Toby R.

Reviews

bel mondo, The Rocks

Restaurants, International, Italian, Mediterranean, Modern Australian

Overall 7.4 127

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

2.5 Not Recommended

Food 3 Ambience 5 Service 1 Value 1

I like talk back radio. My job has me driving around the city most days and I clearly recalled the sultry tones of the lady from the Bel Mondo advertisement on 2UE when I was informed we would be celebrating a friends 30th birthday there. “You only need one word” she says … “Mmmmmmmm”. It was enticing stuff indeed, and it certainly had me looking forward to dinner last Saturday evening the 24th September. But, and its quite a big But the night ended with 10 of us sitting around the table at 11:35 pm, and not one of us had caught a whiff of the Bel Mondo “Mmmmmmmm” experience.

Let’s start at the beginning and, perhaps, you can get a picture of why I’m still frustrated. The table was booked for 7:30 pm but due to the really bad weather and traffic a few of us were running late. Unfortunately, we weren’t all seated until 7:55 pm with my fiancée and I being the last guests to arrive. Everyone at the table already had menu’s and we wanted to quickly make a decision on the meal so as not to delay others. So we waited to be given our menus and we waited and we waited and then we got served a bread roll and then we waited some more.

Needless to say, they really weren’t off to a flying start when at 8:45 pm we still hadn’t received a menu, when our impatient waiter finally came to take our order. All 10 of us ordered the 2 course a la carte special, 9 having entrees and mains, with 1 person having a main and dessert. It was here, when we were placing our orders, that my fiancée’s, mine, and several other guest’s expectations were really flushed down the toilet though …

The waiter took my order first as I was sitting at the end of the table. He then proceeded to my left, and my fiancée (who is Australian with Indian heritage), to take her order next, but due to the noise in the restaurant she didn’t hear him properly when first spoken too. He then rudely decided to repeat what he said but responded by raising his voice almost to shouting, slowly over-enunciating every single syllable, and turning his head to the side in a patronizing manner.

Now I don’t know whether he thought she was dumb, 5 years old, or that English might be her second language but I have never, ever, ever seen a ruder response. I eat out fairly regularly in Sydney and I can honestly say that had it just been the two of us there we would have upped and left. The response was loud enough, and rude enough, for the 3 people sitting opposite us to stop their conversation and stare in disbelief.

Our entrees were served at about 9:10 pm to mixed reviews, but then waiting for our mains until 10:20 pm, and this after asking the same rude waiter twice where they were, really put the cherry on our “bad experience” cake! By this stage we had been sitting for close enough to 2.5 hours with nothing more than one bread roll, a meager entrée, and a waiter with a bad attitude to digest.

It got worse though, my beef tenderloin which would have been a perfect medium rare when plated, was cold by the time it got to my table. I had 3 or 4 mouthfuls because I was so hungry but then had to leave the rest. In the chef’s defense some of the other’s commented that their meals were well cooked and very tasty.

And then for desserts and after ordering 5 or 6 for the table, guess what, we waited again! They were served at 11:20 pm when the restaurant was all but empty so people quickly had to put them away so we could pay the bill and collect cars from parking stations which closed at midnight. To top it all off when presented with the bill there was a $50 "service fee" added, for what?!

My fiancée raised our disappointment with the senior staff when leaving, only to be told that everything was our fault for arriving late at the start. We both could stomach this if the food was hot, and if it took less than 2.5 hours to get our mains, but to lay the blame at our feet in this instance was outrageous.

Do yourself a favour and go somewhere else instead!