derwooblegie

7.3 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  5      Value  6     

Beautiful restaurant, unique location. Really liked the food, french modern Aus cousine. Dessert, I only liked one out of the two dessert. Wine pairing, slightly disappointed with the white wine selection. I don't think the wine pairing complimented every dish. Pasta and razor claim/crab dish was the highlight for me.

I was unhappy that at one stage, the courses from the degustation was being served at 30 minutes intervals. We arrived at 12:30pm, but ended up being served the meals the same time as someone who arrived at 1:00pm. I understand that the kitchen makes them in batches, which is fair enough. But we were there from 12:30pm till 4pm, which made the experience long and draining. Hopefully the kitchen service can be better managed.

May 28, 2012

4.3 Below Average

Food  8      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  3     

Food here has always been great and we always loved coming here, until a recent incident.

We always order the same dishes when we are there and by some error, the waitress took down Ox Tongue (no.8) instead of Pork neck (no.9). We were with a bunch of people who don't eat ox tongue, understandably.

The waitress brought it to the table and we said we did not order the dish. The waitress brought it back a few minutes later and said we must have ordered it because it was on her list. We insisted that we did not order it. She went to speak to the senior staff, and came back a second time that we must have made a mistake, because apparently we ordered the ox tongue. She practically forced it on our table.

We also spoke to the senior staff, who said "Customer is not always right". Yes Customer is not always right, but I am pretty sure forcing a plate of food which the customers did not order on the customers table is very wrong as well. Not sure if I will be back, pretty poor service.

Apr 27, 2012

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  9      Service  8      Value  7     

$5 taco and $5 nachos, what more do you want? (Probably some cheese on the nachos!).

The special taco with shredded lamb is fantastic. Beef taco is made with asian flavour. The secret taco, which changes daily is also great. So far, I've had sweet bread, ox tongue (delish), giblets with kimchi (weird combo), usually some offals related. So if you don't eat offals, don't order the secret tacos!

The staff won't tell you what the secret taco is, until they bring you the taco itself. If you don't want the taco, you can ask for it to be changed to lettuce instead. They also have quesadilla with chorizos.

Drinks are definitely more expensive but the vibe is fantastic. Food comes fairly quickly after you order.

Mar 09, 2012

4.5 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  8      Service  1      Value  4     

We sat out on the balcony area, the ambience was fantastic. The food was hit and miss. I was quite surprised that a $38 paella came out as one small little pot. At other spanish restaurants, it would have been on a large pan with plenty to go around the table.

Utterly disappointed with service. It was a table of 4 and as we waited for the 4th person to arrive, the waitress asked if we would like bread and olives to start. We said sure. She came up with Two plates of bread and Two bowls of olives. I am not sure why she didn't think that One serving of bread and one serving of olives would be enough. Of course we were charged for it, at $8 each. So Two plates of bread and Two little bowls of olives were $32 altogether. Ridiculous. The bread was stale and awful.

The tostadas (beef tongue on toast) came as a thin slice of bread with paper thin piece of beef tongue. The bread was again stale, and soggy in the middle.
The only good dish there was the zucchini flower. The cheapest bottle of wine there was around $60. Luckily they are BYO and so we went around the corner to the bottle shop and picked up a few bottles. Will not be back here, ever.

Mar 09, 2012

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  10      Service  8      Value  6     

Came here for a bday in a group of around 23 ppl. There is a pre-set menu with 3 courses. I would say that the quantities for entree is quite small, we got only one piece of zucchini flower each.

The main course - I liked it very much. It came in a big sharing plate and we had to get our own food, which was unexpected. Dessert came as a share plate of sugared donuts, which again, I thought was quite small in terms of portion. For $40 for such little entree/dessert, I was quite disappointed. Luckily the main dish made up for it. Main dish was also served with 2 sides of salad which were wonderful.

Drinks - most of us went to the bar downstairs to get our own drinks, as the staff was unable/unwilling to give a bill every time someone ordered. This makes it very inconvenient. Restaurant manager was wonderful and helpful throughout the whole night and in the process of organising the dinner. The waiter assigned to our table was not so helpful. He tried to convince us to pay for 23 ppl, even though we counted 22 ppl at the table at the time.

Overall, fantastic experience and great place for large bookings. We have also been here previously just for drinks, the semi outdoor area is fantastic for that!

