Dubai8 — Restaurant in Sydney

Extremely unaccomodating and unprofessional service, I don’t blame the wait staff because clearly this is a management issue. The shisha policy is absurd. People should not be cornered into purchasing an extra shisha if they don’t want to! A group of 4 wanting to enjoy themselves on a causal night out don’t need to be cornered into smoking more than they intended, and the number of people doesn’t always equate to the number of smokers! That’s like sitting at a cafe and being told every individual customer needs to purchase a coffee or they need to leave? Extremely rude! As for your “the business will go bust” excuse, that just proves how unprofessional and incapable you are to securely run a business. I’ve worked at a restaraunt for many many years and if a table of 4 or 6 wants to order just 1 pizza it obviously isn’t great for business but the business is good enough to build up its profits without extorting customers and leaving them unhappy! It’s actually a joke and the most unprofessional money hungry policy I’ve seen! Oh and there’s nothing baffling about non smokers wanting to go to a place which offers shisha. If a large group of friends all want to spend time together and only a handful want to smoke then the only thing baffling is the fact that the person responding to your reviews has never considered that possibility. How embarrassing for your business to have such childish comments returned to customers !

After being extorted to buy an extra shisha that we didn’t need, the waiter couldn’t even serve us water and advised us to get up and get it our selves. Are you a morning cafe or a professional dining and bar place? If you’re going to extort your customers atleast serve them some water. I don’t see why you needed a handful of staff members chilling at the bar area and no one could bring water out? We had to get up ourselves.

Reading through the reviews, customers have clearly brought up concerns and issues. I find it absurd that “general management” does nothing but back chat the feedback being given and make excuses for themselves. If you are running a business in hospitality then catering to your customers and ensuring they leave your restaraunt with a smile and good experience should be your priority. This “take it or leave it” attitude is appalling. And this is coming from someone who has worked in hospitality and customer service for years ! Some words of advice maybe actually listen to your customers and take it as constructive criticism rather than making an excuse for all your downfalls!

This place has potential and I used to come here atleast twice a week when it first open, but it looks like it’s now run by greed and now lacks the genuine and humble customer service it once had. Shame to say we will never be back and I definitely do not recommend anybody to go here until some changes are made! There are many other places with the same quality of shisha, food and drinks who do not implement such horrible policies!

In response to your I’ll attempt of a customer service reply- I’ve never met your manager only witnessed the CLEAR attitude in dealing with customer concerns so their is no personal vengeance. I just know quality service and now know for good this is no place to receive that. You’re running a business. Learn how to deal with your customers in a respectful manner. Shameful. And yes I do have high standards, the problem wasn’t with spending money it’s an issue of the comfort and convenience of your customers. As for “wasting time and space” it was a Tuesday night and there was plenty of space. But well done on considering your customers as time/space wasters which are only worth your service if you can get some good $$$ out of them. You just proved that your business is not motivated by costumer service or value but by...

Pros: the atmosphere

Cons: horrible food. Will not be referring this restaurant to anyone. Main course comes out at 10pm with the driest meat skewers absolutely no flavour cannot cut through. The kefta smelt like old meat re heated & stretchy (I don’t understand how you serve kefta like that to your customers) Chicken: absolutely no flavour. If I could provide no stars I would.

Payment: please have me understand why use don’t have eftpos? Cash only? Most inconvenient thing to do at a restaurant.

Service: I can understand it’s a fairly new restaurant how ever please train your staff better. A employee had come to take our order for drinks (soft drinks no alcohol or any fancy drinks) he charged us $140? 7 cokes for $140 does that seem right to you? We did not question it as we did not have menus as Dubai8 has no menus to provide there customers so at this point use are either guessing prices or just milking people. Then he comes back & gives us $30 and states he mis calculated.. ok so 7 soft drinks $110? Drinks took 20-30mins to come out when we asked what was taking so long they said everyone ordered at the same time (not good enough)

As a banquet you are to offer re fills on the 1 plate of each food (shocking banquet) you have provided on a desk of a table for 4 people on each table no space for absolutely anything ! Our waiter was so rude when we asked to refill our salad(2 plates of small salad for 8 people “banquet” her response was “oh use want a refill for BOTH salads um I’ll ask my manager” like what the actual eff ???? We had also booked for 8 people upon arrival there was 7 chairs we asked for an extra chair as we booked for 8 people use had told us use don’t have an extra chair to provide and we would have to have 3 people seated on a couch that’s a 2 seater. Please take into consideration the height , weight, size of a person, in our case we were lucky to actually be able to have 3 people seated On a 2 seater couch squashed & uncomfortable but had no other option.

There was tables next to us was yelling at the staff due to pricing & dry food so I know we weren’t the only ones.

I for one will not come back here ever & will not refer anyone here. Shocking!

(Response to admin)- a 8 year old is...

Visited for lunch today with 6 people at 12.15pm. We were asked if we were ready to order before 2 members of our party had arrived. After they had arrived, we waited for at least 10 minutes for a staff member to come back to take our order. No one came so we had to flag someone down. No friendly greeting or smiles from any of the staff at any time, absolutely no warmth.

Unfortunately that was how the rest of the afternoon went. Staff members continued to walk past us the whole time we were there, almost going out of their way to avoid eye contact with us. We waited over an hour for our food, with no updates on how long it might be. We were told upon booking that we needed to be out by 2.30pm for the next seating. 1.30pm and still no sign of our starter or any meals. When we asked one staff member she said she would find out, but never returned, although she walked past a few times ignoring us. When we finally got her to come over to us, she said it was taking longer because a large table had ordered before us. The restaurant wasn't full, there were at least 3 empty tables near us. It eventually came out, 1 or 2 meals at a time over about 15 minutes. Staff were slow to take away our empty glasses, but none ever asked if we'd like anything else, it was as if they rushed off before we could ask. Two of us ordered a bottle of wine, and it was plonked on the table with two glasses & we had to pour it ourselves. Water was available on the bar, but you had to get up and get it yourself. Most of the table weren't happy with the quality of our meals. None of the staff asked if we enjoyed our meals, or how our meals were going while we were there, or even expressed any interest in their jobs. The man who gave us the bill at the counter wasn't at all friendly and didn't wish us a happy father's day, or a great day or any sort of pleasantries. The venue is well decorated, the food is half way there, but the service is appalling. I don't go to a restaurant to be ignored by the staff. The only thing they did well was clear the table efficiently when we left. I would suggest that all staff need training in customer service and...