Fior — Restaurant in Sydney

We dined here as a party of 4 on a busy Wednesday evening. The first thing to say is that the review that follows is based on my high expectations and the precision in which this restaurant delivered a high quality dining experience. This is because it is obvious that this restaurant touts itself as being a premier dining experience in the Sutherland Shire. In fact, it's safe to say that the only two restaurants (there may be others) in competition with it in the area are Jensens at Kareela and the Pines at Cronulla. That is "the level" at which the review aims, so any criticisms must be appreciated in this discrete context.

Food The menu is excellent and the food is beautiful, bar none in the area. The Swordfish was delectably cooked and it was obvious that the chefs are experienced as it is too often encountered that Swordfish is slightly overcooked or left to dry out under a heat lamp. Not so at Fior, the fish was moist, perfectly cooked through and tastfully seasoned. The chicken was lovely and the pasta dishes were full of flavour but not too overburdened with sauces, which is closer to how Italians serve pasta in Italy itself. My main and really only criticism is the mandatory 'sharing regime.'I would have loved to have tried the eye fillet but because I was the only red meat eater dining I was left with the choice of having to order a dish at $120 for only myself. Too expensive. This is not going to work. The area is still quite conservative and customers do like "ordering their own food" which may fly in the face of the restaurant's culinary and dining ethos but should be respected. Once the restaurant's honeymoon period and local curiosity ebbs away, I see a struggle to accommodate these types of diners which may harm longevity in this fickle market. However, overall, the food here is the best in the area and raises the bar significantly.

Coffee Unfortunately, an abject failure. The coffee is not high quality and too bitter. A long black must be finished with a lovely brown 'Crema,' it was instead soap-dish watery, and not how you make it.

Wine List One word, disappointing. I was expecting, at this level, a far more comprehensive showing of Italian wines, especially reds. We ordered a lovely Primitivo but I think it was the only one on offer and was too young and light in style. French wines were virtually non existent and should figure given that, for example, earthy Bordeaux reds find a perfect match with rich pasta flavours, meat and chicken. A staple in European fare. I was not impressed with the waiter's wine knowledge, because there simply was none. Our waiter had never heard of Puglia or knew what types of grapes are grown there. Look to the Pines at Cronulla is my advice, they have an experienced Sommelier on board and a comprehensive, albeit expensive, wine listing. At this level, you need to know your wines to attract discerning customers.

Atmosphere The fit out, done on the back of the old Caruso's, is very good. There's obviously been a lot of money spent on it and it shows. Other reviews have complained about noise reverberation. I think this is quite harsh, it was perfectly easy to hear in the restaurant and the atmosphere had a busy bustle about it, which gave it a sort of upmarket bistro buzz. The open kitchen is inoffensive, and aptly blends in with the restaurant space. My big criticism is that the tables and chairs don't work well. Fior is trying to cram in as many tables as possible so as to increase its covers and revenue, I don't blame them, a businessman's no brainer! However, the consequence is that the tables are small and pokey ( making shared plates awkward to squeeze in) and the chairs are tiny, and I have to say respectfully, for a bigger guy, really uncomfortable. Larger chairs mean more comfort and less space, I get it, but I really felt like I was sliding off my little chair all night long. I hope these chairs and tables are replaced over time to allow for a more comfortable, luxurious and spacious experience.

Food is beautiful. At this level, some...

We really want to be fair and balanced, but I'm not sure we would go back after tonight's dining experience. Our party all came to that same conclusion as we gathered outside afterwards.

We ordered a bottle of wine and then given time to choose from the menu. The waitress returned, we ordered 3 entrees to share and when we asked about the mains, we were told they are best put on the table to share as a group. We asked how big they were given they were to be shared, and told they were entree sized. We were not overly impressed with that answer given the price of the dishes, and decided to order a main each and not make them shared plates. Nobody wants 1-2 spoons of a dish as it is passed around the table.

2 entrees arrived and eaten and we still didn't have a drink. In the end we asked was our wine still coming and the waitress said yes, walked away, then returned to ask how many glasses did we want? The 3rd entree took forever to turn up and to our dismay some of the mains arrived and were half eaten before the $25 entree octopus dish eventually arrived.

