sirturtle

6.5 Recommended

Food  6      Ambience  6      Service  7      Value  7     

Just average. Pasta dish too oily. Service/value okay. That's about all there is to say.

Mar 13, 2010

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  7     

The food here is as outstanding as the one in Darling Harbour. I had the Gold Monte steak which is a lovely 250 gm tender steak and served with fat chips and side dishes of salad or veg. I have my meat extra well done but still it was one of the most tender and juicy steaks I have ever had. I then had an rhubarb/apple crumble for dessert to share with my wife, we both loved it. Our dining partners had shaslicks, wagyu steak and rib eye. All excellent. The service was good, a very attentive wait staff and the pricing is quite ok considering the quality.

Mar 13, 2010

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  8     

Brilliant location up above overlooking Darling Harbour and across to the CBD watching the night descend upon the skyscrapers. Superb variety of food and wine, enough to please any palate. Our table enjoyed wood fire pizza, steak, pasta, chicken nad seafood and all agreed it was a top scoring affair. The many waiting staff are well drilled and have little radio communication devices so they can call others over to assist if they are overwhelmed in an area, which by the way is expansive and has interesting and trendy fixtures abounding. You won't be disappointed by going here.

Jan 05, 2010

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  7     

Enjoyed a very fine lunch here on New Years Eve. The staff were quite friendly and attuned to our needs well, the service was prompt. We devoured a steak cooked to perfection and one of their hanging skewers, which we thought was an interesting to serve up this dish. All in a prime position overlooking Cockle Bay Wharf. Very nice.

Jan 05, 2010

7.3 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  7     

I can't say a memorable culinary experience but pleasant enough environment, ruined by one staff's completely arrogant and rude service. That's all I can say really. We won't bother again, nothing inspired us enough to come back.

Dec 14, 2009

6.5 Recommended

Food  6      Ambience  6      Service  7      Value  7     

Just average. Pasta dish too oily. Service/value okay. That's about all there is to say.

Mar 13, 2010

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  7     

The food here is as outstanding as the one in Darling Harbour. I had the Gold Monte steak which is a lovely 250 gm tender steak and served with fat chips and side dishes of salad or veg. I have my meat extra well done but still it was one of the most tender and juicy steaks I have ever had. I then had an rhubarb/apple crumble for dessert to share with my wife, we both loved it. Our dining partners had shaslicks, wagyu steak and rib eye. All excellent. The service was good, a very attentive wait staff and the pricing is quite ok considering the quality.

Mar 13, 2010

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  8     

Brilliant location up above overlooking Darling Harbour and across to the CBD watching the night descend upon the skyscrapers. Superb variety of food and wine, enough to please any palate. Our table enjoyed wood fire pizza, steak, pasta, chicken nad seafood and all agreed it was a top scoring affair. The many waiting staff are well drilled and have little radio communication devices so they can call others over to assist if they are overwhelmed in an area, which by the way is expansive and has interesting and trendy fixtures abounding. You won't be disappointed by going here.

Jan 05, 2010

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  7     

Enjoyed a very fine lunch here on New Years Eve. The staff were quite friendly and attuned to our needs well, the service was prompt. We devoured a steak cooked to perfection and one of their hanging skewers, which we thought was an interesting to serve up this dish. All in a prime position overlooking Cockle Bay Wharf. Very nice.

Jan 05, 2010

7.3 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  7     

I can't say a memorable culinary experience but pleasant enough environment, ruined by one staff's completely arrogant and rude service. That's all I can say really. We won't bother again, nothing inspired us enough to come back.

Dec 14, 2009

7.5 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  5     

Have been here a few times over the years under different names and although it doesn’t come across as a high class establishment we’ve always very much enjoyed the whole experience. The seafood is delightfully fresh and tasty, and they do a great seafood platter too. The prices this time seemed a bit on the high side, but I guess that can happen anywhere with fluctuating quality seafood market prices.

Service was attentive and friendly, we were never left wanting throughout the night. The view is unique and interesting with the revolving experience, albeit a little tacky.

