Centennial Homestead — Restaurant in Sydney

We were absolutely overjoyed with our wedding at Centennial Homestead. From the very first meeting until the night of our wedding, the team at Centennial Homestead were so supportive, great with communication and patient with us! Our evening was absolutely perfect, from the food, service and quick refills of all glasses and vibe! We wanted to extend our most sincere and heartfelt thank you to everyone in the team.

The food

We had rave reviews from all of our guests on the night and afterwards that the food was perfect. Plating, taste, balance and timing was all superbly executed. Some people even fought over the last bite. When we had our tasting I was so happy with the dishes and was curious as to how the quality would be maintained at the higher quantity, but I didn’t need to worry because everything was piping hot, perfectly cooked. We had chosen the prawn and quail as the entrée and steak and fish for mains. We were so happy with our selection, the prawn and fish being the best dish I have ever had and the steak was a perfect medium rare with the most crispy potatoes. The dishes were well balanced, perfectly cooked. We had the buffet desserts (Nutella donuts, panna cotta, pavlova and churros) served in platters (due to COVID restrictions) and they were sensational! My dad ate 7 panna cottas and he doesn’t usually touch dessert! We had also ordered the hunger busters, mini burgers and the balance bowl (made as allergen free). Again delicious! My husband and I took some of it home and ate it the next day for breakfast and it was still perfect.

All of our guest's allergen and dietary requirements were expertly attended to. My family being largely vegetarian were satisfied with their dishes, even the fussiest of eaters were pleasantly surprised.

On the night

Whilst we were running late, the food was on time to the minute as planned. The team communicated with us well, keeping their distance and letting us enjoy our evening, asking us when we wanted our food (as we were busy taking photos with our guests), making sure everything we wanted was well executed. I could see the service staff being super attentive to all the guests, making sure they had a top up of their drinks at all times! We were well attended to as well and I can only sing the praises of all the staff, both in and out of the kitchen.

The venue look and feel

We loved this venue because it was so open, the windows overlooking the park and with the wisteria and fairy lights weaved throughout, its was a beautiful canvas for us to add to. We loved having the long tables, and the set up and at night, with all of our additional lights inside and out, when it was dark and we looked out, it was like a sea of fairy lights reflecting back at us. Our stylist didn’t need to do much, they dressed the tables and brought our arbour from the ceremony over to put behind our sweethearts table and that was enough.

Our experience

4 days before our wedding date, the government put in place the 100 person restriction and it all became too hard. We then realised that our priority was the safety of all of our family and friends and that we really wanted to share in the day with them. Thankfully, the team at Centennial Homestead were understanding, sympathetic and agreed that we could delay our wedding to a future date without penalty. They were so supportive and whilst they would have most certainly incurred costs on preparing for our wedding, they agreed that in these unprecedented times, to postpone. They were absolutely sincere in their sympathy, supportive in our decisions and made everything so much more easier for us.

THANK YOU Everyone in the events team, service staff and the event manager on the night were so lovely to deal with. I want to personally thank the kitchen as well for their wonderful food, the food really makes a venue and a perfect evening so much more memorable. I would hands down, in a heartbeat, recommend Centennial Homestead for any event, we would not...

Entrees came out relatively quickly within about 15 mins.

Drinks took a lot longer, it took about 30 mins and 3 check-ins (after finalising my drink order 3 times) to find out what was happening with the coke zero and glass of wine. Ate most of my entree without a beverage, which was not great as we were seated in the sun.

By finalising my drink order, I mean that i had to re-order my drink 3 times, as they kept coming back to tell me that each replacement soda i had ordered was out of stock. This happened for each replacement drink i chose until i just threw in the towel and asked for a coke.

Considering this was a sunday lunchtime, i would say someone dropped the ball on the supplier order during the week, as you would expect one of the busiest services of the week to be well stocked...

After entrees, it was a 55 minute wait for mains to come out, and when they arrived, the chips on both plates were stale and cold. The burger was hot but the steak was barely warm in the centre and was quite cool on the edges. I believe that this food might have been sitting under a heat lamp for at least 30 minutes waiting to be expedited. I also saw a burger with a side of salad get taken to the wrong table a about a minute before ours arrived with the cold and stale chips, and i saw that it got sent back as it wasnt the correct order for that table, i believe this is the burger we were served. Hence the strange combo of the hot burger with the side of cold chips.

Very small portion of steak and fries for $39.. burger was also quite dry and overcooked.

Was here for a 9th anniversary celebration and it sort of took the shine off as it was supposed to be a special day, but the focus was very much on the topic of “where is the food, when is the food coming, where are the drinks, etc”.

Wait staff were friendly (doing their best) and i did not want to put any of my negativity onto them, as i was doing my best to enjoy myself.

After i spoke to (who i assume to be) the manager who was wearing a blazer and much nicer dressed than the wait staff, and informed him that we had waited nearly an hour between entrees and mains, the food arrived about 2 minutes later.

I have a feeling that had the food not been cold it would have been much nicer. And the overall experience would have been better had we not been there for about 2 hours to eat an entree and a main. Still very expensive for relatively small (and cold) portions.

When the food arrived cold, i nearly sent it back, but i honestly was approaching the 2 hour mark and was relatively keen to just eat it and get the hell out of there.

Would not recommend, overall the bill was $187.01 for 2 entrees, 2 mains, 3 cans of coke (less than a can in each drink if you assume the amount of ice in each glass) and a glass of wine.

Quite a disappointing...

I used to come here often, but I won’t be back. Since the revamp, this place has become overpriced and poorly managed.

On my latest visit, my family and I sat down for breakfast in a half-empty restaurant. We ordered two coffees while we looked at the menu. It took over 15 minutes just to get the coffees because there was only one barista working. No one bothered to come back to take our food order. The menu prices are simply unreasonable—$28 for avocado toast and $10 for basic sides. It feels like management is charging premium prices without delivering even basic service. We ended up asking for our coffees in takeaway cups and left. Understandably, coffee prices have risen everywhere, but two small coffees cost $14.40.

This wasn’t an isolated incident. On Mother’s Day, we booked a table and were handed a Mother’s Day menu. After waiting over an hour without receiving so much as the kids’ meals or entrees, we politely enquired about the delay. The waitress responded that other people had been waiting longer and still hadn’t been served—no apology or any sense of empathy, just annoyance that we were even asking. For such unreasonable wait times, especially on a special occasion, this was incredibly disappointing. Meanwhile, they kept accepting more walk-ins they clearly couldn’t handle.

Two visits in a row have been massive disappointments. The service is disorganised, the pricing is inflated, and the staff don’t seem interested in basic customer care. It’s a real shame to see a place that used to be good decline this badly. I won’t be giving it...