When the first two mains arrived and we sat around politely waiting for the other 3 dishes to arrive, a good 5 minutes passed and a 3rd dish eventually turned up. We insisted the table start eating as surely the other two dishes were close, but another good 7 minutes passed before they arrived. The mains are definitely on the small size and for the price being charged, you shouldn't feel like you might need to cook toast when you get home. The pork and fennel pasta dish was excellent (the pick in our view), and the chicken dish was good too. The prawn pasta dish is simply too small as a main dish and spotting the prawns was a challenge in itself and lacked colour, texture and interest. Charging $38 for a dish that it looks like school prawns were used that were near on impossible to find in the dish is subpar. I finished my dish and wondered who got the other half of my main?

We ordered dessert. Affagoto and gelato was good and the serving of the tiramisu was very large and we did wonder was this because our dissatisfaction had been picked up. One of our guests jokingly said since when are desserts bigger than mains? It was a good dish, but whatever the 'milo like substance' is sprinkled on top, it was too much. It was like someone had accidently knocked the tin over the dessert and they couldn't be bothered scraping it off, making it far too sweet and overpowering.

The restaurant looks really nice, we did wonder were acoustics considered when you did the renovation, the noise level made it very hard to hold a conversation with the person sitting next to you. The front door entry is cramped due to the bar and people standing about, and slippery tiled steps leading down to the pavement is a safety issue on a wet night.

As half the lights were off, people were having to use their phone torches to read the menu printed on a sheet of paper (once again, high prices, poor execution to small details like this). For the money spent, it was an underwhelming dining experience, not even close to being fair value for money for what you got. There are much better restaurants in the Shire charging these sort of prices, but you go home feeling far more satisfied.

I know you are new and doing your best, but there is a LOT of room for improvement. Overall I'd give you 5/10 tonight, but you have potential to be much higher rethinking a few things and being a bit more generous with your main portion sizes. Our waitress was lovely and the issues were not really to do with her. She was just doing the her job to the best of ability and we were grateful for her service. That's an honest appraisal of our night, it was disappointing but wish you well...

Being foodies and locals, we were so excited to hear one of our fav haunts Arthur and co. were getting there paws stuck into the Shire. We decided to go a week after opening hoping the team would have had time to get into their groove. How I was proven wrong! The service was sad, sadder than the typical Shire service. The wait staff were nonchalant at best, and at worst incredibly naive. When asked for recommendations when ordering as to portion sizes and what's best for sharing for our table of 7, the response was "yeah you could have one or two of those", "i think its enough, you might get a piece each". In the end the portion sizes were so small, we divied up literal pieces off the plate. We would have ordered more but we got a wrong dish which we shrugged off and then one of our pastas was totally forgotten and once everything had been served we were hungry still but over it. Our glasses of water were emptied and not repoured until some time waiting to get the attention of staff who seemed aloof and unattentive, and woefully unobservant, and no one asked to top up our drinks or check if we wanted something else instead, oh well too bad for them. I would say staff are not experienced in hospitality and management have dropped the ball. Totally not what I expected from this restaurant group. Food wise, the pasta's were nice, portions too unforgiving and not representative of value in relation to taste or wow factor. The Antipasti's I would give a total miss on. Foccacia was super salty, a dollop of almond cream not enough to share with the foccacias, only the prosciutto and salumi was great because of produce. Tomato dish was tasteless, melon mint dish was laughable, my 2yr old daughter could prepare that. Overall, a dissapointing evening and my sincere hope in leaving this review is so they can be aware and make ammends.

Response to Owner:

Hi Bec, appreciate the reponse. Just want to clarify that I was there on the Sunday and upon checking that is not a week, but 3 days after opening. So it was still opening week. I hope some of my feedback however dissapointing it may have been to read was addressed with the team nethertheless. I did not mean to sound rude with my choice of word "naive" to describe staff. It was meant as a descriptor for inexperienced and young which is no fault of the staff member. However it is reflected in the service provided, which I am sure with feedback like my own and some others that have had similar experiences, you will appreciate as a business owner. Critical feedback is core to success and I wish you every ounce of it. As you will be able to see from my profile, I am no troll or serial reviewer. I barely give reviews unless I have had a superbly amazing experience or an utterly dissapointing one, and I'm afraid in this instance it was the latter. That however, I want to clarify was because my expectations were much grander considering how much I have enjoyed Arthur. I am a foodie/establishment diner type (whatever you want to call it) and so with the reputation came a standard that I was expecting that wasn't met. Perhaps if I had simply been at any Shire restaurant without this context I would have just accepted it for what it is; no major dissapointment and thus no review. Hence, for what it's worth, there is still merit in Fior as a restaurant in The Shire. With some fine tuning, better value proposition and service quality, there is potential to be one of the best in the region. Thank you for taking the time to read my feedback. I will try again in a few months and leave my sentiments with management next...