luvinfood

6.6 Recommended

Food  7      Drinks  7      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  7     

Our last day up from Sydney we stumbled across this place while out and about in the area, I had a craving for fish and chips and that's what we went searching for. For pub/bistro style food our meals were pretty good. I had the fish and chips of course, the flavour from the crispy batter was nice, fish was firm and fresh.

Boyfriend had the seafood sampler plate which looked so good, I kept eyeing it so he let me have a few samplers. Mussels, baby octopus, smoked salmon, oyster shooters, breads with some really nice tomato chutney and pesto. We sat outside on the balcony overlooking the Marina, it was a nice way to wrap up our trip.

Dec 03, 2009

6.8 Recommended

Food  7      Drinks  7      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  7     

Not bad for a pub, the food was great, I absolutely enjoyed my wagyu burger and the beetroot chutney or relish of some sort that came with the chips. Service a little slow but then we were there with a huge group of people dropping in for dinner coming from another event, luckily it was a quiet Monday night for them.

We were quiet hungry though so it could have been a possible factor contributing to our judgement but just because I'm hungry doesn't mean I will swallow crap. Seeing as I don't live too far away this will be an option to visit again, for a decent feed that won't break the bank.

Dec 03, 2009

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

9.3 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  9     

Disappointment. That's one word to describe dinner last night. Either the standards have dropped recently or I actually have learnt what decent food tastes like whether it's from the local chinese take away or a fine diner. The experience has left both my boyfriend and I so bitter that I just had to edit my original great review for this place (written 3 years ago though I might add).

The waitress does the usual task asking how our meal was, by the way, I was still struggling to eat mine! My boyfriend did the courteous thing by mentioning ever so subtly that his Veal Lemon was a bit too lemony for his liking, next minute we get this guy come up to us trying to justify the dish. "Oh but that's how we make our sauce" boyfriend says it could have done with a touch bit more salt "We make it like that so customers can adjust it to their own taste, never ever had a complaint about the dish being too lemoney".

Seriously, I had a taste of it, you couldn't even taste the rosemary or the veal, it was just pure sour lemon juice in my mouth. We are not idiots, when you order a dish that says lemon you're going to expect a bit of tang from the lemon but this was just so overpowering. And I've noticed that another review earlier this month mentioned the sour lemon dish too!

I didn't even mention anything about my meal. Fresh local seafood, hmm from where? The barramundi tasted frozen through and through to me. It was so bland in the middle and the flesh just disintegrated everytime I tried to cut into it. The creamy garlic sauce just tasted of pure butter. Not to mention I almost choked on a large bone, I actually ended up swallowing a small one because by the time I felt it in my mouth it was half way down to my stomach.

I ended up leaving half my fish on the plate, just could not swallow it. And one other thing that put me off, frozen corn cob! I expect that from a chain restaurant like Hog's Breath up the road! We also noticed that the menu seems to have overgrown since the last time we came here. Too many dishes on the menu, probably why the quality of the food is lacking, it's quality not quantity that counts!

I know that management or someone from 3one7 does have access to this, don't bother trying to respond to my review. You've done enough while we were at the restaurant to taint our experience. We definitely won't be back, and there's not alot of restaurants on our list that get a strike, no matter how mediocre the quality of food is. Food and service go hand in hand, if you lack service at least the food will bring us back. In this case, we have no reason to come back.

Response from Management:
Hi Luvinfood,

Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. We do appreciate your comments.

You say "don't bother to respond" but in this instance we feel we have to.

Firstly you mention our menu is overloaded with choice. We feel that is one of our unique selling points and in fact our new menu is in direct response to our customers requests.

Lastly we would like to personally invite you into our kitchen and show you that none of our seafood is frozen and that all of our seafood is delivered fresh daily and just for the record, even our corn is fresh and not frozen, it also comes daily from the markets.

Have a good day!