Mar 05, 2012

7.3 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  5      Value  6     

Beautiful restaurant, unique location. Really liked the food, french modern Aus cousine. Dessert, I only liked one out of the two dessert. Wine pairing, slightly disappointed with the white wine selection. I don't think the wine pairing complimented every dish. Pasta and razor claim/crab dish was the highlight for me.

I was unhappy that at one stage, the courses from the degustation was being served at 30 minutes intervals. We arrived at 12:30pm, but ended up being served the meals the same time as someone who arrived at 1:00pm. I understand that the kitchen makes them in batches, which is fair enough. But we were there from 12:30pm till 4pm, which made the experience long and draining. Hopefully the kitchen service can be better managed.

May 28, 2012

4.3 Below Average

Food  8      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  3     

Food here has always been great and we always loved coming here, until a recent incident.

We always order the same dishes when we are there and by some error, the waitress took down Ox Tongue (no.8) instead of Pork neck (no.9). We were with a bunch of people who don't eat ox tongue, understandably.

The waitress brought it to the table and we said we did not order the dish. The waitress brought it back a few minutes later and said we must have ordered it because it was on her list. We insisted that we did not order it. She went to speak to the senior staff, and came back a second time that we must have made a mistake, because apparently we ordered the ox tongue. She practically forced it on our table.

We also spoke to the senior staff, who said "Customer is not always right". Yes Customer is not always right, but I am pretty sure forcing a plate of food which the customers did not order on the customers table is very wrong as well. Not sure if I will be back, pretty poor service.

Apr 27, 2012

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  9      Service  8      Value  7     

$5 taco and $5 nachos, what more do you want? (Probably some cheese on the nachos!).

The special taco with shredded lamb is fantastic. Beef taco is made with asian flavour. The secret taco, which changes daily is also great. So far, I've had sweet bread, ox tongue (delish), giblets with kimchi (weird combo), usually some offals related. So if you don't eat offals, don't order the secret tacos!

The staff won't tell you what the secret taco is, until they bring you the taco itself. If you don't want the taco, you can ask for it to be changed to lettuce instead. They also have quesadilla with chorizos.

Drinks are definitely more expensive but the vibe is fantastic. Food comes fairly quickly after you order.

Mar 09, 2012

4.5 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  8      Service  1      Value  4     

We sat out on the balcony area, the ambience was fantastic. The food was hit and miss. I was quite surprised that a $38 paella came out as one small little pot. At other spanish restaurants, it would have been on a large pan with plenty to go around the table.

Utterly disappointed with service. It was a table of 4 and as we waited for the 4th person to arrive, the waitress asked if we would like bread and olives to start. We said sure. She came up with Two plates of bread and Two bowls of olives. I am not sure why she didn't think that One serving of bread and one serving of olives would be enough. Of course we were charged for it, at $8 each. So Two plates of bread and Two little bowls of olives were $32 altogether. Ridiculous. The bread was stale and awful.

The tostadas (beef tongue on toast) came as a thin slice of bread with paper thin piece of beef tongue. The bread was again stale, and soggy in the middle.
The only good dish there was the zucchini flower. The cheapest bottle of wine there was around $60. Luckily they are BYO and so we went around the corner to the bottle shop and picked up a few bottles. Will not be back here, ever.

Mar 09, 2012

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  10      Service  8      Value  6     

Came here for a bday in a group of around 23 ppl. There is a pre-set menu with 3 courses. I would say that the quantities for entree is quite small, we got only one piece of zucchini flower each.

The main course - I liked it very much. It came in a big sharing plate and we had to get our own food, which was unexpected. Dessert came as a share plate of sugared donuts, which again, I thought was quite small in terms of portion. For $40 for such little entree/dessert, I was quite disappointed. Luckily the main dish made up for it. Main dish was also served with 2 sides of salad which were wonderful.

Drinks - most of us went to the bar downstairs to get our own drinks, as the staff was unable/unwilling to give a bill every time someone ordered. This makes it very inconvenient. Restaurant manager was wonderful and helpful throughout the whole night and in the process of organising the dinner. The waiter assigned to our table was not so helpful. He tried to convince us to pay for 23 ppl, even though we counted 22 ppl at the table at the time.

Overall, fantastic experience and great place for large bookings. We have also been here previously just for drinks, the semi outdoor area is fantastic for that!

