Helm Bar & Bistro — Restaurant in Sydney

I booked the bottomless lunch for my team of 6 last Friday 3rd October and unfortunately, it was one of the worst dining experiences in the city I've ever had.

The sharing "lunch" was more of a tasting menu of average finger food you buy in bulk from a cartering supply company, and then we only received one or a tiny amount of each item.

ONE crostini each ONE tiny arancini each A couple of raviolis each A few small pieces of calamari each ONE tiny churro each

We had also each opted for the add on prawns (x3) and oysters (x3) at an additional $48 for the addons, and $85 per person for the "lunch", so a total of $558 ($93 per head).

We were given exactly four oysters and seven prawns to share. When we asked about this, our host went away to confirm as she couldn't even give us an answer. When she came back, we were told that the prawn and oyster add ons was for ONE oyster/prawn per person only, and that we had actually been given one prawn and one oyster free based on market pricing. How can a single prawn equate to $8? And whether or not the dishes were also bottomless, I don't know because we were never told.

It was so disappointing that we almost ordered a serving of prawns from the a la carte menu because we were all so hungry and unsatisfied, but we were so let down by the whole experience that we just wanted to order a last round of drinks and leave. Well, our last round never arrived and when we went to the bar, we were told no more drinks because our 2hrs was over. When we explained that we had ordered our drinks a while ago from another bartender, we actually saw him about to leave as his shift was over and caught him just in time. He apologised and had the barstaff make the order for us, and they were kind enough to give us a second round for the inconvenience. The guys at the bar (excluding our female host) were the only positive part of the whole experience. I don't have a lot to say about our female host other than the looked like she hated everyone and was quite condescending when explaining why we only received one oyster or prawn each, like we should have known.

Honestly, what an emarrassment to Helm Bar to be serving a plate of four oysters and tiny portions as a "sharing lunch". Whether or not this is standard for Helm Bar or not, it's unacceptable to be serving this to your guests.

I would suggest they rename the "Bottomless Lunch" to a "Bottomless Tasting Lunch" and significantly reducing the price to $50 per head at most to reflect the quality and miniscule serving sizes, essentially only paying for the bottomless drinks. And scrap the prawn and oyster addons entirely if you're only going to be served ONE per person, or it should have been explicity stated on the menu "Cooked tiger prawn $8 EACH - or - based on market price" to avoid disappointment, rather than the "Cooked tiger prawns $8pp" as a plural like they currently advertise, because as far as I'm concerned that was the biggest joke and extremely misleading.

There are SO many other bottomless brunches and lunches in the CBD at this price point that are miles ahead of what we experienced at Helm Bar. For example, Kimpton Margot's bottomless brunch is $99 per head with a VERY substantial and high quality five course menu (NOT SHARED) by a RENOWN CHEF at a FIVE STAR HOTEL, with AMAZING SERVICE and a DJ. Compare that to the disgrace of a dining experience we received for $93 per head at Helm Bar.

0/10 do not recommend. Save....

NEVER Ever visit this place, otherwise known as Cockle bay yacht club!! they pre book you in, take your money then deny entry for any excuse so they fill the space your group had booked with new patrons. We had an event booked at this rorting place for a 40 year old bucks night, we all took the bus to this place and when exiting the bus we all took off our rubbish and left over cans to place in the bins outside before entering, there wasn't that much. It was around 5pm so still daylight and the security guards denied us entry due as they said they saw us putting our cans in the bin!!! If we were a hens party this would be different story. After a few calm and hard conversations about the thousands of dollars of our money they already had as we had pre paid for this event, we asked to supply us all refunds as they are not for-filling the service promised they said no refunds and just to bad for us. I found the security guards to be extremely disrespectful and not even give a respectful 40+ males a chance because we were males and in a group!! They look for any excuse to deny entry and took our money, they are day light thief's and sexist!! They then called around all other venues to not let us in because naturally we hard hard discussions with them due to our money already in their pockets.. I highly suggest to go somewhere else where they will not steal your money and you cant do anything about it. HELM BAR HOW ABOUT YOU REFUND US? they wont... daylight...

We had our staff Christmas party at Helm Bar. There were 45 of us and the venue catered so beautifully. It was on a Tuesday night - so not too busy. My communications with Matisse began quite early in the year and she was patient and wonderful to work with given our budget. Upon my arrival, I was met by Belinda who then introduced me to Simon who took care of us the remainder of the evening. He always checked with me the timing of the food to be brought out. We were offered a banquet style menu which also included a bar tab. The starters - oysters, salmon sashimi, burrata with heirloom tomatoes, truffle and mushroom arancini - absolutely beautiful. The seafood was fresh and there was plenty to be shared. For the mains we had lamb shoulder - the meat fell off the bone, tasty and tender, served with broccolini and potatoes. We also had a blue swimmer crab and prawn linguine - so tasty as well. Finished the night with Christmas pudding and cheese and crackers. My colleagues all enjoyed the evening- comments “beautiful venue, great atmosphere and the food was delicious”. The service from staff was beautiful. If you have a small budget to work with, want a city water view, then Helm Bar is a great venue to have a function including Christmas. Easy transport access also with train, bus and light rail options...