Regards,

3one7

Nov 27, 2009

10 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  10     

My boyfriend and I dined here way back in April and the memory still lingers. I did try to write a review but the page crashed and I lost all of it and have been too lazy to rewrite one.

Altitude was our first real fine dining experience and boy did it set a standard for us. I booked a table midweek to celebrate my boyfriend's graduation. Our waiter noted this during our conversation with him and added a little personalised touch when our desserts came out. We were also given a window seat though I did not request one. The views from level 36 are just spectacular!

The food and ambience certainly matched this. We certainly enjoyed being given an amuse bouche in between each meal too. It felt like we had a 7 course meal instead of a 3 course meal. Degustation was also offered but we wanted to go a la carte (it was a little lighter on the pocket too though a la carte is only available on weekdays).

The quality of the service I think tops the evening, our waiter was just so informative and helpful, even held the door open as we left the restuarant. He received a very generous tip from my boyfriend. I am definitely looking forward to the next time that I get to come back here.

Nov 22, 2009

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

Has been a few months since my boyfriend and I last dined here but I can't help but think about the food and wanting to come back again. This little gem is conveniently close to me but I seemed to have driven right by for so long and not know it existed. We now know that we don't have to drive very far for good french food!

Food was absolutely fantastic, it was the very first time I had tried escargot too! Thanks to the chef's amuse bouche. We were so full after our entrees and mains but the dessert menu was just so tempting that we forced ourselves to share a dessert.

We hadn't made a booking that night but luckily we got there a little early because after we got there tables started filling up very quickly. It was still quite cold at the time so we definitely wanted to dine inside but the table was right near the open door which wasn't too good as I had the sniffles too.

Our waiter was very good, attentive enough without being over bearing. There were only 3 wait staff running the floor and the restaurant was pretty much full to capacity but they were efficient. Definitely want to try and come back here again sometime in the near future! I've discovered the joys of fine dining and this place is just as good without the big big price tag attached and you don't feel like you have to dress up too much as it's a more laid back atmosphere, a little bistro you could call it.

Nov 22, 2009

6.6 Recommended

Food  7      Drinks  7      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  7     

Our last day up from Sydney we stumbled across this place while out and about in the area, I had a craving for fish and chips and that's what we went searching for. For pub/bistro style food our meals were pretty good. I had the fish and chips of course, the flavour from the crispy batter was nice, fish was firm and fresh.

Boyfriend had the seafood sampler plate which looked so good, I kept eyeing it so he let me have a few samplers. Mussels, baby octopus, smoked salmon, oyster shooters, breads with some really nice tomato chutney and pesto. We sat outside on the balcony overlooking the Marina, it was a nice way to wrap up our trip.

Dec 03, 2009

6.8 Recommended

Food  7      Drinks  7      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  7     

Not bad for a pub, the food was great, I absolutely enjoyed my wagyu burger and the beetroot chutney or relish of some sort that came with the chips. Service a little slow but then we were there with a huge group of people dropping in for dinner coming from another event, luckily it was a quiet Monday night for them.

We were quiet hungry though so it could have been a possible factor contributing to our judgement but just because I'm hungry doesn't mean I will swallow crap. Seeing as I don't live too far away this will be an option to visit again, for a decent feed that won't break the bank.

Dec 03, 2009

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

9.3 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  9     

Disappointment. That's one word to describe dinner last night. Either the standards have dropped recently or I actually have learnt what decent food tastes like whether it's from the local chinese take away or a fine diner. The experience has left both my boyfriend and I so bitter that I just had to edit my original great review for this place (written 3 years ago though I might add).

The waitress does the usual task asking how our meal was, by the way, I was still struggling to eat mine! My boyfriend did the courteous thing by mentioning ever so subtly that his Veal Lemon was a bit too lemony for his liking, next minute we get this guy come up to us trying to justify the dish. "Oh but that's how we make our sauce" boyfriend says it could have done with a touch bit more salt "We make it like that so customers can adjust it to their own taste, never ever had a complaint about the dish being too lemoney".