Mar 05, 2012

3.5 Below Average

Food  4      Ambience  5      Service  2      Value  3     

Having always been regulars, its safe to say you don't come here for the service. But this particular visit warranted a post. It was for a 30th birthday, so we went all out and ordered lobster, abalone, steam fish etc. The lobster was brought to our table, no 'nutcracker' was provided to us so we can crack the shells. I had to ask for 3 times and 15 minutes later it appeared. The lobster was getting cold by then.

The abalone was brought to our table not long after, which meant that we had to decide which one we wanted to eat first, bad time management. They did not provide knife and fork so they expected me to eat a whole abalone with my chopsticks. And as I was waiting for the knife and fork to come, the vegetable and the fish came to the table as well. Seriously bad time management.

The waiter proceeded to cut the fish open to take out the bone (standard procedure). Most of the meat won't come off the bone because it was so uncooked. The manager came over and looked at it and said "oh it taste nicer this way". I told him I would have nothing to taste since nothing is coming off the bone. He finally agreed to cook a new fish altogether.

The service was extremely bad this night. I might have to venture back to chinatown for other chinese restaurants.

Feb 28, 2012

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

7.5 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  7     

As far as authentic sushi goes, this is the only place to go in Sydney. As a regular at the Tokyo Tsukiji fish market, the only restaurant in Sydney that provides sushi to the quality that is remotely similar to the sushi chef in Japan is Yoshii.

Sushi in Japan is an art. Many sushi chefs are allowed only to make the rice for about 10 years before they are allowed to even touch the fish. The quality of the sushi here is far superior to any of the sushi train chain/restaurants. In fact, the concept of sushi train is quite an insult in Japan. Every piece of sushi was perfect, the temperature of the rice, the shape of the rice ball, the thickness of the fish on top.

I won't come here for the cooked food, the star of this place is really the sushi bar. You should also eat the sushi with your hands, turn the sushi as you eat it such that the fish part of the sushi makes contact with your tongue. Thats the only way to eat sushi!

Service - I agree its a hit and miss. We were happy to pour our own sake throughout the night. If you sit at the sushi bar, the food is prepared in front of you so that is the only service required!

Feb 28, 2012

7.8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  7     

Absolutely love this place. Yes it does not take bookings. Just get there before 6pm and you won't have to wait for a table. Best seats are the bar table facing the kitchen.
Love the chicken wings, scallops and kingfish finger. Not a fan of the chorizo as it was quite salty. Will be back soon - looking forward to new tapas on menu!

Feb 08, 2012

3.3 Below Average

Food  3      Ambience  4      Service  4      Value  2     

Don't be fooled by that steaming udon at the front door. Yes its a novelty. No, the food does not match it. I ordered the sashimi set. The Tuna came in 3 little pieces, frozen. The salmon pieces tasted slightly off. Other people ordered udon set etc. Portions are quite small for the price of the set. Will not be back.

Feb 08, 2012

5.5 Average

Food  4      Ambience  10      Service  4      Value  4     

I am quite baffled as to how this restaurant got a One Chef's Hat. The Good Food Guide should be for food, and not for the view. The view is of course spectacular.

There were 5 choices for entrees and none of which sounded appealing. In the end, we both had entree sized pastas. The Cavetelli was quite good, but the Pappardelle was sub-par.

The mains - I had the half roast duck, which was quite nice, but definitely not worth $40. You can buy a whole roast duck in Chinatown for $20. We also had the fish of the day, which was served with what I can only describe as butter sauce and butter oil. Ridiculously salty.

Our main dishes were also served and put down on the next table, before the waitress was told there was a mistake. She took them away, and conversed with another waitress before bringing it to us. Seriously - for a one hat restaurant?
The waitstaff, after opening the bottle of wine, did not once come and re-fill our glasses.

One of the waitstaff came to explain the menu to us at the start, then she went to the next table to explain the menu to them. And seriously 3 minutes later, she came back to our table and explained the menu again, pretty much word for word. I don't think she even realised she did that. We were seated right next to the glass on the balcony.

As the sun came out, and as the day went by, the umbrellas no longer covered our tables. We asked if we could change seats so as to avoid the sun. We were told that all the other tables were booked so no, we can't move. Well, we were there from 12 till 2pm. When we left, there was about 30% of tables still vacant.

Poor service, mediocre food. I'd rather sit on the beach.

Nov 28, 2011