ANTE — Restaurant in Sydney

#Disappointing Experience with Food Safety and Staff Attitude

I used to love this place so much that I would bring new friends every time I visited. Naturally, when my friends from Korea planned a trip to Sydney, I included this restaurant in our itinerary. In fact, I even made it our final dinner spot to wrap up their trip on a high note.

We visited on 28.02. 2025, and ordered Radish Bottarga, Wagyu Skewer, Tagliatelle, and Lamb as the main dish. However, the wait for our food was unusually long, which was frustrating. 
Up to the Wagyu Skewer, everything was perfect. But when the Tagliatelle finally arrived, We noticed an unusual texture and, to my shock, "found a piece of STEEL WOOL in the dish." We immediately informed the staff, and they replaced the dish with a new one. At that moment, we tried to stay positive, as it was my friends’ last night in Sydney, and I didn’t want to ruin the mood. When they brought out our main dish, they also served a salad “as a gesture of goodwill.” It was not something we had asked for, but since they offered it, we decided to have a few bites. 
Then, to our disbelief, "We found a long strand of WHITE HAIR in the salad". At this point, we were deeply concerned about the restaurant’s hygiene standards and informed the staff again. They asked if we wanted a replacement, but by then, we had lost our appetite and declined. We left most of the food on the table and proceeded to pay.

What truly ruined the experience for us was the way the staff handled the situation. A female Asian staff member with twin braids brought us the bill with an attitude that was anything but apologetic. She acted as if she was doing us a favor by removing the Tagliatelle from the bill and explained that the salad was a free service anyway, so since we declined a replacement, there was nothing more they could do. Her tone was dismissive, almost as if she assumed we wouldn’t understand English. However, not only am I a Sydney local, but my friends also understood everything she was saying, which made the experience even more insulting.

The manager eventually came over, acknowledging the two hygiene issues but then claimed that no one in their kitchen had white hair, so they couldn't take responsibility for the hair in the salad. Having worked in kitchens for around four years myself. I know that thorough final checks before serving food are a basic responsibility of kitchen staff. Instead of taking accountability, they deflected blame, which was incredibly disappointing.

Also, how does steel wool end up in a pasta dish in the first place? The piece was not small, and I can't help but wonder—what if my friend had accidentally swallowed it?

I felt awful for choosing this place as the final dinner spot, thinking it would leave a great last impression of Sydney for my friends. Thanks to that, our last night was ruined!!^^ Lastly, beware of the service here. That particular staff member adjusts her attitude depending on the customers and was outright rude to us. If this restaurant wants to maintain its reputation, staff training needs to...

Absolutely loved our dinner at Ante. They don’t take bookings (which personally I find annoying AF haha) and as I’d heard they get quite busy, got there at 6 to put our name down for a table. Awkwardly the place was pretty empty and as we didn’t want to have dinner then, we decided to grab a drink close by and come back. Popped across the road to Huelo which was fabulous (amazing cocktails and super friendly staff would highly recommend going there first!) and then came back at around 7 to put our name down. Ended up getting a table around 730ish which was perfect for us The ambiance in the restaurant is spot on, the right level of dark and moody but not straining to hear or see. Seriously cool vibe and the staff match this to a T. Don’t be a pleb like me and ask for a wine list - it’s a sake bar with an impressive list of sake. Our server was super happy to let us try a couple before trying and we settled on a fruity one. However, Turns out I don’t like sake haha but that’s on me! Food wise - we had the bread to start which was so yummy - the fenugreek adds a delicious flavour potato mochi (this was good but I didn’t love. Definitely had the mochi texture though which was cool. Goat curd, hazelnut and witlow - this was delicious. So yummy, hazelnuts added such a delicious crunch Prawn pasta - our server recommended a 1.5 size portion for our table (love when they are proactive in ensuring there is enough for the table) and wow so glad he did, delicious morsels of prawns in a spicy chilli pasta sauce. Loved this The pork neck with the side salad This worked so well together. Pork was super tender but quite rich and so the salad balanced it out really well. Must have dish for sure We were pleasant full and so opted out of dessert. Thoroughly enjoyed our meal and also loved the micro origami paper plane that came with bill. Cool touch

Absolutely...

I’ve only left a few Google reviews in my life. Something has to be incredibly good (or incredibly bad) to motivate me. Ante is definitely the former. My partner and I went there for the first time last night. It was everything you want from a bar/dining experience. The service, firstly, was perfect. Seriously. We know nothing about sake. We were served by three different wait staff during the course of the night ALL with the same deep knowledge about the sake they were pouring us - the drink, the production process, the artisan producer back in Japan. In the flow of conversation it was abundantly clear that their knowledge wasn’t rote-learned, it was deep-seated. They were extremely generous with their time and advice which they shared in good spirit and without talking down to us. The other aspect of the service that I really appreciated was that it found the perfect balance between ’doing the job’ but with just the right amount of informality and good humour. They weren’t trying to be our mates but they were friendly and we could have a laugh. The food was brilliant. We sat at the bar - right in front of the food preparation area - and ate around eight different plates over the two-and-a-half hours we were there. Everything we ate was genuinely delicious. The two dishes that really fried our collective brains were the two pasta dishes on the menu that night. Both were out of this world. It’s been a long time since I had a dining/drinking experience on King St, Newtown where I left floating on a cloud. This was a truly memorable occasion....