5      Value  3     

Note - I put the food score where the drinks score sits, odd that there's not a food score option with this being a restaurant/bar.

After securing babysitting services for the night, we went out for the first time without the nipper since he was born. Where would we go? We wanted to push the boat out and I'd seen this place and it looked great. Then I read the reviews here and I was super excited. Friday night arrived and there we were, no baby! In a new, flash place, with a lovely glass of wine. Hurray! And that's where it started to go a bit wrong.

I love the idea of all the small plates, it's great, I've been to a couple of modern restaurants like this before and I love them. I love not being confined to 2 or 3 tastes. After being advised that we should order 2 or 3 dishes for the two of us, we ordered 4. What the heck, we're out without the baby!

So we went for whitebait salad, scampi flan, a trio of prawns and deep fried ravioli. All of the dishes were about $20, with the prawn dish being $22. With a big smile, the waiter told us we'd ordered really well with some 'fine choices' and that our food would be out shortly.

About 2 minutes later the whitebait salad and ravioli arrived. Bread arrived a minute later and then 2 minutes after that the prawns arrived. With a full table, I asked the waiter to ask the chef to slow down as it looked like we'd be in and out in 20 minutes flat!

It turns out our ordering was a disaster. The whitebait salad was fresh, but the saltiness of the fish wasn't counter-balanced by anything. The deep-fried ravioli with taleggio cheese filling were better, but there was only 4 or 5 of them, apple salad/garnish with them was tasty though.

The trio of prawns consisted of a thimble sized prawn bisque, two warm garlic prawns and two marinated prawns. For $22. You must be kidding! All tasted good, but zero on the reasonable-value-factor. Then the flan came out, which as a fellow reviewer here says, was inventive and tasty, but we were a bit fish reduction-ed out. If they want to charge big bucks, our waiter really should have let us know we’d mis-ordered and not praised our ordering skills!

And so, after having maybe half the whitebait salad, 5 ravioli, 4 prawns and ¾ of the flan between two people, we were still hungry, so we ordered the pork ribs, which thankfully evened up the meal. They came in a sugary tomato-ish sauce, which almost reminded me in taste of a chinese-style sauce, which wasn’t not a bad thing. But it was odd.

All the dishes we had were immaculately presented. But they all seemed to miss the taste spot by about 20-30%. So, in summary, we weren’t super amazed. But we were out and despite out ordering disaster thus far, we were having a good time. So we ordered dessert and thank goodness we did, it saved our experience of this place. The molten chocolate cake with rum was divine. Finally a dish that was both tasty and well presented.

The upshot, a bill for $140. We had one glass of wine each and the five dishes and a dessert. If the bill had been $100, I wouldn’t have felt so ripped off. But the prawn dish really took the biscuit. For $70/head we could have gone to a few different places and had a great restaurant experience, but sadly Aperitivo let us down badly.

We’ll go back for drink in the courtyard or out front, but we’ll be spending our food dollars elsewhere. I still can’t get over how disappointed I am. I really wanted this place to be fabulous.

Oct 24, 2009

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

7.8 Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  9      Service  7      Value  5     

Went to DSD for lunch today (Sat Oct 2009) and I really liked it. Good vibe and I left full and happy. I had the steak (with yummy thick cut fries) in a cafe de paris sauce, it was perfect. Perfectly cooked, I like rare, and the sauce was fabulous. One of my companions had a bolognese, which tasted great too. The others had a variety of egg dishes which looked great.

It was really good but expensive, the bill was just short of $230 for all of us. Wow! So in summary, really enjoyed the food, service was good, but just too expensive, as good as it was, I'm not sure I'll be back quickly.

Oct 24, 2009

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  8      Value  8     

How did I manage to live 5 minutes from here for 3 years and not know about it. More fool me. Last night I went with three friends. For starters, we had bruschetta and nannata, which was a whitebait fritter. Light, lemony and delicious. For mains, we had two crab spaghettis and two pizzas, I had a Capricciosa pizza (cabanossi, olives, anchovies).

