Giuls — Restaurant in Sydney

This venue has been on my list ever since I saw one of their pasta dishes on my Instagram feed and over the weekend, I got to experience this wonderful modern Italian restaurant. Located on Crown Street (and a 10 minute walk from my office), this women-led and owned restaurant is definitely one to visit. The menu is inspired by the Tuscany region that uses seasonal products, home made pasta and fresh seafood.

The decor is nice, simple and perfect for its location. Plenty of indoor space which still comes off as cosy and a few outdoor seats under the red and white parasols for those warmer nights. This casual dining spot is perfect for date night, catch up with family and friends or to celebrate a special occasion.

We started off with the 'House Made Focaccia, rosemary, black salt and olive oil'. The focaccia was baked to perfection... a crispy top with a soft and fluffy centre. To accompany it, we ordered the 'Mortadella, pistachio and green oil'. The contrast between the pinks and greens was just gorgeous. The 'Heritage tomatoes, balsamic, buffalo Stracciatella and fresh herbs' came out and it was the perfect opportunity for me to spread the cheese on the warm focaccia and top it off with the mortadella. Bliss!

The 'Scallops' were a special item and it was so exciting to see them being brought to the table with the flame still going after being grilled. They were topped with Njuda, basil oil and sea salt and no surprise here, they were divine!

What’s an Italian dinner without a little pasta?! We tried the ‘Squid ink Fettuccine, crab, cherry tomatoes and chilli’ which is a classic combination of flavours. It’s only recently that I tried squid ink pasta and it’s fair for me to say that I am a huge fan of it and of this dish.

For a little freshness and because I love fennel, we ordered the 'Fennel salad, greens and cucumber'. I feel when you have a dinner full of carbs, you need something as light and as refreshing as this salad to break it up and that's what it did.

The steak was a '250g Scotch fillet tagliata with truffle butter' and it was cooked to perfection. I don't think I even added the truffle butter and that's how you know it's a good piece of meat. No need for sauces.. just a little salt and you're good to go. The shoestring fries had a little char to them and I loved that. Look how picture perfect they are?!

As well as a mouth-watering feed, we were treated to some incredible cocktails, a glass of red and fresh limoncello that is made on...

Amazing place for a dinner, we can see the food has very good quality ingredients and the environment is nice. The staff is friendly and the food came very quick. About the food, we had the Focaccia, Arancini and the Burrata.

The Focaccia was nothing especial, but well executed. The balance of oil and salt was in the right spot. The winner of the Focaccia was the olive oil that follows the dish, very good with a perfect acidity.

The arancini, the winner of the night. The arancini was perfect, the scamorza mozzarella inside. And the truffle that gives the right balance for the dish without steal all the flavour.

The burrata with Fig, that was the moment I found that the place provides an amazing quality of their product. Such a good combination with the Vincotto. That combined with the focaccia was just perfect.

The Main Dishes

Myself ordered the squid ink fettuccine, the fresh pasta was good with the combination of the sauce and the chilly, was spotless. The only downside of the dish is the fettuccine was sticking to itself being very hard to eat and breaking apart while you pull. That create the experience of eating the dish a little bit challenging without breaking apart.

My partner had the Conchiglie, the sauce was good and velvet. The balance of the dish was very will thought, this dish the pasta was cooked to perfection, just missed a little bit of the al dente aspect, but very good in general.

The Drinks

The wine is good, I've follow the entrees with the Chianti, and my squid ink fettuccine with a Sauvignon Blanc. My partner had a cocktail, the Giuls Secret Garden, a very well thought drink where you can taste each aspect of the ingredients for the drink.

The dessert

The dessert was a downside of the dinner, the tiramisu was not traditional, this is not an issue, but it was used condensed milk and very little or none coffee. Was impossible to taste the coffee in the tiramisu due to its sweetness. The dessert for sure was the worst value for money in the menu.

Conclusion

This place is very good, great vibe and great food. We will go there again for sure and I will bring friends. It got 4 stars only because of the dessert and the not well executed fettuccine. Congratulations for the place, it will be for sure one amazing place to go when you visit Surry Hills!

Update: this place is now 5 stars for me. They made the tiramisu much better. Happy to go...

To start on a positive note, the food I really enjoyed.

However, the service experience unfortunately made the visit much less enjoyable. Within the first five minutes of sitting down, we were approached at least six or seven times by a staff member asking if we were ready to order. We were still reading the menu and had politely mentioned we’d let them know once we were ready. Despite this, the interruptions continued, to the point where it felt like we were being hovered over, it made it difficult to relax or hold a proper conversation. It felt like as soon as we got there we had to sit down and read our menu and pick as fast as we could. What I will mention as well is we got a later booking so it’s not like we were tied down to a strict 1.5 hour booking with people coming after.

Later, while we were still eating (and clearly mid-conversation), a waitress came over and tried to clear our plates when we weren’t finished. I had to ask her to give us a bit more time, as we still had half our meal left.

I understand that staff may be trying to offer attentive service, but in this case it felt overwhelming and almost intrusive. It genuinely impacted the enjoyment of our meal, and it’s the main reason I’d hesitate to return. which is a shame, because the food itself was great.

I urge you, give your customers some time to chat and read the menu. This isn’t McDonald’s where we have to order within a minute let us breathe and have a chat and wait five...