Darley's Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

HOW is this a hatted restaurant? The food was good, the service was embarrassing. The service staff were lovely, though were better suited at a McDonald’s than a fine dining restaurant - they had no idea what they were doing. I hope this critique is taken onboard to manage the quality of service.

When asked for a wine pairing the waitress seemed that she had never heard of that before but politely wrote it down. She said there was a Sommelier onsite when asked. When we asked to speak with the Som she said “he’s too busy” - the restaurant was empty, what else would he doing but speaking with guests? When we asked why the wine was paired as it had been, the waitress said “for meat you want to pair it with a heavy red like a Shiraz, and the white goes with fish”. Lucky the smokiness of the red went brilliantly with the eggplant. We didn’t pay $100+ per person for wine pairing to have someone with an elementary knowledge of wine (at best).

Our glasses weren’t cleared until we literally got up and popped them on the next table. There were 6 glasses, 4 empty and 2 of the champagne glasses half finished that were paired with the appetiser. We were at dessert at this point and the waitress said “I thought you were still going with those”. Again an example of a polite waitress who has no idea how food and beverage are experienced in a fine dining setting.

None of this was the waitresses fault. She was lovely and doing her best, but was unsupported by the establishment. It seems as though management got lazy after scoring the hat and are now playing off the brand name which they are doing very little to protect. Let’s be honest, there was never a Som. Management probably pushed the poor waitress out with a lie and to fend for herself. Unfortunately the food makes up less than half of the experience. Please invest in training your staff properly or please don’t position yourself as a fine dining restaurant as that is not the experience a guest will have when dining there. I feel you delivered a subpar product and charged...

My husband and I recently had dinner at Darley’s. While the ambience and service were lovely, the food unfortunately didn’t quite live up to the high expectations, especially given the overall cost. It’s a little surprising that this is a "hatted" restaurant.

At $145 per person, you’re offered three courses from their "Ode to Autumn" menu. My husband chose the scallop ravioli, dry-aged steak, and carrot pudding, while I opted for the quail, lamb, and chocolate cake.

The entrees were a little underwhelming. The quail was noticeably underseasoned (another review mentioned this), and the construction of the scallop ravioli was a little puzzling. It featured ossietra caviar — a premium ingredient — but it was placed directly onto a hot scallop ravioli with consommé, which unfortunately made the caviar warm and soft, losing its usual flavour and texture. It felt like a missed opportunity to let such a luxury ingredient shine. To add to that, the scallop inside the ravioli was sadly overcooked and a bit stringy.

Thankfully, the mains were a highlight. The steak was beautifully cooked, full of flavour, and the lamb was delicious — even though it was well done, it remained juicy and tender.

The dessert, however, left my husband a little confused. The carrot pudding felt more like a warm shredded carrot salad than a traditional baked pudding. The texture was uneven, somewhere between crunchy and soft, and wasn’t quite what he was expecting. To add to the slight mix-up, he also received the orange snaps that were meant to be part of my dessert — perhaps a small oversight on the night.

I'm normally not this critical, but given the price point and having experienced other restaurants in a similar range, I do feel there’s some room for refinement, particularly with the menu design and execution.

At this stage, I wouldn’t be rushing back, but if there were a refresh of the menu down the track, I’d be open to giving Darley’s...

After being married at Darley's/ Lilianfels a couple of years ago, it was time for a belated anniversary - our previous experiences there had been great. So we arrived for dinner on Wed 6 Nov. Soon after being seated we became aware of two ladies at a nearby table talking very loudly and repeatedly swearing - would have been close to out of place at Mcdonalds and definitely somewhere such as Darleys. At our request, the waiter moved us without fuss to a table at the far end of the restaurant. We could still hear the loud, swearing voices and at one point a loud conversation with some young kids on a speaker phone. We tried to ignore it and enjoy the fantastic food and service. Very taken aback about an hour later, when the 2 (apparently quite drunken) ladies suddenly loomed aggressively over us at our table, abusing us for complaining about their behaviour. Very aggressive, abusive manner. One claimed she had a sick child and was stressed (as an excuse for her behaviour?). The poor waiter tried to shield us from the tirade but it didn't stop one of the ladies throwing first a glass of water then my wine at me. The waiter was finally able to have them leave, then apparently copped a lot of abuse in the carpark from them.

We cleaned up and moved to a fresh table. Felt sorry for the other diners in the restaurant who were also subject the very unpleasant behaviour.

We made the best of the rest of the night inc staying at Lilianfels.

For those that may have witnessed this episode, I have nothing but praise for the Harley's and Lilianfels staff who handled an extremely unpleasant situation as best they could - absolutely full marks to the staff. Also wonderful food as always at Darleys.

Spoke to the GM the next day who was also great. I understand the other 2 'ladies' have now been banned from Darleys / Lilienfels into the future.

Looking forward to returning next year after the...