The crab pasta was fab, I was glad to have snuck a taste. The crab was fresh and the sauce just creamy enough. The pizza were perfect. Crispy, cheesy, with anchovies, I know now where I'll be going for my takeaways from now on. Looking forward to coming back here again and again.

Apr 30, 2009

5.8 Average

Food  8      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  9     

First of all, I'm all for the low key chinese eaterie. In fact I love them. I'm sure you agree that, the reason for going to a chinese restaurant is never the service, it's the yummy food. And of course the added bonus is that you never leave with a big hole in the wallet. That's pretty much the go here, the service really was appalling, but that wouldn't put me off going here again, it's something that is easy to laugh off.

We stopped for yum cha on Queen's holiday lunch. The place was empty, which I know is never a good sign, but what the heck! We had pretty much everything x1 on the yum cha menu, gow gee, s&p calamari, prawn rolls, spring rolls, sang choi bau, you know all the regulars! All the food was good, with the sang choi bau and gow gee being the best things we had.

The service is really hopeless though. We had to ask for a lot of things repeatedly. All up we ate all we wanted and it came to $15 a head, on a public holiday. I think that's pretty good. And if you can laugh away the service then this place is ok. Not great, but ok.

Jun 14, 2010

3.8 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  7      Service  1      Value  2     

The food is ok. I would echo some other statements here in that you seem to be paying a lot for what you actually get. If you want some great bread, just go to your local Vietnamese bakery (there's a great one on Marion St for example).

Anyway, the place is pretty well laid out and has a good ambience. I liked the courtyard out the back too. And re price, customers know how much things are going to cost before ordering. The main complaint I have is that I was in the gents with one of the kitchen staff who left without washing his hands! I'm sorry I like the big bowls of coffee, but I can't ever go back. Yuk!

Dec 21, 2009

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.8 Average

Drinks  5      Ambience  6      Service  5      Value  3     

Note - I put the food score where the drinks score sits, odd that there's not a food score option with this being a restaurant/bar.

After securing babysitting services for the night, we went out for the first time without the nipper since he was born. Where would we go? We wanted to push the boat out and I'd seen this place and it looked great. Then I read the reviews here and I was super excited. Friday night arrived and there we were, no baby! In a new, flash place, with a lovely glass of wine. Hurray! And that's where it started to go a bit wrong.

I love the idea of all the small plates, it's great, I've been to a couple of modern restaurants like this before and I love them. I love not being confined to 2 or 3 tastes. After being advised that we should order 2 or 3 dishes for the two of us, we ordered 4. What the heck, we're out without the baby!

So we went for whitebait salad, scampi flan, a trio of prawns and deep fried ravioli. All of the dishes were about $20, with the prawn dish being $22. With a big smile, the waiter told us we'd ordered really well with some 'fine choices' and that our food would be out shortly.

About 2 minutes later the whitebait salad and ravioli arrived. Bread arrived a minute later and then 2 minutes after that the prawns arrived. With a full table, I asked the waiter to ask the chef to slow down as it looked like we'd be in and out in 20 minutes flat!

It turns out our ordering was a disaster. The whitebait salad was fresh, but the saltiness of the fish wasn't counter-balanced by anything. The deep-fried ravioli with taleggio cheese filling were better, but there was only 4 or 5 of them, apple salad/garnish with them was tasty though.

The trio of prawns consisted of a thimble sized prawn bisque, two warm garlic prawns and two marinated prawns. For $22. You must be kidding! All tasted good, but zero on the reasonable-value-factor. Then the flan came out, which as a fellow reviewer here says, was inventive and tasty, but we were a bit fish reduction-ed out. If they want to charge big bucks, our waiter really should have let us know we’d mis-ordered and not praised our ordering skills!

