East Village Hotel Sydney — Restaurant in Sydney

We went for the winter garden and it is not what it looks like on social media.

I walked in and was absolutely shocked at the disarray the place was in. I actually called the day before to see if the rooftop would be okay in the weather and they said yes. The place looked absolutely awful though and I immediately wanted to leave. My friends were also running late because the weather was incredibly bad, so I asked if it was possible to cancel and they refused. They said if I left or if my friends didn't show up they would charge me $50 per person. They also came past a few times and "reminded" me I needed to be out by 7:45. I assumed because the tables were fully booked. I didn't want to be there or run over someone else's booking time, so I asked what we could do and they didn't really answer other than we'd be charged.

I felt stuck in a really unpleasant environment. It later turned out another table cancelled and they said "there was no rush to leave" when that wasn't the issue.

They said they were fully booked, but also had a private function right next to the few tables they had kept. All the tables were crammed next to each other and we couldn't even push our seats out to stand up.

Due to the weather there was water everywhere, the tables were sticky and the decorations were lacking. There were electrical outlets covered in water. The waiter also let us know that one of our seats at the end of the table would be subject to rain, seat was wet etc.

The private function was unpleasant, loud screaming and yelling, while we were trying to speak to each other. People super intoxicated, standing near our tables and refusing to move when we needed to fight our way to the front to use the toilet.

The waiter even said he was having a hard time with the private function and apologised to us, as he had to keep making his way through the crowd towards the back of the room where the section of tables were, and their behaviour. As a result, some of our food and drink had a hard time getting to the table.

If you have a private function, why would you take table bookings and subject the rest of your diners to such an unpleasant experience? I assume it was just to make extra money, hence their refusal to let me cancel after seeing how disappointing everything looked.

The food was incredibly bad. The chicken and other food was freezing cold, nothing was heated correctly which didn't work with the cheese fondue. Cheese was incredibly disappointing, tasted like off/rancid cheese.

They served a cocktail that was so bad my friends couldn't finish it. Towards the end, a big guy in the private function yelled at my sister as he had to move out of her way so we could pay. Then, as I was paying, a girl walked over to the EFTPOS terminal and was looking at my card and what I was paying for. I asked what she was staring at and she just wandered away.

Never coming...

Let's be honest - the views are amazing but they quickly fade away when you scratch away at the surface and try to interact with the staff. We attempted to lock this venue in for a function of 70 people for exclusive hire of the rooftop. After weeks of communicating to a no named person via email about options, we finally decided to lock it in and confirmed as such in writting. At these point, we still hadn't even recieved a simple courtesy phone call from the venue. We we're sent the booking form and advised to return it to secure our spot. I had questions about the form which was unclear and I wasn't comfortable simply providing my credit card until these were answered. After 6 days of not responding to my email I tried calling, but no one could help. So I submitted the form anyway. A day later I got an email to advise that the venue was no longer available for that date and it had been given to someone else who got the form back first. Again, no phone call, just an email saying sorry not sorry. I rang them straight away and surpirse suprise no one could help. I replied to the email requesting someone call me asap to discuss as I was really unhappy. It took two days for the GM/Owner to actually call, and before that only a couple of what seemed like passing the blame back on to the customer. But still, Two days of wondering if this could be fixed and not knowing if we needed to start looking for another venue. Pretty stressfully, especially considering we had already locked in this venue with our guests and invites had gone out. Nothing could be done, the venue was given to the other party. Apparently tentative bookings don't exist here and even when you confirm in writing that you wish to lock this date in and they respond with "Great!" It isn't enough to secure the date and you're still at the mercy of the incompetent level of communication from the staff, which also apparently think their service is worth a mandatory 10% gratuity on all group bookings......

Do not eat here.

We visited the roof top bar on Saturday night and the customer service was absolutely despicable. A $120 dollar bottle of champagne was ordered and the person who opened the bottle failed to demonstrate care and safety when she let the cork hit a member of our group very sharply on the head.

We explained our order to this same waitress and the drinks never arrived on our table. When we followed up on the progress of our drinks, she admitted that she completely forgot to pass our order onto the kitchen staff.

To make matters worse, a member of our group starting consuming the wine we paid for directly from the bottle it was served in. The male staff on the floor disrespectfully pushed her and grabbed the bottle from her hands. A better course of action would have been to kindly explain to the person that drinking straight from the bottle was not allowed. Instead, she was treated like a child and the bottle was snatched from her. Not only does this non consensual touching violet COVID safety regulation, but it also treats members of the group with a lack of dignity.

On top of that, our group was constantly pressurised to leave the venue before the closing times and we specifically noticed that other groups were not treated in the same way. In fact, people were still being served after we had left the venue despite the fact that the restaurant was closed. This is visible discrimination. It was particularly unfair considering the reason our stay in the bar was longer in the first place was because the waitress forgot to pass our order onto the bar.

I can just say that for a group of seven that paid a final bill of five hundred dollars at the restaurant, the customer service was absolutely appalling. Would not recommend at all. The staff should undergo better customer service training and learn to treat others with dignity...