Gino's Kitchen & Cocktails: Darlinghurst — Restaurant in Sydney

Gino's Kitchen and Cocktails is a charming Italian restaurant located in the heart of Darlinghurst. From the moment you arrive, you are greeted with warm hospitality and a welcoming atmosphere.

I celebrated my birthday here a few nights ago, along with 11 other guests and I wanted to reach out and express my appreciation for the wonderful experience and the exceptional value provided.

As a frequent guest, I have consistently been impressed with the quality of the food, the top-notch service, and the wonderful location. Your cocktails are also exceptional!!

From birthdays to special occasions to casual dining, your venue always exceeds my expectations. Thank you Gino, John, Maria and the team for providing a consistently excellent experience.

The menu is an exquisite showcase of authentic Italian cuisine. The restaurant takes pride in using only the freshest and finest ingredients, which are skillfully prepared by the talented head chef Gino and his team. The pasta dishes are a standout, with a variety of options to suit all tastes. The Pappardelle Ragù e Piselli and the Linguini Mare e Monti are highly recommended.

The cocktails at Gino's Kitchen are also worth mentioning. The bar offers a great selection of classic and innovative cocktails, all expertly crafted using top-quality spirits and fresh ingredients. The Negroni and Smokey & The Bandit are perfect choices to start the night off right.

The service at is exceptional, with staff who are attentive, friendly, and knowledgeable about the menu. They are happy to provide recommendations and make sure that all diners have an enjoyable experience.

Overall, Gino's Kitchen and Cocktails is an excellent Italian restaurant that I would highly recommend. The food, drinks, and service are all outstanding, making it a perfect spot for a romantic date night, a family dinner, or a night out...

Our party of 2 came by to Gino’s to quench our craving for Italian food. We walked in to a rather busy and bustling bar and restaurant area so we had to assume that this place was good - the aesthetics were on point and there was a cool feel, but there were cracks beneath the surface.

Firstly, the service just was not great at all - the waitress was super distracted and only paying attention to my partner. When taking our order, she only took his and didn’t pay attention to mine, almost closing up the notebook and walking away. Yikes, Hello?! The food took about 30 mins overall to arrive, and once we were done with our meals, the waitress once again came over and gave only one of us attention. She asked, “anything else I can help you with?” My partner, seeing what was happening, said “No” and tried to include me by saying “What about you?” by the time he even opened his mouth, she had walked away. Now, that was kind of ridiculous and there’s nothing more to be said; it’s not my job to educate on Customer Service so I’d leave it to the management.

On the other hand, I found the food to be quite yummy though rather standard. It was a bit overpriced for what it was, but I still thought that it was pleasant. Portions were decent, and drinks tasted lovely. The music playlist was all TikTok audios though which was a bit jarring—it didn’t suit the atmosphere at all audibly! Finally, the owner seemed like a great guy who was really passionate about the place, and he had a great attitude, but the ingredients to make a top experience requires excellent service.

In conclusion, the staff Behind the Scenes clearly did a great job—it was this place’s saving grace. Its downfall was its waitress in the...

Our experience at lil darling was terrible at best. I had phoned up a few days before, to change our reservation from 630pm to 6 (I know, asking for trouble :) ), on the phone I was told immediately (without checking)" yeah no problem!. Given the current times I thought this might be an issue, so I asked specifically for him to check whether it was possible and to make a note of it, which he said he did.

What was supposed to be a lovely dinner turned into a disaster. First when we arrived, we were told our reservation was not until 630pm. Then we are moved to a table that did not fit our group to be told we would be able to sit on a different table when the other people leave. A little bit later we are moved to a different table, that is the exact same size! At this point we are told they gave away our table, because another group showed up with 10 people instead of 8. We were trying to make the best out of this situation so we asked to move some tables together to create more space for our group which thankfully was done.

Then a few moments later cops show up as it was clear the venue was not following the covid safety rules. The police chose not to shut down the venue when they identified a safety violation, but I am sure they were given a decent fine.

And through it all we would order drinks at the bar which they were delivering to the table, but from the 10+ orders we had done I think we received the right drinks probably 3 times after a worrying 20 minutes per order.

We ended up not ordering dinner at this venue and taking our business to a different venue.

I would recommend everyone...