Dolce Fiori — Restaurant in Sydney

If you know your Italian food, stay clear. Dolce Fiori sounds like the real deal but would upset the Mamas out there. The special surprises included our booking not being found, fake single stemmed roses on every table (except ours - haha!), 4 starters on offer each with burrata so it had to be good, right?

The burrata and cherry tomato entré arrived but it was tough, stringy, grainy and tasteless. I've had better supermarket burrata. We were told by the wait staff that they import theirs from Italy. Sounds impressive, but it's common industry knowledge that generally burrata is not imported from Italy by Sydney restaurants because freshness is key. Why would you?

The accompanying cherry tomatoes appeared to be the supermarket punnet variety - somewhat tasteless and sprinkled with supermarket-style bottled Italian herbs. I was craving vine tomatoes and loads of fresh aromatics, so was very underwhelmed. Presentation was oh so ordinary and nothing like the pretty pictures online. This entré was returned with feedback that should have prompted them to advise us that our replacement dish also had their sub-par burrata (or was it burrata at all?)

On to the zucchini salad - a great example of the above. Veges always look special when peeled. Add some pretty, moist white cheese (see above note), a sprinkle of pistachios, and some pepper to taste, and it looks delectable. Dolce Fiori's was bland and ordinary. There was no magic because there was no virgin olive oil, fresh herbs, decent quality salt or garlic.

As for getting our mains right. Nup. Admittedly a gnocchi was changed to a lasagne at the time of ordering, but it came out as a surprise gnocchi. "You said....and then you said" said the confused, defensive waitress. A shiny box of Bacci was quickly handed to us. Really?

The gnocchi itself was made with 50% flour, or so we were told. One of our guests is GF so the question had been asked? It might explain the doughy heaviness one of us experienced. The sauce was underwhelming using truffle paste vs real shaved truffles - hmmmm...

The GF pizza was actually ok but it hadn't been left in the oven long enough for the thin base to get crusty. Come on guys!

So, 1 star overall. Go there if you dare. But if you do, also be ready to have the reflection of red-strip lighting cast upon your complexion (no - I wasn't out in the sun today honey). The over-kill of fake flowers added to the kitchness of the whole night - perhaps loved by the theme-seekers, but a bit much and inconsistent with the menu prices.

Paying the bill took way longer than it should have as we were charged for food not ordered. When we asked to speak to the owner we were told he was upstairs (ie. not available). Perhaps splashing out the Limencello with the millennials and getting a run of social media action with the other table was way easier than dealing with the...

Hubby and I had dinner here for the first time this week to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We were greeted and seated quickly, inside as requested, and the restaurant had such a fun but romantic vibe. We ordered 4 dishes and 2 cocktails to start, and I was highly impressed by the waitress who remembered the order without writing it down. Entrees came out and the serving sizes were great, so was the food itself. Mushroom arancini were crispy and full of flavour, caprese salad special was so fresh. Cocktails were delicious, I really enjoyed the salt and chilli flakes in my 'bleu spicy margarita'. When mains came, I was blown away by the flavour in my husband's pasta dish and the serving size of my fillet of tenderloin. My meat was tender and the veggies were cooked to perfection, everything was seasoned nicely too. Hubby and I shared a beautiful mixed berry panacotta that had a nice wobble to it, and it was absolutely more than enough for the both of us. As it was our anniversary, our waitress gifted me a rose which I thought was very sweet then Mario, the owner, later came to our table for a friendly chat and a few good laughs. I thought the Baci chocolates sitting on top of the glasses inside the restaurant was a beautiful touch, and added a point of difference to the end of the meal and the overall dining experience. Staff were attentive, the restaurant had a great vibe and the food was very satisfying. There is an extensive selection of beverages and food options, making it another reason why I'd definitely go back to Dolce Fiori for a date night with my husband or my...

Great food, extremely poor service and gum on my jeans from the seat I sat on. I booked this restaurant for my partners birthday. We attended this Thursday and it was lovely upon arrival. Atmosphere and decorations were amazing. We ordered and the food came very quickly and was absolutely delicious. However, the kitchen had to ring the service bell repeatedly to get the waitresses attention to service the food. When we were ready to order, the waitress simply walked over to us and did not say "Hi how are you", "can I take your order", etc, she simply nodded at us to prompt us to order and walked away when we were done ordering. Every time we needed to order from the waitresses, this was an ordeal as they were chatting in the bar area and not serving any customers. A customer at another table had her hand raised for 5-7 minutes before being able to get their attention. As we were leaving, I got up from my chair and noticed that someone had squashed gum into the cushion section of the chair and this was now smeared into my expensive jeans. We think the gum on the chair was potentially a protest the waitress' poor service from the previous customers at that table. After notifying the staff of the gum issue, they simply laughed and said 'ok', not offering any kind of assistance to remove the gum or provide an apology. The aesthetic of the restaurant and the food itself was amazing, such a shame for the overall experience to be diminished so much by the poor quality of the...