Cargo Bar — Restaurant in Sydney

Okay, I don't eat out too often as it's a bit hard for me to find a place that will offer food that I actually like, but my friend just came to Sydney from Melbourne and booked a hotel in the CBD near Darling Harbour, so to make it easier for him I agreed to go out with him in that area.

It was hard to find a place to sit down and eat, but then we found Cargo Bar & Restaurant.

Well, maybe if you want a drink - this place is for you. We popped in to get some food. Well - you do offer food, right? Right. I got steak and my mate got chicken tenders. I am so sorry but it was the worst steak I've ever had. Yes, it was medium, all fine - but the meat itself? Where do you get it from? It was just not yummy at all. AT ALL. I couldn't even finish it - not because I was full, but because I didn't like it. It was mentioned that steak comes with the salad. What you forgot to mention was that 'salad' is just grass. No cucumbers, no tomatoes. Just grass. My friend didn't like his tenders either, he mentioned they were TOO spicy (he is Indian, he is used to spices!) - I didn't try cause don't like spicy food.

On top of that, they brought our food separately. I got my steak and then, maybe 5-7 minutes later, he got his tenders. My steak got cold by the time my friend received his food - that's a bit strange, you don't usually do this... I can't eat when my friend hasn't yet received his food - that's impolite...

Anyway, I am absolutely upset, didn't like this place. If you are after some yummy food, Cargo Bar is not for you.

PS I would like to reply to the staff member that answered my review.

I get a super amazing $10 steak with chips, sauce and good salad (grass, cucumber, tomatoes) from Tennyson Hotel in Mascot. That's just to mention that your $10 steak is not the only one in Sydney / your steak is not the cheapest one.

I don't eat sauces, the only sauce I can tolerate is mushroom sauce, which you didn't have, that's why I refused to have any sauce. I never have any dressing on my salads either, so I would never complain about a salad being not good enough just because there's no dressing and will never complain about the steak being not good enough only because it comes without sauce - that's what I am used to.

Also, when I was entering the restaurant, I took a look at the menu. Steak that I noticed was $20, not $10. I even have a photo of the menu left on my phone. It wasn't me who made the order, it was my partner, so I wasn't aware that the steak price is actually $10. Is it some kind of promotion?

Even if it was some kind of promotion, still - there are much better steaks served for $10 in Sydney. Do you serve different rump steaks for $10 and $20?

Thank you for letting me know where your meat comes from. I am a great steak lover and I am surprised myself that I didn't like my yesterday steak THAT much - but I swear to God it really was the worst steak I've ever tried in terms of taste.

And I live in Sydney. That's only my mate who came here for a short...

This place has no special set up for birthday’s especially if it’s a large group. They have no birthday packages, no deals and all they want to do is take your money from your pocket. We arrived in a large group hoping we would be sat inside due to the weather conditions however, we were told to sit outside with heaters far away from the tables as possible. If I could give this place zero stars I would. If I knew the reservations would be the same as sitting with the rest of the public, I wouldn’t have made a reservation in the first place. We had strangers taking our table from the very beginning. The food was the only thing good about this place but it was still overpriced and it’s still not as good of an experience if everything else is intolerable. The drinks were overpriced and the bartender told me that they had ran out of jugs to sell. As if a bar runs out of alcohol knowing that they should be selling alcohol the whole night. The cups that were supplied were also dirty and clearly had not been washed properly. The toilets are foul. Everytime you went past the men’s toilets, it would stink like a sewer. Strangers (men) kept walking in to the female bathrooms looking for people, I’m not sure what the security was doing at the time but the toilets felt unsafe. The female bathrooms were atrocious, the floors were covered in toilet paper and urine, knowing that no one had been cleaning the toilets for a while. There was toilet paper clogging the sinks and the smell wasn’t so great either, there was no ventilation at all in both bathrooms. Also, I had supplied a birthday cake. The staff clearly knew that there was a birthday and did nothing special or provided no service to bring out the cake, all they did was hand it back to me in the bag I bought it in. I honestly wouldn’t recommend this place for anything. If you want a quick drink or brunch I would recommend this place for a quick pit stop. But, if it’s for anything else, I don’t recommend it. At all. Clearly there’s not enough staff for cleaning and hygiene maintenance and the security guards should be more concerned about people’s well-being and safety rather than walking around doing nothing. I hope this review reaches manangement and something is done about this. You’ll lose service if you don’t take reviews like this...

Came here with a friend tonight for a few drinks while on a trip in sydney. We walked in and were approached unwelcomingly by a lady and a man. The man came forward and asked to see our IDs, sounds fair enough. He then asked us how many drinks we had had before coming here treating us as if we were intoxicated? We had had 1 drink each previously before coming and so replied one, he then passively asked again how many drinks we had had which we then again said 1. He returned our IDs and we took a seat. The pair then glared at us from across the bar and then the woman came out and approached us. She asked to see our IDs again. We were compliant and handed her our IDs to which she stared at. She then asked if we had another form of ID, to which we replied no? Because who carries 2 IDS? We asked if she was suspicious because our IDS are ACT rather than NSW licenses and they look a bit different. She then said no and told us “2003-2005 must show a second form of ID” and told us she is refusing service as we look way too young. We were carrying valid IDs of which she didn’t question our identity and 18 years of age is the legal age to drink? So how do we look too young when that’s the legal limit? The whole situation was approached unprofessionally and they were quite rude towards us even though we had done nothing wrong and had valid ID. Disappointing experience...