rachelbrex

Reviews

Zenobia, North Strathfield

Restaurants, Lebanese, Licensed, Serves Dinner, Serves Late Dining

Overall 6.2 71

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

7.8 Recommended

Food 9 Ambience 6 Service 7 Value 9

Since I live local I've been to Zenobia in North Strathfield at least a dozen times and I have found that the service and overall experience is better if you are with a large group of people. The set banquet menu of $45 a head is more than enough food for everyone and the waiters are extremely attentive, especially with constant drink orders.

The belly dancers on the weekend are always enjoyed too. It becomes a bit expensive if you go to Zenobia during the week, as a couple and do not order the banquet because each individual menu item is around $15-20 and they do not do mixed platters for dips or entrees like kebbeh/sambousec/falafels. However, I can't fault the food. The dips and entree dishes are great, everything always tastes fresh and the waiters are always happy to bring out more Lebanese bread for dipping.

I have always loved fattoush salad over tabouli but both are good at Zenobia and the final dish of the mixed meat on skewers are always a favourite, chicken shish tawook with garlic sauce is a must.

Nov 07, 2011

Pappardelle, Haberfield

Restaurants, Italian, Family Dining, Good For Groups, Hip and Trendy

Overall 7.6 15

6 Average

Food 8 Ambience 8 Service 1 Value 7

On a Friday night a few months ago a small group of friends had organised to have dinner in Haberfield. I had been looking forward to checking out Pappardelle when I heard there was a new Italian restaurant on Ramsay St. It has a trendy interior and I had heard good things about the food. There was a mix up with the address of the restaurant that my friends had booked at and my partner and I turned up to Pappardelle (which was the wrong restaurant) while the other couple were at Filicudi (down the road).

When we walked into Pappardelle we asked the waiters if there was a booking under our friends name "Vanessa" and there was, but for 2 people not 4. We still did not realise we were at the wrong restaurant and assumed that there was simply a mistake with the numbers on the booking sheet. The waiters seemed confused yet helpful however as they were debating whether we were the "Vanessa" on the booking sheet, the owner came bounding down from the kitchen to where we were standing.

He was very rude and abrubt, snatched the booking sheet from the waiters and pointed out even more rudely that we weren't the "Vanessa" that had booked because that was his friend's table, then stomped off. Despite this the waiters were friendly enough to organise a table of 4 for us anyway, and in the meantime we tried to contact our friends because we realised that we must be in the wrong place.

It turned out that we were, however if we had been right the rudeness of the owner was so shocking and appalling that we probably would not have stayed anyway. Costumers = business and you would think that Mr Soglimbene would accept any business regardless of a booking or not, regardless of whether we were his friends or not too.

So after a bad first impression of this restaurant based purely on the attitude of the owner, we returned to Pappardelle a month later (after booking at the right place). The antipasto we ordered for starters was great, my partner had Penne Boscaiola (a bit peppery, but was enjoyed) and I had the Chicken Saltimbocca. The food was a bit pricey but tasty and the portions were large so we were happy to pay. Fortunately the owner was not there to ruin our mood that night and we left happily and full.

Oct 31, 2011