Buffalo Dining Club — Restaurant in Sydney

The food is good. There was nothing wrong with it at all. It lived up to my expectations having wanted to visit for more than a year now. However, the service was absolutely appalling the first and last time I visited last week. My two friends arrived there at 6PM and were given a table that seated two at most (i.e. a small square table) but it could squeeze in a third person; albeit, it was a little crowded. As I was running late from work, I arrived 30 minutes after them and had to move the table out so that I could get to my seat with the table having been placed against a corner wall. My friends informed me that they had been constantly harassed by a waiter as to whether I was arriving and that he had "specifically rearranged tables in order to be able to fit three people" despite being seated in a corner on a 2 person table. Regardless if I had shown up or not, they would have been given the same table. It was designed to only fit two people.

I admit it would've been quite odd and frustrating perhaps if two diners were sitting and not ordering any food for 30 minutes. However, they had ordered drinks, their mains and an entree and were eating when I arrived. I asked for a waiter to come over and the same waiter who had been harassing my friends came downstairs and I asked him whether I could have the same order of the pasta in the cheese wheel as they had ordered. He then asked me where my please was. I had just completely forgotten having run to the restaurant and was quite puffed out and sweating so I said to him "oh sorry, I must've forgotten, please thanks" to which he replied that "not only was I rude, I was also late." At this point I was quite shocked. Was he joking or was he actually being serious?

My friends interrupted and said I had already apologised to them for being late and that it was fine. He proceeded to announce I had not apologised to him yet for being late and repeated I was rude and late in the same annoyed manner. I asked him directly, "are you joking or are you serious?" And he said I am joking a little but I am also serious.

As I tend to dislike conflict and am not a confrontational person, I said sorry to which he said "FINALLY" and walked off to put my order in.

We hurriedly ate and left as the atmosphere of the restaurant felt quite tense and unwelcoming. Upon leaving the restaurant, he shouted to us that we would see us again soon as if confirming the food was so amazing that it allowed him to provide disrespectful service however he liked and we couldn't not come again.

Absolutely horrific experience. Given the positive feedback and praise this restaurant has received, it comes as even more of a shock as I have never been subjected to such a terrible display of rudeness and unpleasantry...

The Buffalo Dining Club is a unique piece of authentic Italy dropped in the middle of Sydney’s urban chic, in Darlinghurst, about four years ago.

To say the Buffalo Dining Club is shoebox sized, would be generous. The entire place can seat about 40 at the most, but it has atmosphere by the bucketloads.

As the name suggests, the Buffalo Dining Club is dedicated to that most royal of cheeses, the freshest buffalo mozzarella on this side of the equator, imported from Campania in Italy

The other signature dish you must try is Cacio e Pepe, that fabulous and deceptively simple Roman pasta dish – spaghetti tossed with olive oil, pecorino cheese and pepper. The way the dish is served from a hollowed-out wheel of cheese is practically performance art …

As a slight variation the Buffalo Dining Club adds a hint of continental parsley to this dish. Unless you fly off to Roma to experience Cacio e Pepe in its hometown, preferably at Roscioli or Antica Pesa, in Sydney the Buffalo Dining Club is a good bet.

Overall, the system is simple.

To start, you pick one of four available cheeses with any two of the sides listed on the blackboard. Then you can add prosciutto in 30, 60 or 90 gram portions, or some grilled mortadella, salumi or beef carpaccio.

The second course is pasta. The choices are again on the blackboard, and will usually offer three choices, including the Cacio e Pepe and a buffalo ricotta gnocchi.

There is a lovely choice of international wines to enhance the experience, from Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, South America and closer to home.

The team behind the Buffalo Dining Club has another food adventure, the Chester White Diner in nearby Potts Point. Chester White Offers simple, delicious dishes built around cured meats, fish,...

I was really looking forward to trying this place out because I love cheese and pasta but I was unfortunately quite disappointed. We arrived at around 6.45PM on a saturday and we were told that there'd be an hour to an hour and a half wait. That was fine given that this restaurant was incredibly popular. It would've been worth it if the food was delicious.

The cheese and the proscuitto were amazing HOWEVER the cheese wheel pasta that we had was incredibly salty. There was no mistake that they had put too much salt in the dish and both my partner and I bit into pieces of salt crystals. I don't know if we were just unlucky since all the other reviews say the food is amazing. Anyway, the thing that got to us was when we told the wait staff that the food was a bit salty (we were already being nice by saying 'a bit') she simply scoffed at us and said that the cheese is meant to be salty. This was a blatant lie as the first bite we had was reasonable, however the more we ate into our dish, the more salty it got and the fact that we could taste the salt crystals meant that it wasn't from the cheese itself.

I am so torn by this because the other waitstaff that we had (male) was amazing, he took us through the menu and recommended the best things for us. This lady however ruined the night and in combination with the long wait and the salty food we were thoroughly disappointed.

I may or may not give this restaurant another try in the future - if you have a group less than 6 I would recommend you to either try get a bigger group so you can make a booking or go heaps...