And so, after having maybe half the whitebait salad, 5 ravioli, 4 prawns and ¾ of the flan between two people, we were still hungry, so we ordered the pork ribs, which thankfully evened up the meal. They came in a sugary tomato-ish sauce, which almost reminded me in taste of a chinese-style sauce, which wasn’t not a bad thing. But it was odd.

All the dishes we had were immaculately presented. But they all seemed to miss the taste spot by about 20-30%. So, in summary, we weren’t super amazed. But we were out and despite out ordering disaster thus far, we were having a good time. So we ordered dessert and thank goodness we did, it saved our experience of this place. The molten chocolate cake with rum was divine. Finally a dish that was both tasty and well presented.

The upshot, a bill for $140. We had one glass of wine each and the five dishes and a dessert. If the bill had been $100, I wouldn’t have felt so ripped off. But the prawn dish really took the biscuit. For $70/head we could have gone to a few different places and had a great restaurant experience, but sadly Aperitivo let us down badly.

We’ll go back for drink in the courtyard or out front, but we’ll be spending our food dollars elsewhere. I still can’t get over how disappointed I am. I really wanted this place to be fabulous.

Oct 24, 2009

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

7.8 Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  9      Service  7      Value  5     

Went to DSD for lunch today (Sat Oct 2009) and I really liked it. Good vibe and I left full and happy. I had the steak (with yummy thick cut fries) in a cafe de paris sauce, it was perfect. Perfectly cooked, I like rare, and the sauce was fabulous. One of my companions had a bolognese, which tasted great too. The others had a variety of egg dishes which looked great.

It was really good but expensive, the bill was just short of $230 for all of us. Wow! So in summary, really enjoyed the food, service was good, but just too expensive, as good as it was, I'm not sure I'll be back quickly.

Oct 24, 2009

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  8      Value  8     

How did I manage to live 5 minutes from here for 3 years and not know about it. More fool me. Last night I went with three friends. For starters, we had bruschetta and nannata, which was a whitebait fritter. Light, lemony and delicious. For mains, we had two crab spaghettis and two pizzas, I had a Capricciosa pizza (cabanossi, olives, anchovies).

The crab pasta was fab, I was glad to have snuck a taste. The crab was fresh and the sauce just creamy enough. The pizza were perfect. Crispy, cheesy, with anchovies, I know now where I'll be going for my takeaways from now on. Looking forward to coming back here again and again.

Apr 30, 2009

6.8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  4      Service  8      Value  7     

Wow! What a cool place. 4 of us had maybe 6/7 dishes and everything was great, really tasty and good size portions. My favourite was the scallops, followed closely by a fantastic beef dish. The service was friendly and prompt and all in a great spot for a trendy dinner.

The only drawback was that there was one waiter who insisted on having the background music at earthquake volume, I'm a musician and love a good bit of loud music (and the selection of tunes was great, everything from Sharon Jones to Zero 7), but the volume was absurd! We repeatedly asked for it to be turned down, only for the waiter to turn it back up.

It's a shame as it really impacted our evening. Overall the food and drinks were great, but background music was way too foreground. Weird eh? It took my ambience score from 8 to 4.

Mar 29, 2009

9.3 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  10     

It's brilliant. My favourite place on Norton St for dinner. Super friendly, busy, fun. It is always full, that should tell you it's good food. The mains are good value and range from 12 to 20. I always seem to end up with Boscaiola and am very tempted to lick the plate clean. So far my wife has managed to stop me.

The waiter who always seems to be there in the evening is great at his job, how he manages to serve the whole place and stay on top of everything with a smile is fantastic. It's not the flashest place, but our absolute local for a mid week feed.

Mar 06, 2009

9.3 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

I've lived around the corner from Bistro Ortolan for about 3 years and I've always thought it looked good. So tonight three of us ventured over (with some BYO wine). The menu was inventive and very tempting.

I had scallops and sweetbread to start and a peking duck special for main, my dining partners a spinach feuillette, then pork and duck rillette followed by steak tartare. All the food was beautifully presented, fairly priced and most importantly tasted great.