Seriously, I had a taste of it, you couldn't even taste the rosemary or the veal, it was just pure sour lemon juice in my mouth. We are not idiots, when you order a dish that says lemon you're going to expect a bit of tang from the lemon but this was just so overpowering. And I've noticed that another review earlier this month mentioned the sour lemon dish too!

I didn't even mention anything about my meal. Fresh local seafood, hmm from where? The barramundi tasted frozen through and through to me. It was so bland in the middle and the flesh just disintegrated everytime I tried to cut into it. The creamy garlic sauce just tasted of pure butter. Not to mention I almost choked on a large bone, I actually ended up swallowing a small one because by the time I felt it in my mouth it was half way down to my stomach.

I ended up leaving half my fish on the plate, just could not swallow it. And one other thing that put me off, frozen corn cob! I expect that from a chain restaurant like Hog's Breath up the road! We also noticed that the menu seems to have overgrown since the last time we came here. Too many dishes on the menu, probably why the quality of the food is lacking, it's quality not quantity that counts!

I know that management or someone from 3one7 does have access to this, don't bother trying to respond to my review. You've done enough while we were at the restaurant to taint our experience. We definitely won't be back, and there's not alot of restaurants on our list that get a strike, no matter how mediocre the quality of food is. Food and service go hand in hand, if you lack service at least the food will bring us back. In this case, we have no reason to come back.

Response from Management:
Hi Luvinfood,

Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. We do appreciate your comments.

You say "don't bother to respond" but in this instance we feel we have to.

Firstly you mention our menu is overloaded with choice. We feel that is one of our unique selling points and in fact our new menu is in direct response to our customers requests.

Lastly we would like to personally invite you into our kitchen and show you that none of our seafood is frozen and that all of our seafood is delivered fresh daily and just for the record, even our corn is fresh and not frozen, it also comes daily from the markets.

Have a good day!

Regards,

3one7

Nov 27, 2009

10 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  10     

My boyfriend and I dined here way back in April and the memory still lingers. I did try to write a review but the page crashed and I lost all of it and have been too lazy to rewrite one.

Altitude was our first real fine dining experience and boy did it set a standard for us. I booked a table midweek to celebrate my boyfriend's graduation. Our waiter noted this during our conversation with him and added a little personalised touch when our desserts came out. We were also given a window seat though I did not request one. The views from level 36 are just spectacular!

The food and ambience certainly matched this. We certainly enjoyed being given an amuse bouche in between each meal too. It felt like we had a 7 course meal instead of a 3 course meal. Degustation was also offered but we wanted to go a la carte (it was a little lighter on the pocket too though a la carte is only available on weekdays).

The quality of the service I think tops the evening, our waiter was just so informative and helpful, even held the door open as we left the restuarant. He received a very generous tip from my boyfriend. I am definitely looking forward to the next time that I get to come back here.

Nov 22, 2009

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

Has been a few months since my boyfriend and I last dined here but I can't help but think about the food and wanting to come back again. This little gem is conveniently close to me but I seemed to have driven right by for so long and not know it existed. We now know that we don't have to drive very far for good french food!

Food was absolutely fantastic, it was the very first time I had tried escargot too! Thanks to the chef's amuse bouche. We were so full after our entrees and mains but the dessert menu was just so tempting that we forced ourselves to share a dessert.

We hadn't made a booking that night but luckily we got there a little early because after we got there tables started filling up very quickly. It was still quite cold at the time so we definitely wanted to dine inside but the table was right near the open door which wasn't too good as I had the sniffles too.

Our waiter was very good, attentive enough without being over bearing. There were only 3 wait staff running the floor and the restaurant was pretty much full to capacity but they were efficient. Definitely want to try and come back here again sometime in the near future! I've discovered the joys of fine dining and this place is just as good without the big big price tag attached and you don't feel like you have to dress up too much as it's a more laid back atmosphere, a little bistro you could call it.

