Hemingway's Manly — Restaurant in Sydney

Even before leading up to my dinner, I've already heard good things about Hemingway's. So my expectations for the place was high.

The place was cozy and had a very romantic vibe to it. The lighting was dim but not too dark, it wasn't too cold nor too hot as well inside. The shelves at the one side of the room was lovely to look at and, for me, is what set the overall mood of the place. The servers were accomodating and were nice overall. To be honest, my experience with the FOH of any French restaurant/bistro, that i have had the chance to dine with, has seldom been a pleasant experience. But this was one of the few that were actually nice.

On to the food. Overall all the dishes were borderline bland. Yes they had table salt but you would expect dishes of a well-known establishment to have well seasoned dishes + the price wasn't cheap as well. The food was okay but not the best. For starters, I had the Beef Tartare which tasted too much of capers. It was the predominant flavor and to be honest was the only flavor i could taste. My companions ordered the souffles aux frommage, which was so so horribly bland. We also ordered the escargot, which had good flavors but again, was bland.

For our main courses, I had the Filet D’agneau. Which again, was bland from the chickpeas puree, to the jus, up to the lamb backstrap itself. Which was a bummer since the flavors would've bloomed more if everything was seasoned well. A good example was the ratatouille that came with it, which was delicious and was well seasoned. My companions had the Bourguignon, which had great flavors but the pomme puree was bland. We also got the bouillabaisse which was the most underwhelming out of the three. Again, under seasoned. We were supposed to get desserts after, but they only had four, in my opinion, play safe desserts. A lava cake with ice cream, a creme brulee, an apple tart with ice cream, and an affogato. We opted to have our dessert elsewhere.

Overall, everything was okay. But its just that, it was okay. The food needs improvement the most. With how much a person needs to spend to dine here as well as the reputation that it precedes, you would expect the dishes to come through. Again all this can be improved overtime. But for now, this is my purely...

Terrible service by door staff this morning. Rude, and a little passive aggressive. Walked up to the front door, waited while the male staff member was busy. Did not acknowledge me. He eventually looked up which an expression that wasn’t very friendly but also made me think he wanted to know what I wanted. I asked if we should wait to be seated or can go inside. He replied, with annoyance, “if you let me finish with this order I will then take yours”. This interaction did not impress me but I let it slide. My partner asked me what the problem was. I turned around and told him that the staff looked at me like he wanted me to speak, I asked if we need to wait to be seated, and then he looked at me like he didn’t want me to speak.

The staff member heard my conversation with my partner and seemed to escalate his rudeness. He eventually asked me what I wanted. I said a table for two. He pointed to a table in the sun and said that we could sit there. I told him we wanted to sit inside. The look on his face indicated that this did not please him. He begrudgingly separated two tables and we sat inside. He did not come back to take our order and quite some time. My partner told me the breakfast menu finishes at 1130. I felt the waiter was going to make us wait longer and then tell us the breakfast menu was no longer being served.

We went elsewhere.

The whole vibe he gave us was off. You really need a friendly member of staff at the front door. I understand that life has been hard for your industry and staff at the front line but customers still won’t want to spend their money anywhere they don’t feel welcome. Reading the other reviews we must have got you on a bad day. But a bad day is all it takes and this guy has not done your cafe...

New ownership has managed to ruin all the special things this place used to offer. Despite the same name and decor, please do not mistake this for the Hemingway's of old.

Even as I walked in on my last visit, I immediately felt the difference. Which was really unfortunate as i was treating my brother to a birthday dinner.

The music was far too loud and played the same record on repeat. We asked many times to turn it down and if they had something more relaxing, but there was nothing they could do apparently.

The lighting was really bright. Much unlike the candle lit place it used to be. Also the funky filament bulbs were blinking consistently, not like a beautiful effect, but a real distraction throughout the meal.

We thought a portion of their famous chicken nuggets would forgive the above, but even those have turned into tiny popcorn chicken style bites and the "crispy" coating was not completely cooked and sliding off the meat. Eeughh.

I had mussels, that were not only bland but had no sign of being cooked in anything other than water. No sauce, onion, garlic - NOTHING. I complained about the dish and was told by the waiter that it was probably because the chef wanted to get home! No apology or offer to do anything about it.

All three other meals were so-so and certainly did not warrant the high prices.

When we asked for another bottle of wine we were told that last orders had been - Which no one had mentioned to us. He eventually gave us the bottle and then rushed us to finish as the staff wanted to go home.

It was one of the worst dining experiences I've had in Sydney, especially when it used to be one of our...