My scallops were carefully cooked, not at all underdone and the duck was absolutely to die for. What a great place, with dessert and coffees the bill came to $75 a head, great value for a two hat and I'll certainly be back. The wait staff were very knowledgeable and charming, the service itself was relaxed, the whole experience was excellent.

Mar 06, 2009

2.6 Not Recommended

Food  3      Drinks  3      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  1     

Hmm, where do I start? I know that I'm not one of the in crowd and I've come to terms with that, but if I ever need reminding of how utterly regular and ordinary I am, I'll remember to go to the Beresford for a sneering, patronising reminder.
What are you talking about? Well.

I've had the misfortune to go to the Beresford twice, once for early Friday night drinks before dinner and the second time for a birthday party. The first time was a typical scene-y experience. I'm not known for my style, but I'd heard the beresford was quite particular with dress code, so I left the safety of the inner-west with smart shoes, best shirt and some rather flash cords!

On arrival at 6.30 pm, the place looked empty inside, so I went in, but I was (quite forcefully) informed that the pub was full! As I was meeting people who were already inside, I called to let them know I was in a queue. 20 minutes later there was quite a line (I'm sure the pub loved it the look of that) and 4 blondes came along and were swiftly whisked in. Great.

So after waiting outside for about 25 minutes, I was finally granted access to said empty-ish pub. On walking through the bar to the outdoors area I was told to go around as I wasn't walking through the restaurant. After my protests I was let through only to discover that I wasn't allowed to approach the bar, but had to go into the saloon area to buy a beer.

Fair enough, by then I was very thirsty! I was then ignored for a further 5 minutes and as my mates had finished their drinks we decided to move on. So when a good firend of mine said she was having birthday Saturday lunch, I was filled with dread. I went to buy her a drink, a bacardi and coke.

BarStaff "Sorry we don't have Bacardi" Me "Err... no bacardi?" BarStaff "No, we only have Bacardi {insert premium name here}" Me"Well can I have one of those, a schooner of coopers and a lemon lime bitters" Bar Staff "we only do pot or pints"
Me "oh - ok a pint then" Bar Staff "that'll be $22" Me "terribly sorry, just need to retrieve my jaw from the floor"

I mean you 've got to be joking. Then it came to trying to order lunch. What a joke. As we were sitting outside, I double checked table service was available with bar food. Yes it is. Great! So like good customers we waited for service, then we waited some more. Then I went to ask where the service was, only to be told by a very good looking, but arrogant young man that we had to order at the bar. Just hopeless.

I asked to see the bar senior staff, but he never showed up. What utter contempt.
I've seen from the reviews here that the restaurant is good, well that's great. The bar food was ordinary, regular at best and very expensive ($18-22). Are you getting the idea I didn't like the whole vibe? You know I'm a pretty reasonable guy (check out my other reviews) but the staff at The Beresford were rude, patronising and above all plain annoying. More fool me for going twice.

There's a million better pubs nearby with great food. You don't even get sneered at! If you want a demeaning and expensive experience go here! But I guess all the scene-sters know that already. Good luck to them. I'll stick with any of the pubs nearby, if they don't send the staff on a "be nice to your customers" course, this place should be closed by the end of the year. Good riddance.

But maybe they just don't want my type in there, it's a shame as sitting outside on a sunny afternoon out the back was very pleasant indeed.

Mar 01, 2009

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

7.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  7     

I really love the inventive breakfasts. The breakfast quesadillas are great. The coffee is okay, I think 'terrible' is a bit harsh. The thing I like the most is the older guy who seems to be the main waiter. Hilarious. So, overall, I really quite like the place, we've been back 4 times now, the front room is pretty airy and feels comfy. Breakfasts are between $12 and 18, expensive, but not the end of the world. Use the entertainment book for max value.!

Feb 23, 2009