El Patron Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

We were interested in trying this place after seeing all the hype about it on social media. Upon arriving at the venue there were security guards at the front checking our name off, I found it kind of strange seeing we were just coming in to eat some food! We then had to wait for the hostess who also had taken our name down and sat us down for our 6pm booking. Beautiful, fresh and new venue vibes.

We sat down and was greeted by our waitress who seemed nice but the second thing she said to us was she needed the table back at 7.45pm which then made us feel rushed. She wanted to take our orders but we told her we were still waiting on 1 more person to arrive, she asked if we could order a drink. We quickly looked through the list and put our order in.

Our friend arrived 10 mins after we sat down and the waitress rushed on over to take our order in which I replied if we can at least have 5 mins as she just arrived and havnt even looked at the menu yet in which she apologised and hurried away.

My friend who arrived got her drink straight away while I was still waiting on mine and I had ordered first. My drink came and it was the wrong one, I told the bar waitress that bought it over it was not the drink I ordered so she asked “so you don’t want it?” Umm no cos it was not the drink I had ordered!!

We ordered the Kingfish, which is a beautiful cut fish on its own, but this place marinated it in salsa? My friend said it reminded her of Doritos chips flavour. What a waste of money! We also ordered the Burata, probably should include bread with it but no we had to order another starter that had sourdough in it. Adding to more $$$

We ordered crab taco, soft shell crab was tasty and fried to perfection. Taco shell was yum but could be bigger. The rest of the mix tasted basic.

We also ordered the 1kg Beef Rib eye, aesthetically and theatrically pleasing but the taste was a huge let down!! We ordered what the chef apparently suggested which was medium rare. It was chewy, hard to swallow. So tasteless, what happen to old fashion salt? Pretty sure the bone itself weighted 500g!!

The lobster, again looked pretty on a plate. Taste was ok, buttery sauce. Small quantity and this was shared among 3 of us. My partner had the smallest serving of pasta so we could have 2 mouth fulls of pasta. Could have been more lobster and more pasta.

The waitress asked if she could bring the bill while we were still eating, we already felt rushed throughout the night. We paid $495 in total which was pretty steep for the mediocre food and the rushed experience. The waitress came and started taking our napkins and glasses away in which she said “so sorry guys but I really need the table back now for our next seating” I had to scull my drink and we walked out.

What a let down, what a disappointment! Such a nice venue and to come all the way, to spend so much money, fair enough this place is trying to turn over tables as fast as they can to make $$$ but honestly re-think your customer service training and perhaps before you start charging fine dining prices check if the taste of your food match the value you are charging.

This place also turns into a club after dinner lol where all the fresh 18 year olds start showing up.

Will not come back and will give my family and friends my honest review to ensure they save their money.

I almost feel robbed,...

Jemma, the Hostess was extremely rude and unprofessional. Upon arriving a little after opening hours, my group barely approached the door to ask if they had began seating people, we were told they needed three more minutes. We hadn't even turned around before Jemma the Hostess started yelling about, "I'm so sick of people coming up, like give us three seconds" While clapping her hands (There was literally only my group and one other group there waiting). My family and I thought this was extremely rude and unprofessional. Then, not only a minute later we were told we could begin entering??

We were brought to a booth which seemed nice at first, but the seating arrangements were not designed for a booking of 15 people. The booth is very tight and narrow, and in an attempt to accommodate for all of us, we were made to sit on an elevated part of the floor (We all found that a little?? Gross??) and little stools were placed on the literal edge of the stairs leading up to the booth - of which we all found very dangerous. We brought our concerns to the waitress (She was lovely, never caught her name though), who took it to the hostess who just tried (I use try very lightly) to convince us that this was their most popular spot and 'most people love it'. We simply just wanted to move to a table more appropriate for our numbers. I also hated the way she spoke to my sister, with so much attitude and not a care in the world for our actual concerns about safety. Jemma was on the phone for a while, in which we caught her saying "I just don't wanna move them" while storming past our booth, something we thought was very silly and again, unprofessional.

We were eventually moved to a better place only after hearing Jemma's entire song and dance about how the booking that agreed to move was "Very accommodating and they're eager to enjoy the booth since it's our most popular" (They very clearly weren't, we saw their reactions to the booth, it was very similar to our own.)

One last final dick move from Jemma was the one and only time she came to our table to serve us drinks we ordered, in which she simply threw the tray down and spilt half of it and once again stormed away with an attitude. If this happens, simply take it to the bar, explain what happened and they'll refill what Jemma the Hostess spilled! Worked for us!

Other than Jemma the Hostess' unprofessionalism, we had a lovely time, the food was quite nice and so were the drinks, the staff are nice. Needless to say, I will not be coming back if Jemma the Hostess is still...

Had dinner at El Patron on 11/12/22 at 7.30pm for a friend's birthday. During the booking process I told the staff that this was my friend's birthday and I would like to do something special for her, happy to pay extra etc.

The person taking the booking said that would not be a problem and they would organise a small dessert. When we arrived we proceeded to have the most disappointing dinner service. The poor service ruined my friend's birthday event.

Key events: The hostess walked us in, left us with the menu at the table and left as quickly as she could We tried to flag down multiple staff to order food and drinks. One on occasion a waitress with black hair made eye contact with two members from our group then looked down at her iPad and proceeded to just stand there and ignore us When we finally were able to get the hostess to take our order when she was walking past, she took the food order and rushed off and we had to call her back to try to order drinks. When ordering the cheese dish, the hostess took the order and dropped off the dish to our table telling us the dish was hot then once again hurried off. It took another 5 minutes before we were able to ask a waiter cleaning tables if the cheese dish was missing anything. He then told us we needed to order the bread with it. Which once again is not a problem, but something we should've been told. Once we ordered the bread, by the time it was out the cheese was hard and cold. The hostess then came back at the end of our meal and asked us if we wanted bread to eat with the leftover sauce of our meal - when really I would've appreciated that offer when she brought out the cheese dish.

Once again, all of this would be okay if the restaurant was busy and the staff acknowledged there were any mistakes throughout the service. But the restaurant was only serving 5 other tables and a few couples who were just having drinks. We spent a total of $540+ on the meals and drinks to sit through an experience where we felt unwelcome.

If the owner reads this review, please don't respond with the stock standard statement of "send us an email". I have given enough details that if you wanted to do something about it, you would. Until then I hope this place...