Eastside Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Sydney

We arrived as a group of 13 (made to be split on two tables of 6 and 7) on Wednesday 2/10 for the 'Butcher's Banquet' of all you can eat meats. Similarly to other low star review below, we arrived promptly at 7:30, our reservation time. Although staff had walked past our table a couple of times, we were never acknowledged, and never offered water. Our tables had 2 breastfeeding mums who required water and when it was clear we were not being served, at 7:45pm a member of our table had to get up and walk over to the counter to ask for water. We waited quite a while and nothing happened and had to do the same again!

At 7:50pm - 20 minutes had been and gone with no food yet to be seen and water barely received. The seating was for 90 minutes eating time. It was not until 7:56pm that the side dishes of salad, chips and mac and cheese hit the table (no meat to be seen). At 8pm meat was finally being offered, starting with the sirloin steak. My uncle asked if there were any cuts of well done steak (as we were only offered medium rare) and the server gave us the most sour and nastiest grimace in response. Not sure what her problem was, as she continued with this disgustingly impolite attitude for the whole night. Yes, maybe well done steak is not to her taste but for a seemingly moderately 'upscale' establishment this behaviour was uncalled for and she could have said it was not possible if that were the case. But for reference the Butcher’s Banquet event page makes no mention to meat being served medium rare only. She eventually managed to mutter that she would talk to the kitchen.

When she returned with the sirloin for a second round, again my uncle asked if she had any well done pieces. She appeared to not even have recalled our prior interaction and we had to repeat the whole unpleasant interaction again. For reference this server was approx 155cm in height, with medium brown hair tied in a high bun. All members of our 13 person party commented on her awful demeanor and how she ruined our experience that night (and we still talk about it days after).

Given that it took 30 minutes to receive any service, and our requests weren't being fulfilled (we still did not have our drinks order being taken at 8:00pm) I could see my family becoming frustrated. It was extremely disappointing, because this was a special treat for my family and friends who had FLOWN from the UK to see us and we wanted to show them Australian dining and meat. It is an extra slap in the face that this lovely (sarcastic) experience costs as $99 per person for food alone with no drinks ($90 each + 10% = $9 service charge). I conveyed this to the staff, a woman dressed in a black dress with thin spaghetti straps, who did not understand our grievances about the poor service, and was completely unapologetic, standoffish and dismissive.

Eventually somehow, we were tended to by the manager and another male staff who were much more lovely and attentive to us however I do not think it was fair to have to pay the service charge when the service was incredibly sub standard for a third of the meal. It was an embarrassment to have brought my loving family and friends to this place with the 2 women staff treating them horribly.

All in all, poor service and I will...

Dear Owner, Manager & future dining guests,

Subject: Formal Complaint Regarding Poor Dinner Service and Double Payment Issue

I am writing to formally express my dissatisfaction with the service I received during my recent visit to your restaurant on Friday 18th July, as well as to raise a serious concern regarding a double charge on my bill that remains unresolved.

Firstly, the dinner service on the evening in question was highly disappointing. Despite having made a reservation a staff member advised there wasn’t any tables to be seated at as I didn’t have a reservation, eventually I was seated at a large table with other guests, and kindly asked to be moved to one of the vacant tables as I was advised that other diners won’t be arriving for another over another hour however the food I was ordering wouldn’t take that long an wouldn’t overlap another reservation. I was kept waiting for an extended period before being seated. Once seated, it took an unusually long time for a server to attend to me.

Upon finishing the meal and To make matters worse, I was charged twice for the meal. I immediately brought this to the attention of the staff, and I was assured that the issue would be corrected and that I would receive a refund promptly, the police were threatened to be called as I was being treated as though had not paid and was not going to pay, I have now paid double the amount and as of today’s date, the refund has not been processed and had been refunded to someone else as proof on the receipt, and I have received no follow-up communication despite multiple attempts to resolve the matter directly with your team.

I find this lack of professionalism and accountability extremely unacceptable. As a paying customer, I expect a certain level of service and responsibility, both in terms of hospitality and accurate billing.

I kindly request that the following actions be taken without further delay:

A full refund of the duplicate payment made on 18th July 2025. A written apology for the poor service and the inconvenience caused. Clarification on what steps will be taken to prevent similar issues in the future.

I would appreciate a response within 7 business days from the date of this letter. If the issue remains unresolved, I will have no choice but to escalate the matter through appropriate consumer protection channels.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your prompt response and a...

Went there expecting good things, ordered the sour dough with cured pork which was surprisingly good, to salty richness of the pork with the nice crispy sourdough, there was a perfect portion of pork to sourdough.

Then next came along with the calamari served as an entree which was cooked to perfection, the inside was still tender yet it had a nice charred texture and taste, the spring onion and sauces matched the dish perfecty.

We also ordered some cocktails but they took some time to arrive, (it appears they were possibly waiting on the bartender to start their shift) aside from that, ordered jalepono vodka passionfruit cocktail which was amazingly nice, there was a well balanced spice to the drink and the passionfruit made it easy to drink, while my friend ordered mojito which was okay but not spectacular.

So with high expectation from the great start we expected a lot from the mains but were disappointed, we got the pork belly which it would've been nice if the skin was crispy but came out rubbery, also the meat was quite dry which made it hard to eat. The sauce it came with was light and lacked favour so it did not aid in complementing the dryness of the pork, it did also come with some greens and what appears to be 2 pieces pickled beetroot (or some other vegetable), the picked vegetable was actually nice and helped but there wasn't enough of it. So overall the dish was hard to finish.

We also ordered the brisket, the plating was very disappointing, there was this plain looking chopped up pieces of beef on one side of this very large plate, the mushroom sauce we ordered was underwhelming aswell, it lacked any real flavour and did not helped to offset the richness of the beef, the method of cooking made the beef itself dry it was also another disappointing dish.

Though we did order some side to accompany our mains, the fries which was nicely seasoned and crispy but if it was cooked for another 5 secs it would've been even more perfect but it was still good the way it was, and we also ordered the mushrooms which we received a larger portion that I would've generally expected which is good, and they were cooked well still tender with a nice accompanying sauce. Although the side did help offset the dryness of the mains it wasn't enough.

Overall it was an okay experience, the place has nice ambiance/Decor, but the mains were disappointing which made us not wish to continue...