Bar Copains — Restaurant in Sydney

Last night I went with 2 of my girlfriends. We are all serious wine lovers and both of them had worked in the wine industry. As they haven't been here before, I highly recommended them as it's claimed to be "the best" wine bar in Sydney. However, the experience is a complete let down. We arrived around 8pm. Despite some empty tables inside and around the bar, we were told they are fully booked, and we would have to wait for 30 mins. My girlfriend had her eyes on a bottle of Burgundy white on the shelf, and she asked for the price of the bottle. Initially the waitress said she doesn't know the price and has to check with the owner. Then she came back saying "we cannot sell the wine to you" and that made us very confused. Later we realised she thought we were going to buy the wine and leave, we explained we wanted to sit down and drink. However, she still didn't tell us the price. For the whole time she was saying she needed to check price with the owner and we were not sure if she did check. She then gave us a table outside - tends out we didn't need to wait for 30 mins because we got a table right away and the table wasn't booked as she said! After we sat down, we decided to pick a wine and let one of my friends do a blind tasting to make it a bit more fun. My other girlfriend and I wanted to go inside to check what wines are there on the shelves as they are not on the wine list. And it's hard to see from outside. The waitress tried to stop us from going indoor saying that people are eating and they are doing services. I told her it won't take more than a minute for me to check what they have on the shelves. We then ordered a Nebbiolo. We were given the glasses, and my girlfriend said the glasses are not for red wine. The wine came with a foil wrap and when they poured the wine in the glass, it was a white wine! We asked them to double check on the order and tends out we were given someone else's order! My girlfriend went to confirm the order to ensure they got our order right and found the price of the wine on the menu is different (higher by $40) from the price they entered in the register. We were told the higher price is correct and we accepted it. After we sat down for 20 minutes, they were finally opening our bottle. I went to double check again as at this point, I've started having doubts in their professionalism, and I wanted to make sure they are opening the right bottle. And guess what! It was a different vintage they are opening. The one we ordered from the wine list is a 2022 vintage and they are opening a 2023 vintage for us. Anyone who knows wine will know, vintage is important. So, I asked them to double check again, after another round of waiting, the waitress came to say that they'll charge us $40 less because it's a different vintage and we accepted that as we are tired of waiting and checking, we just want to drink our wine! We then asked if the glasses can be swapped to a red wine glass and were told that they only have 2 types of glasses and we are given the champagne glass lol For a Nebbiolo!!! I thought the drama is over at this point but no, at 9:45pm we were told we had to leave in 15 mins as they are closing the outdoor area. As we haven't finished our bottle we asked if we could be moved indoor so we can finish the bottle and were rejected. At the end we decided to leave and most likely will not come back again due to the bad experience. Australia is one of the most important wine countries in the world. I feel bad if this is "the best" we can offer to the rest of the world. If I were a tourist in Sydney and this is the experience I got from a wine bar that has won so many rewards and reputations, I will not be happy. I truly wish the owner can see this. At the end of the day, your customers are here for a good experience, and you don't have qualified people to provide this experience to...

In usual Sydney dining fashion, a place offers so much promise but fails to deliver.

I was excited to try Bar Copains because of the rave reviews and its reputation right now as a wine bar with great food. The wine list is extensive but the knowledge and recommendations offered seem very very limited. This place may be competitive in the Sydney scene, as the closest comparison is Paski (which offers a way better per glass selection). But if you are international, from a major hub or city and now about your wines, this is not it.

So now onto the details. I have a love for orange wine and was glad to see that they had a decent selection, although mostly bottles. However, the waitress didn't really know her wines and it was apparent in the very first few interactions. I asked about the earthiness of the orange wines available and she came back saying that this wasn't a term used with orange wine and thus none were earthy. First glaring red flag. Any wine course on orange wine (ISG, CMS, WSET, IMS) and online peruse of orange wines will have some discussions of earthiness. Sure some orange wines may not have earthiness, but to say that it doesn't exist or it isn't used in Orange wine is a fallacy. She then proceeded to conflate the term earthiness with grittiness. I didn't raise it at the restaurant because there was a certainty in ignorance and it was a shame that this was a wine bar.

We had a few service issues, like forgotten orders etc, but that is fine we all have those days. The food was subpar. Trout Carpaccio was the only standout...the rest were forgettable, confused, and had better versions found elsewhere (We ordered the pig cubes, oysters, cod roe dip, bread, scallops).

But look, this idea of a wine bar...opening till late and conducive to fun chats and intimate warm vibes is nice and well needed in the Sydney space...dying night options that don't close at 10pm. But in my personal opinion, I would check my expectations at the door for any comparison to major city hubs with wine bars. Perhaps this will be ironed out with time as it is a fairly...

I had a very disappointing experience with this restaurant. I had booked a table for four people in advance to celebrate my friend’s birthday. Unfortunately, the day before the dinner, the birthday person tested positive for COVID. On the day of the reservation, I immediately tried to contact the restaurant to explain the situation and reschedule our celebration for May 1st. However, to my surprise, there was no phone number to call—only an email address listed on the website. I promptly sent an email explaining everything, without even asking to cancel the reservation.

The response I received was shockingly inflexible. The restaurant simply stated that “one person is sick, the other three can still attend,” and that if we didn’t show up, we would be charged $85 per person. I found this incredibly unreasonable. Firstly, illness is something no one can predict. Secondly, I made every effort to communicate as early as possible under the circumstances, yet was met with a lack of empathy and no willingness to accommodate.

To avoid the penalty, my friends and I still came to dine—without the birthday guest—despite the fact that our mood was already affected. When we arrived, the restaurant was not full and had empty tables, which made their earlier inflexibility feel even more unnecessary. To make matters worse, the food was mediocre at best. A simple plate of fried potatoes was priced at $28, which was truly shocking.

Overall, I was very disappointed not just with the food, but with the lack of human touch and the poor communication from the restaurant. I won’t be returning, and I would not recommend it to others looking for a place that values...