Jags Restaurant Newington — Restaurant in Sydney

I came to the restaurant last Friday night with my sisters-in-law for some dinner before a concert. We ordered some garlic bread and fries which were fine and well-seasoned. Unfortunately, that’s where the positive experience ends. The arancini we ordered was still raw in the middle and underwhelming. The garlic prawns were soaked in oil and tasteless, except for the expired fishy taste from the prawns themselves. This was the same with the prawns in my gluten free pasta alla olio, not to mention the completely unpalatable taste of the dish; despite my hunger I barely ate 1/3 of my dish. I wish I could perfectly describe how awful it was, but words wouldn’t do it justice. We let the waitress know, only for her to come back 10-15 minutes later as we are leaving to ask us if we wanted something else instead, knowing full well that we had to leave. The restaurant offered no compensation, and the cashier chick was rude. We tossed up returning to ask for a refund on at least my dish, but we had no time. So instead, here is my experience for others to think twice before coming here. The Jags at Bella Vista is so good every time, but this experience has...

Worst Italian place I have ever been. Over cooked spaghetti on Carbonara. Eggs were scrambled that I could see the white cooked. (Should ve had york only but yeah) Very gluggy in texture and over cooked pasta couldnt help at all, it would literally look like baby food.

Pizza was okay, nice thin base but again cheese all over the topping which should ve really gone under the cheese.

Caesar salad striked me again. Dressing was used off the shelf product that looked really cheap and starch. Its not really hard to make good caesar dressing with good quality buy-in mayo to be honest. (Didnt expect the home made mayo nowadays) No anchovy and crouton was no crispy at all, white diced bread that had no colour.

Cant believe it been almost 30yrs of business running with such underwhelming foods.

Server wasnt friendly or warm that clearly didnt help to make food taste any better.

Coming from formal executive chef for over 8yes of experience, although it local, well average italian place but surely could ve done...

It's a shame that the food itself was actually very nice. We had a family dinner, all of us ordered pasta dishes, the taste, flavour but especially the fresh ingredients used were outstanding. UNFORTUNATELY the service and especially behaviour of the (bold gentlemen) who appeared to be a manager really spoiled the evening and first time experience at this restaurant. He was arguing with staff in front of customers what created a very negative atmosphere across the whole restaurant. The staff looked like they hated working there which in the end can be felt by dining customers. He was carrying a blue bag where he took money out off and started counting and spreading the notes over the table just beside us what I found to be extremely unprofessional. Something else we noticed was that it was quite cold and wind was constantly blowing through the restaurant. Bottom line really nice and enjoyable food but we wouldn't...