Auvers Dining Darling Square — Restaurant in Sydney

Absolutely terrible dining experience. If I could give negative stars, I would definitely rate this restaurant -100, especially for the unprofessional, arrogant, and blame-shifting male manager.

We booked this restaurant at Darling Square through First Table, which offered a 50% discount. Our total bill was $330 AUD. When ordering drinks, we specifically asked the waitress twice whether alcoholic beverages were included in the discount, because their policy only mentioned that coffee, tea, and soft drinks were excluded. Both times, the waitress clearly told us: “Yes, everything except coffee and tea is 50% off.”

However, when it came time to pay, a different female staff member didn’t show us the bill before requesting payment. After we paid, we received the receipt and saw that all drinks were charged at full price.

We immediately raised the issue, but she brushed it off as a “miscommunication”, with no apology at all.

Even more absurdly, she suddenly handed us a phone and said, “It’s the manager.” We weren’t even told what was going on. On the other end of the line, the male manager sounded extremely impatient and defensive. Not only did he not apologise for his staff’s misinformation, but he repeatedly said, “Drinks are never discounted,” and insisted that because we booked through First Table, any problems should be taken up with First Table, not with the restaurant.

As a manager, he showed zero willingness to resolve the issue, no customer service skills, and repeatedly interrupted us when we tried to explain. His attitude was aggressive, condescending, and completely irresponsible.

So I have to ask: if we booked through First Table, does that mean we’re not considered your customers? Do we not deserve respect? Do we have to accept this kind of arrogant and dismissive treatment from your manager?

I really wonder how someone like this can be trusted to run a restaurant. Did the owner not conduct a background check before hiring? Or is this someone who only knows how to “act nice” to upper management while treating customers poorly?

Just take a look at your low-rated Google reviews — we are clearly not the first to complain about this same male manager.

As a food blogger, I will be sharing this extremely disappointing experience on my social media platforms to warn other customers to avoid this restaurant. You’ll be seeing my post very soon.

One final tip to all future First Table diners: always ask to see the printed bill before paying. Don’t be misled...

Auvers is located at Darling square amongst a bunch of busy restaurants and cafes. They offer seating both internally and externally and there’s plenty of tables. Auvers offers great food and beverages in a relaxed environment. Their ‘art’ is expressed through their angled furniture, glassware and decorative timber framing. I always thought Auvers was more of a coffee and dessert place but they offer quite unique and delicious meals. After looking at the menu, we made a last minute booking via first table.

Things you should know if booking through first table: 1. a $10 booking fee is required and if you don’t show up you lose 10, 2. You cannot get 50% off seasonal menu dishes such as truffle, 3. You cannot get 50% off drinks, 4. You get 50% off your total bill for all dishes in the menu. Now you might be thinking it’s 50% off and your start ordering a lot of food, in our case we ordered 4 entrees, two mains, two wines and one kids meal (total $111). 👍🏻That’s a fairly good deal otherwise full price.

What we ordered: XO scallops, Ton-toro skewers, Tokyo chicken wings and fried cauliflower (entree). And for main XO pipis spaghetti and wagyu steak.

Taste: in my opinion we loved the scallops, chicken wings and XO pipis spaghetti dishes. The spaghetti was our favourite of the night made of squid ink, pipis on the side with a delicious XO sauce. 👍🏻 Skewers were too fatty, cauliflower was average and wagyu was a let down on the overall selection of ingredients and flavours on the dish. The miso pumpkin looked nice on the dish but didn’t pair well with the streak.

Service: all staff were professional, friendly and communicated well with customers. All the entrees were served together and main served afterwards. So if you don’t finish your entree the mains won’t be served.

The Bill: you’re looking between $40-60 pp depending on what you order but typically mains range $23-48, entrees $10-22, dessert $23-30 and drinks. Please note surcharge now applies when dining over the weekend.

Verdict: while we had 50% off to our meal we felt it was a great deal because we were able to experience a selection of food. When you think everything looks cheap, you actually order way too much than you can eat and end up costing a fair bit still. All the food served are well presented like an artwork and tasted good, there were also some dishes executed poorly. The drinks menu is huge but the food & dessert menu is limited. Would be good to see a few more mains and...

Horrible customer service No utensils served ! We asked for more plates for sharing food as we have five people , their gave us the attitude The staff is not friendly to kids at all. They are more welcoming and friendly to the couples and young people who orders the drink .

When we came in the afternoon for coffee , we ordered four coffee but we were told we can only sit outside when inside is empty. Also we ask to reserve a table for dinner , the girl at the reception today also told us we need to sit outside , I got angry and ask why ? We want to book table inside, she said we will try to manage made it like it’s fully booked but when I came at 6 pm half of indoor is empty . Clearly she just doesn’t want to give the indoor booking to kids and families ! And I questioned her why it’s empty and you don’t want to give us the booking she said in the end I managed to do it ! I said you don’t need to manage anything , it’s empty! It’s windy and cold today outdoor , she try to put families and kids to sit outdoor and keep the indoor seats for people who orders drinks at indoor. When she get questioned she was even lying to my face as saying it is booked when the place is half empty ! How funny and humiliating Business like this maybe survive for a while but will eventually go down and won’t be successful because it is a business all about profit , doesnt care or value the customers. penny wise, pound foolish. They were originally got word of mouth on red app , but will lose their word of mouth from the same place too

The food and drink looks delicious on their instagram but in reality you will get disappointed because the photo is all about marketing ! The ramen is soggy and sticky , I can’t even separate them . The meat in the burger is super dry and chewy , I don’t think that’s waygu beef at all! I thought about asking for refund the burger but seeing the waitress s face I just can’t be bothered. The port rib in the ramen is dry and you can tell it has been reheated so many times. Lastly we came for the cartoon latte drink but we are told you can’t choose...