Fratelli Fresh Darling Harbour — Restaurant in Sydney

Headline: do not plan to eat here if you need prompt service and food. But the food is very good.

The reason for the visit: dinner with kids before Vivid - we needed something good but in a reasonable time (& were prepared to pay a decent price for it).

The venue: new build amongst DH eateries, set in a warehouse style high roofed building (FF biggest venu). Campari bar (ala Milan) thing going on - really a nice atmosphere. They can probably accommodate 200 heads at a time.

The review: our timeline went like this (based on time stamped photos & looking at watch a lot).

615 Booking time - we arrive on time and ask to order immediately. 625 order taken (5 pasta and 2 pizza & a salad and a bowl of chips - core business) +2 apple juices for kids 635 given a glass of water 645 apple juice arrives 700 ask waitress (who is very polite) where the food is - she says 15 more minutes 705 ask manager when the kids food will arrive - it’s plain pasta with tomato sauce. 705 the pizza arrives 708 some of the pasta arrives 714 salad and chips arrive 717 remaining pasta arrives

Kids went mental at 646 btw…..

The food was very tasty - couldn’t really be better.

We rammed our food in and paid - which was also bitter sweet - they didn’t charge for the kids pasta, but did add a service charge (without asking).

Now the issues are that firstly they were not busy (60% capacity maybe) but failed to recognise that people with kids actually need food within a relatively short time period esp at night. Given this is DH and their core business will be parents with kids (they are positioned outside one of the largest playgrounds in Sydney) this came as a shock. Secondly there was zero attention paid to us once we had ordered. No “would you like to order a glass of wine?” Nor “how’s the food?” Or “we can see you’re kids are about to eat their hands, how about some bread?”

Does FF care? based on the number and frequency of similar reviews - I don’t think so. So if you too are sitting waiting for a meal you ordered 50 minutes before, I hope I’ve entertained you a little. Good luck FF, you’ve survived it through Covid, so you’ll survive my 2...

UPDATE (4/11/23): I'm happy to give an update that the manager, Augusto, was in touch after we emailed him with our feedback. He apologised and refunded us the additional charges that were incorrectly charged. It's greatly appreciated, and I hope that this leads to some improvements in how large groups are managed in future. -------‐--------------------- I am so disappointed and angry about our recent experience here. My husband booked lunch for my 40th birthday, we had a large group of family and friends, so we had to book the set menu. When I arrived, rather than getting to greet my guests, I get ambushed by the staff asking questions that my husband had already worked out with the booking peope. We were 15 minutes late, which we had called about, and some guests were also running late. They said the '2 hours' had to start now (referring to drinks package), but then they took forever to actually start anything. My husband had emailed and been in contact with the in the lead-up. We asked about a split bill and were told it's not possible. That's fine, so we got everyone to transfer money or bring cash. Unfortunately, the venue did not bother telling us about the service fee. They then charged for more people than we had, charged a child as an adult, and then also charged for the kid's meal. The service was so slow and the included drinks that were slow to come. We had cake, they didn't bring out enough plates, then when half the people had already left, they mentioned that ice cream was included in the meal. I said, "Why didn't you bring it out with the cake?" There's no point now. Can you give us a reduction since no one had it? Of course not. They didn't tell people when ordering that certain drinks weren't included, so we got charged extra. They didn't tell us when the drinks had finished so charged again for that.

Overall, it was a horrible and stressful experience for my birthday. I ended up paying over $600 of extra charges out of my own pocket. Staff were rude, dishonest, and charged extra for everything and anything. Oh, and they tried to blame it all on their waiters accent... no, your restaurant is...

Dinning in last night with my 18 yr old daughter pre concert. Ordered pizza and two cocktails. Dinner for us was to be a quick venture. Dinner arrives, no cocktails. 20mins goes by, I just assumed the bar was having a busy night. Waited another 10mins. I flag the waitress down as she passes and ask about our drinks. Waitress informs me that as my daughter forgot her id, (change of handbag issue) obviously no alcohol for her. No problems, perfectly understandable. I asked after my own drink? The waitress then informs me that, “because I have someone under the age of 25yrs old with me that she will not be serving me the cocktail either”. I responded that it’s not a problem not to serve her, but I’d like my own drink. She told me that she “couldn’t do that because my daughter is under 25”. I reminded her the legal age in Aus is 18yrs old and I am very much past that. She continued that she, “wouldn’t be serving me any alcoholic drinks while she was with me”. Prior to me asking the waitress DID NOT express this when ordering! My complaint isn’t that I believed my daughter should have been served. Her oversight with her documents isn’t an issue. Iv worked in hospitality for most of my 20’s. I know the laws for service for company’s. But to refuse me service? I’m baffled. Did I miss something? Additionally, the waitress tried to charge us extra for pre-paid gelato. My Daughter brought one while I finished dinner, then we took one each to go. The waitress asked 3x if I had paid for it. I told her yes every time. Over all made me feel like we were trying to steal gelato. I did over my bank statement and she just ignored me completely. On reflection, the experience with the waitress has tainted what was a cute mother daughter night. And what by all other accounts was a...