Nov 22, 2009

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  8     

We came up from Sydney for the weekend and my boyfriend left me with the decision of booking somewhere nice for our first night's dinner. After searching up many review sites and getting only limited reviews on limited venues I decided to go with Vanitas.

We'd both only started on the fine dining scene this year and I can say we were definitely not let down with every aspect of our dinner. The food was very fresh and flavours amazing. Portions tended to look a little on the small side but then they serve the food on such large plates! I enjoyed everything from the amuse bouche to dessert. And my boyfriend was quite blown away too. They offer both degustation and a la carte menus but I find that we enjoy a la carte a lot more, the mister is a little on the fussy side when it comes to food.

Being a Thursday night and a 7 pm sitting we were one of the first few dining but it just meant that we were paid extra attention which was fine by me. The restaurant settings were absolutely beautiful, we had a window table facing the lagoon which was a little strange but at night was beautiful nonetheless.

The total bill for 2 came to just over $200 which was worth the 2 hours we dined there. Had an entree, main and dessert each, plus a beer, still water and a glass of dessert wine. The complimentary amuse bouche and bread was a nice touch. If fine dining is on the budget for our next trip up we will most probably be back here again.

Nov 22, 2009

6.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  7     

Group of 4 of us went here to celebrate a birthday couple of months ago. It was a little confusing to find even though the birthday boy had been here before (a while ago). There's a little cramped lift that will take you up but there's no direct signage (in English?) to direct you to it.

Food is pretty good for Jap food, not the best but it passes for a good meal. Can't even remember all that we ordered but the entrees we shared were good, octopus balls with beneto shavings, fried tofu, prawn gyoza's, soft shell crab salad. I had the grilled salmon and rice which was decent. Definitely value for money here.

Service was okay, budget asian eateries are not known for service. It would help if the waitress spoke a little clearer english, but we got what we ordered correctly. Quiet a cosy little eatery it is, probably not ideal for large groups. Decor could do with a little maintenance but it was no drama. Boyfriend and I wanted to revisit but were disappointed to see they were closed that day.

Apr 14, 2009

6 Average

Food  6      Ambience  7      Service  5      Value  6     

First impressions can make or break the experience. First time I tried R&R was actually take away from the North Ryde branch, by the time we ate the ribs they were a little on the cold side but left us wanting to actually go back and dine in and eat those ribs piping hot.

Early on a Thursday evening we decided to give R&R Homebush a try to celebrate the bf's birthday and it has left us somewhat skeptical but willing to give them a second go.

Food: Very mediocre indeed. The beef ribs we had were very fatty and full of cartilage. Sauce was good but ribs could have done with a bit of martinating time in the sauce. Seafood basket, I could definitely tell that the food was double fried, yes it was mega crispy, but there was excess amounts of oil covering the food. The calamari tasted okay, fish tasted like it was the kind you get from the frozen section of Woolies. As with the open kitchen, it's not very appealing watching the "chefs" play with the rib racks or emptying the contents of a plastic bag with what looks like prepackaged sauce. Left with very dissatisfied appetites.

Ambience: Lose the bulk packaged ingredients that are on display, the tins of dried herbs, jugs of ketchup. Sitting across from the kitchen window with all this on display on shelves outside the kitchen was not good. I know alot of places do use this stuff but I don't need to see it displayed in bulk and on show as part of the decor. The rest of the place did look good, very modern and warming. Though there were only a few of us dining at the time the place did feel like it had the potential to provide great atmosphere even when busy.

Service: Walked through the entrance to be stared at by a group of staff gathered at the front counter. Rather than be approached with service we had to approach the group (not knowing which was the host) to get seated . I do not believe that they can be booked out for a Thursday evening. We arrived just a little after 6 and apparently they were booked. They managed to sit us at a table but said we had to be done and gone by 7.30 which was okay by us because we weren't planning to stick around too long anyway.

