OZIN Restaurant — Restaurant in Adelaide

Dined here at 7pm on 26/7, table of 2.

We decided to dine here after reading the menu, the restaurant’s concept, and—what we now realise—overly glorified five-star reviews.

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Service

I cannot fault the service from the staff, as they were overall friendly, professional, and attentive. However, after being seated, we weren’t offered any water or drinks until the floor manager noticed that the staff hadn’t attended to us.

I also expected the floor manager to check in with us after we gave feedback on our meal—at the very least when we were paying. That said, props to the waitress for at least asking how everything was.

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Atmosphere

Pretty much what everyone else has mentioned—it’s been set up nicely with a niche ambience.

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Food

This is where it went pear-shaped for us. We ordered the following dishes, with our feedback noted underneath: Chargrilled Smoky Chicken – Marinated in Moroccan spices, served with seasonal salad • We expected a half chicken, not what turned out to be chicken tikka pieces. We understand the concept here is to explore global cuisines, but at the end of the day this felt like glorified chicken tikka.

The Rump Steak – With red wine jus • We requested it cooked medium, but it came out closer to medium-well—barely any pink in sight. We sent it back. The waitress returned and relayed a message from the chef stating, “This is what medium is.” Now, I’m not a trained chef, but a medium steak should have visible pink throughout—not be bordering on medium-well. The waitress was polite and said, “This is what I’ve been asked to say, but I can have it redone if you’d like.” We were hesitant but gave it another go. We saw the chef’s clear displeasure when the steak was returned—he slammed the bell and pointed at the plate for the waitress to collect it. Honestly, I feel bad for the front-of-house staff who have to deal with a kitchen attitude like that. I can only imagine how it would be on a busy night. In the end, we didn’t finish the steak—it had no flavour, just bland.

Roasted Baby Potatoes – Tossed in garlic butter • Not sure where the garlic went—tasted more like turmeric. A piece even fell onto a pair of jeans and...

We had a very memorable dining experience in OZIN a couple of weeks ago.

The menu was pretty simple but it had sufficient choices available for a small group, such as a couple like us. The prices were very moderate and the portion size were bewteen reasonable to generous.

The combination of dishes were a bit interesting as it was mainly Australian dishes but with smaller Asian dishes such as Nepalese Momo (dumplings), Japanese Edamame, Mexican Taco, Indian Naan (flat bread) and Thai Curry etc. I think their main theme of dishes were chargrilled food with Australian produces but with international inspirations. This type of restaurant as a fusion of different international cuisines are not uncommon in Hong Kong and they are also quite offen been seen in some high end hotels in South East Asian countries. Although I haven't seen many Australian restaurants do this type of fusion cuisines, but OZIN really did it extremely well and their food were amazing.

We ordered a few things that were chargrilled, including the Edamame, Lamb Cutlets, King Prawns and Beef Scotch Fillet. All of these chargrilled food were mouthwatering. All of them served while hot and the cooking times were just perfect.

The naan (flat bread) was probably their signature and it was highly recommended by their friendly staff as originally I didn't order it. It was so delicious especially the Rosemary and Garlic Butter dip sauce which tasted so good that I could never forget it.

The red wine sauce for the steak and the dip sauce for lamb cutlets were very outstanding too.

The desserts that we ordered were Burnt Basque Cheesecake and Pistachio Creme Brulee. They were fantastic endings of this unforgettable dinner.

In view of the good dining atmosphere, exceptional quality of food, situated at the popular dining region of East End, friendly services by the staff and their food are reasonable priced, I highly recommend this restaurant and hope you would enjoy it as I did if you would give it a try.

Just one kind advice to OZIN, if the A4 paper menu can be presented in a better paper or in a nicely designed hard envelope would make the first impression upon arrival much...

The is a major difference from reviews I have read and what I experienced last night. I am so confused how anyone would rate it highly at all. Did we just get unlucky?

Firstly, the good stuff. The fit out is good. The place looks great, they've done a good job here. The staff were super welcoming when we arrived but that shortly ended as it descended into an unorganized mess.

Our booking was at 7pm. We arrived on time ordered a drink each on arrival and then waited 20 minutes to order our meals. The place was busy and new so we were understanding. We ordered 2 starters and 3 small plates.

The starters came out around 8:10. Such a long wait for what we received. A fish taco that was small, overpriced and bland and some bruschetta that looked like it was on a piece of bread from Cole's. This was then the theme of the night.

Shortly after we were given free shots of some alcohol as an apology for the food taking so long. This was a nice touch until I saw them being given to nearly half of the restaurant. No one has food.

The kitchen has no idea what they are doing. Plates are coming out to wrong tables. I saw an older couple literally cheer when their food arrived as it had taken so long. Another table complains about waiting over an hour.

There are so many staff on, all standing around the kitchen waiting and arguing with them about meals coming out. I saw the kitchen manager hold his hand up to the face of our waiter who was asking how long our meal would be. Disgusting attitude.

No one cleared our plates. No one asked us if we ever wanted a second drink the entire evening.

Our food eventually came out at 8:35pm after asking twice about it. Small, overpriced and average. $16 for 2 tiny meat skewers that were dry and flavourless.

I get that it's a new place so I tried to be understanding but it was terribly managed. We were offered a discount on the way out which we appreciated but you only get one chance to make a first impression. I couldn't see one happy customer last night. Don't advertise on Glam Adelaide if this is how you...