Alegrias — Restaurant in Sydney

10 of us ate here tonight for my daughter's 31st Birthday. Had never been before but based on reviews and pictures on the website we thought we'd give it a go. Beautiful decor, polite staff. Several of us wanted the oxtail canneloni only to be told that it was no longer on their menu. The vegetarian at our table ordered a meal and was later told she would have to change her order as that meal was also not being served. Not a good omen we thought. After our tapas orders plus a main and a paella were taken, we were told the main and paella would come last. Fair enough. BUT when everyone at the table received their tapas order and another half hour had gone by and 3 of our dishes had not arrived (my 2 tapas for my dinner plus another diner's tapas order) I started to wonder if they had forgotten our meals. We had been seated upstairs and felt we'd been forgotten. The place was not full, we were the only occupied table upstairs and there were a couple of other larger tables and a couple of smaller ones occupied downstairs. The staff only came once to clear our table in that first hour and when the waiter finally returned as I was about to go downstairs, I asked him where my food was as it had been quite a while. I was told "the scallops will be coming last with the paella" I was gobsmacked, the 2 tapas dishes were my dinner and I'd been sitting at the table now for over an hour without food. I said to him " you did say the tapas would be served first and the paella would come out last. Two of us have not had any food, could you please bring us our meals" He said he would BUT at least another 20 minutes went by before we were served our meals. The scallops wrapped in serano ham were tasteless, over cooked and the jerez (brandy) sauce was over powering and all I could taste. I was disappointed to say the least after the ridiculously long wait. When the paella finally arrived I had a taste and it did not taste like a paella should. The flavour was plain and if I had not seen the seafood in it I would have sworn there was none as it did not contribute to the taste. The other main of slow cooked beef cheeks looked like 2 small mountain peaks of dark brown beef sitting in a bowl of thick dark chocolate soup. They were tender but the presentation left a lot to be desired. The service was ridiculously slow. It is Tuesday night, we only saw 3 staff, it was not full and we did not have a very good first experience here and I will not recommend it or return again. Very expensive for...

I have never in my life experienced such graciousness towards me and my family of 6. I have four beautiful children that are well behaved and when i took the whole family out for the night and came upon this restaurant my view of life changed. The service was phenomenal with comfortable seating and amazing vibes. The food blew me away. I was expecting to have to cater to my three boys and one girl who are all still in primary school yet the staff here did an amazing job of entertaining them while also keeping everything professional.

It was an amazing experience and I will return without fail to celebrate a birthday. I have recommended this too friends and all of them have said the exact same.

Edit: I returned to this restaurant not a week later because i couldn't stay away. This time it was only me and my wife Sidney. We were sitting on a table for two across from what seemed to be a function of some sorts. The night was going well until the time for payment came. We were also just finishing our meals but the commotion from the large group next to us became too much. There seemed to be a problem with the payments and while I saw the staff desperately trying to resolve the situation in a professional manner I couldn't help but notice the incredible length of one of the patrons noses who sat at that table. There seemed to be an argument about the payment and while the staff who I assure were very capable of dealing with this tried to reason with the members of that table the man with the long nose pulled a calculator out of his abnormal appendage and began to criticize the way the payment was being calculated. I did not hear everything being said but phrases such as "I bet you work for the false state of Palestine" became very distinct as the man started to become aggressive.

We thus decided to leave the venue and gave a large tip to the staff because they had to deal with this violent group of people. I will be returning to the restaurant again as the experience was amazing apart from these...

Firstly, I'd like to say the website menu hasn't been updated, so when we arrived we were told the majority of what we wanted was no longer available, not really an issue, but what was an issue was the incredibly bland , poorly cooked food- you know what's a really bad look, when all your chefs and workers sit down to eat, and you have ordered pizza , after a customer complaint. That's all I'm going to leave you with.

Edit: in response to Alegrias reply, I'd like to clarify, there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with Your staff sitting down to a meal, however what is wrong, is the $140 I paid for lamb that made me throw up. When I told your staff member that the meat had been sitting there for a long time , he didn't disagree, infact he didn't say anything. The salad wasn't what I ordered , the meat made me sick, and the food was cooked poorly, please don't attempt to blame the poor quality of food on shortages or lack of government handouts, the food made me ill, I had eaten nothing else all day, and the lamb sent me running to the bathroom. The freekah was completely tasteless- I'm not trying to trash your business, but I don't appreciate paying top dollar for food that wasn't cooked with any consideration, and staff who can't acknowledge a customer raising a concern at the time. You're rated highly amongst online forums when searching for great tapas, you should be able to do better than what I was presented with. The meat wasn't fit for consumption and I don't appreciate that. The reason it looked bad was because I had a terrible experience, then I see your staff eating food that's not from your establishment, it cemented my bad experience. May I add, it's not a good look to call customers telling them they shouldn't have been able to make a booking on your website for a seating, that was well within your operating hours. That was in no way our issue, however I should have taken it as a sign not to come because I deeply regret it - especially after reading...