Cafe Sydney, Circular Quay

Never have I regretted a choice of restaurant more.

I took my husband to Cafe Sydney to celebrate his 30th birthday. I booked weeks in advance to ensure we secured a great table outside to enjoy the view. Upon booking, and confirmation, I spoke to Cafe Sydney staff about the fact that my husband and I are both vegetarian. On their menu they have 2 veg entress and 1 veg main. This concerned me a little, but the staff at Cafe Sydney assured me that the meal would certainly be outstanding, and that they could also show us their vegan menu upon our arrival. The vegan menu, it turns out, was completely uninspiring. We took one look at pushed it aside.

We arrived at 8pm and were seated - the view is certainly breathtaking. We had a cocktail each and order a goat's cheese and spinach naan and caramelised onion naan to nibble on with our drinks. The drinks and bread arrived within 5 minutes - this is when we started to feel rushed. The naans were tasty, both the cheese and spinach naan contained zero spinach.. I dismissed it and sat back to enjoy my cocktail with my hubby, when all of a sudden the empty plate was snatched away and our main course was put in front of us.

My husband had the one and only veg main which was a spinach gnocchi with persian fetta and some other trimmings - it looked great on the menu, but as my husband said "was the worst gnocchi I've had in my life". I had two entrees as my main - the betroot and goat's cheese tart, plus the stuffed zuchinni flowers. My entrees were good, but the gnocchi was so lacklustre - it upset me that my husband should have to eat something out of pure hunger rather than enjoyment on his 30th birthday. With the portions so small and the gnocchi so bland, we ordered a side of fries. Yes, fries at Cafe Sydney... The fries arrived within seconds, and unfortunately, they were probably the food highlight for my husband last night.

The waitress came and asked us would we like wine with our mains.. but we had only just started our cocktails so I remarked that we would have loved some only we had only recently recieved our cocktails and were not expecting our mains so quickly. She just walked away.

As soon as we put our knives and forks together, our table was cleared and the ever efficient waitress asked us would we like dessert - fed up with feeling rushed, hungry and ripped off, we politely declined and asked for the bill. We ate, we paid, we left, all within about 30 minutes. We then decided to have some gelato at Circular Quay to try and salvage the evening (and to fill our growling tummies)! But we felt so sore and ripped off after our dining experience at cafe Sydney that the evening was utterly ruined.

Clearly Cafe Sydney does not give a s*** and are there to make serious money. I commend Cafe Sydney on their ueber-efficiency - get 'em in and get'em out. Incredibly expensive, very rushed, and ruined my husband's 30th birthday night out.

I apologise for the negative tone of my post, dear readers, however I just had to write this. I will dissuade every contact I have from dining at Cafe Sydney - vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.


Ladybird x