Lady who served us was a little too over attentive it was a little annoying, over frequently "checking" on us. After we finished we kept staring down staff members to get the bill (why is it that they never look at you). If we do decide to eventually visit again hopefully the service won't be as bad.

Value: Was a-okay, I am hoping that the quality of the food we ordered was just a one off experience. Will be interesting to try a steak next time. It is a little on the pricier side. Other Steakhouse is definitely cheaper but we were under the impression that the quality at R&R would at least be higher than Outback. *Fingers crossed that we get what we pay for next time*

Apr 14, 2009

1 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

After eating here again a couple of weeks ago (after my last review 3 years ago!) I was curious as to what the reviews were like, obviously it wasn't a one off bad experience we just had. This place has gone absolutely downhill! Or is it just Friday late lunchtime cruddy service? I was utterly bemused to be sent to order my food from the counter, seat myself and then be harrassed by an obnoxious waiter to order drinks.

What was the point of all the wait staff and the maitre d'? The food was just a pile of grease on our plates. I had the eggplant parmigiana and the bf had chicken involtini. The dishes tasted strange and we had to switch dishes to "change the flavour". We struggled to swallow the food, even the "complimentary" bread rolls were poor quality, tough and dry.

I was left in absolute shock leaving the place, we couldn't get out quick enough! Only reason our plates were clean is because we were just starving, didn't get to sit down to lunch until about 2 pm. Other s just around the corner probably would have been more satisfying. This place has now been crossed off the list of places to revisit. There's not much of a "view" here either as most of the time you've got a big ferry blocking your view as it's situated right behind a wharf.

Overall Recommended, Food 8 Ambience 7 Service 7 Value 8

Great location with a view. Good food, not the best but my boyfriend and I both thought it was reasonable quality for a reasonable price. Fast food style Italian with waiters bringing it to your table. The service was alright not too bad, not the best but we both left satisfied. Was this review helpful?

luvinfood - See my reviews 17, 22 July 2006.

Apr 14, 2009

1.3 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  2      Service  1      Value  1     

Scanning up and down the strip at the various menus my boyfriend decided we would eat here, yes it was the cheapest but it was pretty expensive for what we got!

No wait staff in sight, we tried standing at both entrances of the outside dining area only to be ignored by a girl rushing out serving drinks to a table and then walking straight by us back inside. Finally walked into the restaurant to ASK for a table, no happy greetings here. Placed our menu with a man who appeared to be the owner only to have him come back two seconds later to confirm what I had ordered.

Asked for our "side order" of garlic bread to be served first as the "entrees" were a little too pricey for our liking. Waited and waited and waited to have the bread come out cold and tough, obviously been left there too long. We were told they would serve us half garlic half herb bread but I couldn't taste any difference if they actually did do it.

Food finally came, had a try of boyfriend's potato and pumpkin gnocci, a little salty but ok, the more you ate the worse it got though, I had sweet chilli snapper fillets with vegies and rice, food was swimming in rice and the bowl of rice was so cold and dry. There was barely any fish on my plate either. First thing I picked up was the cauliflower and it was stone cold. Then the chilli hit my throat and I started choking, when the chilly subsided I could taste that it was overly salty.

The fish had so many bones for such a small peice of "fillet". I had every nerve to send back my food but I was too hungry to care, I just kept thinking that I'll never ever come back here again. From the time we placed out order and finished our drinks before any food was to be seen we were just complaining to each other about the poor experience we were having.

Only think I enjoyed was the Pina Colada cocktail. The waiter had the nerve to fakely ask us if we enjoyed ourselves and asked us what we thought of the food, I was tempted to lash out but my boyfriend kindly said the fish was a little too boney, and he barely understood that cos he was obviously not a local boy. No offense but all the wait staff had foreign accents and the way they handled service it was just a very poor reflection on them.

Sep 13, 2008