Light Years - Byron Bay — Restaurant in Byron Bay

I took my wife and 2 dogs to this place. Before we got there, I looked at their website, it says dog friendly in outdoor sitting area, and I couldn’t make reservation for outdoor dining area tables.

When we got there, I asked a female staff first who was working outside if there was a table for us,she said she was not sure and went to inside to ask. When she returned, she asked me to go inside to ask the reception.

I had dog leash around my waist for our 2 dogs, so when I passed the leash to my wife, I told her to sit down and look at the menu while I go inside to ask for a available table. She also wears heels, not high but we have been walking for 20 mins from the hotel to this restaurant.

Our dogs are medium size and they can pull easily, so she sat down on a stall with her back to the table. This table is the one close to the entrance which our dogs would not pull too much when they see I leave. Also she tried to send the signal to the staff that she was ready to move to any table when they gave us and she was not settling at this table.

Once we sorted out the dogs, there was another male staff rushed out from inside and told my wife to leave the table immediately. She was so shocked and he even didn’t leave a gap to her to explain. He kept saying that this table was reserved and you can’t sit here. There were 2 other tables in the outdoor area and he did not tell her to wait over there. We own a customer service business and fully understand the stress and frustration during peak hours, but I strongly believe it would cost him nothing to be a bit of polite and respectful rather than raising his voice and made assumptions. If any of the management team reads this post, please help your team to improve the service quality to avoid upsetting customers in future for an unnecessary reasons. We ended up with another restaurant with friendly staff having smiles on their face.

It was our first night in Byron Bay and very disappointing for what happened in your restaurant. If we could give 0, it would be...

The good: food was lovely. We had the Kingfish Ceviche (strongly recommended), bao buns with pork (strongly recommended), Duck pancakes (flavour wise very nice, duck could have been a bit more crispy) and the eggplant (also very good). Most of the staff were very friendly.

The bad: We had a Canadian girl with short blond hair (Think her name was P*r) as our waitress. She started of nice, asking if we wanted normal water or sparkling water. We said sparkling. She was back at our table within a minute asking if we wanted to order a cocktail. We said we didn't have time to look at the drinks menu yet and asked if we could have a bit longer. Within two minutes she was back asking if she could take our drinks. Only read the first 4 cocktails by that time. As it felt a bit pushy (also the tone of voice) my husband said we would just keep it with the sparkling water for now. After about 10 minutes (our first glasses of sparkling water weren't even finished) she asked if we were allright and grabbed our, at least half fullbottle of water away. My husband and I looked at each other confused (We had just ordered a cocktail with another waiter after we got a chance to read the cocktail menu). She came back with a full bottle of sparkling water and put it hard on the table. I smiled and said thank you but no response (this actually happened both with me and my husband). My husband and I joked that even though she was rude and unkind while working in such a wonderful restaurant at least she gave good service by refilling the bottle while not even half done. After this we didn't see much of her. We got the bill eventually with a very kind Dutch waitress.

The ugly: By the end we saw that twice 3 AUD was charged for a bottle of sparkling water. She didn't tell us that it was paid water and due to this the "service part" was suddenly not service but more rudeness. Not about the money otherwise we wouldn't have chosen this place to eat at but purely out of principle...

Had a 7pm sitting tonight (Sunday) for 2. We were excited to come to Light Years, having been recommended and seen such great reviews. Unfortunately it was a mixed experience for us. Whilst the food was mostly great, the service really ruined the experience for us.

First impressions, the setting/decor is beautiful, we were warmly welcomed and sat promptly. From there, we went 20-25 minutes without so much as a hint of service. After seeing other tables arrive later and get served whilst we still waited, we requested some service from one of the staff and got a short response back. Finally a few minutes later our drinks and food order were taken - two cocktails and the premium feed me. There was an apology for the wait and a comment about taking something off the bill, which never actually happened.

We had put a shellfish allergy in the booking notes which was confirmed upon arrival, and we advised the waitress again when ordering - the second course was a crab, scallop and prawn dumpling (aka definitely shellfish). Thankfully I realised before eating and had to ask to get it resolved.

I will say, the food for the most part was excellent; the Kingfish Ceviche, Fish Bao, Lamb Ribs and Beef Rendang were all standouts. I can see why the place has great reviews and gets recommended because those courses were delicious. I didn't love the coleslaw, fried chicken or dessert, but my partner did, so just personal preferences really.

For the premium feed me, two cocktails and two gin and tonics, the total came to $280. Whilst i enjoyed most of the food, I honestly would struggle to recommend Light Years based on my experience - from the lack of service, serving food I'm allergic to and then a lack of making it right, sadly I left with a sour taste...