Nov 15, 2009

7.8 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  9      Service  6      Value  9     

We haven't ever dined here of an evening but in terms of the breakfast buffet it really is a hit or miss affair. We have savoured the breakfast buffet many times over the years after staying in the hotel with the most recent being Nov 2009. Many times the service is good and the food very well stocked and presented with plenty of choice, in fact one of the best in Australia.

Sadly, on this most recent occasion the experience was not so good. The service was nothing short of appalling, where we repeatedly had to chase staff down for tea/coffee refills and a lack of clean cutlery etc. This happens sometimes on a Sunday morning after a wedding at the hotel but you’d think they’d know this by now and put extra staff on to cope, or do they just not care?

The food this time was quite okay, although not quite as good as some other times, apart from the tea which looked and tasted as if brewed using dirty dish water. Still, the lovely serene view overlooking the Glenelg beach and jetty almost makes up for it, but not quite. Fingers crossed that we strike a good one on our next visit, which we surely will give the brilliant $20 a head price tag if staying at the hotel.

Nov 15, 2009

8 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  9      Service  8      Value  8     

We found the experience quite enjoyable and a very different culinary concept being a mixture of traditional Indian and some English colonialist inspired dishes. We found the staff very friendly and helpful from go to woe (we were one of the first to arrive and last table to leave). We enjoyed creations such as braised beef with plum and rhubarb and sided by a creamy mauve coloured beetroot raita topped with potato straws.

There was also an Indian spiced Shepherd’s Pie. Whilst not being the best food you’ll ever eat the dishes are most interesting and very edible. The restaurant is split into 2 areas with the main section being a little cramped for room but by the way the tables are arranged they have somehow gotten away with it as we were not disturbed by any other patrons in terms of being bumped into.

Rather noisy though and impossible not to overhear conversations around us but again it all added to the fun of the place. The interior is fully glass fronted, and dimly lit with an appealing colonialist Indian British Royalty feel to it in the mounted animal trophy heads, and features such as thick velvet curtains and a wood cutting wall together with funky Indian influenced background rock music.

Quite a lot to keep you interested. Next door in the Thali Room where they serve tasting plates they have set up a more intimate setting with even dimmer lighting and some lovely tables for 2 tucked away in alcoves with a cosy bar at the rear. The prices aren’t outrageous with starters ranging from $8 to about $12 and main courses from $15 to $25. Not somewhere you would visit every week but absolutely interesting enough to warrant the occasional attendance.

Nov 03, 2009

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  7     

Lovely setting, warm and cosy indoors near the wood fire ovens for winter and outside under the atrium in summer. Definitely homestyle Italian cooking as advertised. Very enjoyable and at low cost. A very inexperienced waitress, but a cutie all the same. Worth visiting here for sure.

Oct 23, 2009

5.8 Average

Food  7      Ambience  4      Service  6      Value  6     

Ordinary experience really overall, nothing to write home about. Food was adequate but not outstanding as suggested by some professional food critics in recent write ups of this place (although I notice all of them are on a first name basis with the proprietors so hardly unbiased write ups). My wife had the Ribs n Bugs which she thought was mediorce at best and I had the King George Whiting in batter with some odd hand made round chips both of which were quite oily, greasy and sickly by the end.

The caramelised Apple Tart that we shared was very good though. A saving grace was the extensive well planned wine list containing some good aged offerings and half bottles of French Champagne.

Other than the intriguing foyer and ice bar, the setting really only has 1 thing going for it being an elevated view of the leafy plane trees on the footpath outside but across the road is only an ugly vacant block (the still undeveloped former le cornu site).

The carpeted floor has massively squeaky floor boards underneath almost drowning our conversation if a group of people walk in (I noticed all of the staff tip toe around as if on egg shells to avoid the floor creaking noises. It appears they can't employ anyone weighing over 75 kg for this reason).

Service was polite and helpful by the majority of staff, however, when we arrived a senior staff member flippantly hand gestured towards our seating and then walked off without seating us properly and at the end of the night sat at a table near us rudely talking to some aquaintances in a loud voice for a good 45m. We weren't impressed.

Needless to say there is nothing here drawing us to come back at all.

Oct 04, 2009