Busta — Restaurant in Sydney

I genuinely nearly cried when my food arrived. And not in a good way.

Firstly, this place looks great. Secondly, the website is exciting; who doesn't love a 'bowl of pasta and a glass of Pinot'?

I arrived excited for rustic Italian food; big steaming bowls of pasta and solid goblets of wine. In short, I was a hungry punter.

I left underwhelmed by everything. The service (they neglected to tell us that the dishes are designed to share), the acoustics (if you enjoy NOT talking to your friends, this is a great place to go - SO LOUD), the food (bland and tiny).

I ordered the squid from the BIGGER section of the menu. Not because I love squid but because I was starving. How misleading! The squid was a limp little shrimp of a squid. It barely touched the sides. The focaccia was doughy and flavourless. There was no salt on the table which I always find a little arrogant, especially when every dish needed a tonne of it added.

The only ones feasting were the owners... on our bank account.

Never to be repeated.

So unfortunate as we love Chica Bonita and are very keen to support local. Do yourself a favour and opt for Mexican instead of this Italian joint.

P.s. strange that the only really good reviews are from 'local guides'....

Saturday, 21 May 2022, One of the worst service experiences I’ve ever had at a restaurant. We took our friends here who aren’t from the area. It actually became embarrassing for us that we had recommended this place when the waitress serving us was so unbelievably bad. We couldn’t even end up getting our main dishes. We waited for an hour after ordering and asked 3 or 4 times what was happening with our pastas and every waiter told us something different. Eventually the guy from behind the bar said “oh do you still want your pastas?”. We looked and they had already closed the kitchen. They took a round of drinks off our bill for how bad the waitress and service had been, a round of drinks seems a bit insignificant compared to the absolute waste of time and inconvenience.

There comes a time when poor service completely overshadows good food. It’s unfortunate but I doubt we will ever be back. I can’t even understand how a waitress could be this incompetent, maybe a pencil and paper on the table would do...

This is the second time in a week I've gone out for dinner in Manly and a restaurant hasn't even given us two hours to finish. Even if we had pre-booked, they told us the table had to be vacated after 1h45m, which is pushing it for a Sunday evening family dinner. And it's such a bad practice that this is becoming a thing now.

I also don't get why restaurants do this. We arrived excited having looked forward to trying the chef's menu and drinks, but decided instead to cut our losses and make it cheap and fast. And I'd never book here for a big meal again, of course. I hope it was worth it for shutting the restaurant 15 minutes earlier or whatever the point of squeezing in the next reservation was.

Also, while I've always loved the food here, it seems like they must be rushing the kitchen as much as the guests. My lamb ragu was watery, and our daughter told us on the way home that her cheese spag was...