Afous Moroccan and Spanish Tapas — Restaurant in Sydney

I am writing this now because it has not left my mind in the last month as to how disappointed I was in Afous for my 50th Birthday May 26th. Firstly I booked weeks in advance and actually called and spoke to Omar and Team along with 2 emails - booking a birthday lunch for 11 people at 2pm. At no point was I told that the kitchen would close at 3pm and the booking was for 2pm. I was embarrassed that and I turned up at 2pm and we were all pushed and greeted with ' hurry up and order as the kitchen closes at 3pm'. I knew that everyone had different things they ate, some didn't like seafood, my Sister and I do not eat lamb, there was a couple of gluten frees - we had always in the past chosen our own beautiful dishes at Afous in the past catering to our own likings and by 2.10pm we had been pushed and side swiped into the banquet by Omar and staff (which is double to price per head of a main), which was definitely not what everyone wanted. Then the whole perfume on the hands ceremony which is a touch I just adored was done for some and not for others - again in a complete hurry to get us over and done with. I had to ask for it for some guests. It was all as if we were a complete inconvenience. Then we were rushed through the food it was very obvious, dishes on dishes on top of eachother. What was the final insult was that when I received the bill we were charged $45 for table water! We just wanted tap water and I have never been to a restaurant that does that. Then my intention was we would have some of your beautiful desserts with our own choice of main but the kitchen was closed! So my friend bought 10 macaroons and one slice of cake for me. We were then charged $3,50 per head for cakeage!! That is more than the individual macaroons that were just handed around the table. I also had one friend that had to leave at 3.00pm so didn't even have the full banquet and we still were charged in full for her plus the cakeage. I was so upset by the end I couldnt even face the staff. We were then ask to leave twice for the dinner setting and then when my best friend went to pay for everyone Omar actually asked her for a tips for the kitchen staff!!!! That was the last straw the consensus of all was absolute disgust - you could take the cakeage and charges for table water as...

Came here last week with 11 others and we had the $60 banquet menu. The entire group was extremely disappointed with the food. We paid $60 per person and got served such little quantities most of us left hungry. We were served 2 plates of prawns with 6 prawns in each so each person got ONE prawn. No desert. The waitress thought a gift box was a cake we brought and came later to ask us “would you like the cake cut” we all looked confused and told him oh do we get cake? He replied yes then went inside and never came back out, then another waitress came and informed us there is no desert. He could have just said he got confused and thought we had bought our own cake instead he was unprofessional and played along and made us assume desert was coming. The food was so stingy things like sautéed mushrooms, haloumi and pan fried potatoes... might as well have breakfast at a cafe and pay less than half the price. The owner was so cheesy and awkward with his “welcome home” everytime he would visit our table. Nothing about this was a Moroccan experience. No tagine insight. NEVER AGAIN VISITING THIS RESTAURANT, you don’t deserve $780 for 12 people for potatoes, a few prawns and sautéed mushrooms. Shame on you for ripping people off....

Six of us attended Afous for a birthday. The very patient staff were so helpful and calm. They were flexible with tapas quantities and suggested dishes that could be shared. We ordered the fish, the lentils and the lamb tagine for mains along with cous cous and green veges. All was beautiful presented and the taste infusions were fabulous. I also organised for a cake to be delivered and they mounted candles in a swirl to match the design of the ganache. They were incredibly helpful. We felt very welcome. The breeze drifted through the windows as the sun set, and our visit was fabulous. Why give 5 stars? I critique on several contexts with restaurants: Staff greeting, seating attention to menu and suggestions of food pairings along with size guide; How the atmosphere is in the restaurant, cleanliness, efficiency of space in context and comfort; Timeliness of ordering and delivery of food with space between courses; Food presentation, quality of ingredients and freshness along with flavour; and Flexibility (within reason) to make the visit memorable including how the bill is paid and whether it can be split. Afous met all these criteria very well. We...