Blackbird Cafe — Restaurant in Sydney

Blackbird Cafe is a staple to the darling harbour foreshore precinct. I've been there many times over many years with uni friends for drinks, with family and friends for a casual catch-up and taking foreign friends for a meal with a view.

The Cafe is overlooking darling harbour, so it is perfect to sit, overlooking the boats and beautiful scenery that is Sydney. It is a huge space where you can dine simply for a couple or drinks, have a big breakfast, lunch or dinner or even a larger group for a party. A huge bar in the centre, evidence of an in house DJ, it is really suitable for any occasion. I would recommend this particularly for those of you having a night out as starting here from 3-6pm is an awesome happy hour with $8 cocktails and $5 for beer, wine and spirits. That's a pretty good price for city views these days. I tried the 'Butterfly' cocktail, a combo of bacardi, apple sour, peach schnapps with pineapple and grapefruit juice, decorated with apple strips. We also had the 'tickle me': whisky, amaretto, lemon sour, pineapple, dry ginger with a cherry and pineapple slice. I then tried a non special, the fairy floss cosmo, quite sugary if that's you thing. The cocktail list is absolutely huge so certainly meets any taste buds.

Menus to suit anyone; there's a bunch of entrees; from which we ate the lovely deep fried bree with chutney. From the main menu, there's a range of things from pizza to burgers, fish or meat dishes and desserts. We went for the chicken and quinoa salad with rocket and carrot ribbons. Flavours all worked really well and it was a extremely generous serving, so much so that we had to take some home for leftovers. The pizza is cooked in a woodfired pizza oven. We tried the tandoori pizza with aioli to top it off, a nice crispy base and tasty topping. We also couldn't go past the kangaroo, a must for tourists - it was cooked well, rare, nice and tender, served with truffled mashed potato and jack daniels sauce. It targets the adventurous tourist market well, also offering a crocodile burger!

Whilst it might not be the fanciest dining space going around, it is certainly a great place to visit for a casual catch up. Staff were extremely hospitable and continuously checked on how things were going and made for a...

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!

I booked a table at Blackbird Cafe for 8. We arrived and sat down and ordered drinks. I asked for a glass of Shiraz. The server came back and explained that they didn't have any Shiraz and recommended their Cabernet. I agreed and they returned shortly to tell me that they didn't have any Cabernet by the glass. They then gathered as a group behind the bar and came back to say they could provide the Shiraz. Not a great start. Dinner arrived. My $28.00 pizza was average at best. The Vegan Lasagne (for another person in our party) arrived and it was cold in the middle. Obviously microwaved, Gordon Ramsey would be livid. Dinner finished up, our waiter never asked if we wanted coffee, desert or anything. I actually had to find our waiter to actually get our bill. The bill arrived and as it was a table of 8 (2 families) we asked to split the bill. The waiter explained to me that they don't split bills. I'm not sure why it is so difficult to split a bill. You just take the total and divide by 2. Seems pretty straight forward to me. ‍ I asked the server to explain to me why they don't split bills and I got the vacant distant stare, so I asked if the Manager could come over and explain to me why. The Manager came over and his explanation was that they just don't split bills. Brilliant. Just the explanation you want as a customer. I asked him why it's not stated on their menu or anywhere that I could see as I came into the restaurant. The Manager explained that it's stated at the entrance to the restaurant. I paid the bill and left. As I left, they had a sign outlining that they don't split bills, but it was hidden behind an Amex advert, not exactly easy to see.

I would have preferred to provide a review that gave zero stars as the service was terrible, the food was average and I left their establishment feeling very unsatisfied.

I couldn't not recommend this restaurant to...

Food: You would get better at 7/11 Drinks: watered down Service: hopeless Experience terrible

Booked a table here to celebrate a family reunion. Utter shambles would be words to describe this visit! Now I am all for venues holding private functions but at least plan out the evening so it doesn’t impact the guests!

The food was terrible! Completely tasteless and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had bought it in ready made.

I ordered the mojito and honestly it was the flattest most unexciting cocktail I’ve ever had.

Service was something to be desired, the hopeless wait staff honestly sauntered around aimlessly while the bar staff I can only imagine had the goal of putting the service bell through the bar they were hitting it that hard! it really hit the peak when they said they were closing the kitchen for a private function and told us this 2 minutes after giving us the desert menu and expecting us to pay and leave. It got better though when they started reaching over our food while we ate to clear the table, not once but on 2 separate occasions by 2 different staff!

Probably the best part of the night was the fire works but this is probably because it wasn’t organised by this bunch.

To say I am disappointed is an understatement! But honestly maybe my expectations were a bit high considering that they did think it would be perfectly acceptable to leave a domestic powerboard plugged in and sitting in the water while rain fell on it! Can’t say I would recommend this loose resemblance of a...