Kitanda Bevs & Bites — Restaurant in Sydney

Love love love 💗 My daughter and I happened upon this restaurant quite by happenstance as we walked by, from Paddington to Potts Point. It appeared to have a great vibe even though it was still opening for the evening… that said, the bartender nevertheless suggested we take a seat, whereupon he promptly took our drink orders and continued to set up for opening. It felt so lively but relaxed and it quickly I felt, put us in the mood to stay and have something for dinner there! We both ordered the classic Brazilian cocktail: ‘Caipirinha’ each. Only my daughter (dinner companion) had the Passionfruit? and Chilli syrup updated version I believe, and I had the classic lime. The drinks were so good and delicious but my daughter ended up with drink envy over mine! So enjoyable. Then the dishes started arriving… service and communication were fantastic here. The bartender and waitress continued to come over and check on us, chat and make sure we were enjoying our experience there, even though the restaurant was filling up! I always maintain that if you’re the first people, then they will come - and they do inevitably! We ordered too much of course, but you can definitely put together quite a meal from their ‘bites’. The Cassava chips were yummy but the Pork bites with Guava sauce and Coriander Pesto or Tapenade? stole the show with its buttery delicacy and crisp crackling. We also had a Halloumi dish, which I was informed was in place of a traditional Brazilian cheese that is a similar texture but not saltiness. I think the cheese sticks were with Honey and fresh Thyme? This prompted my daughter to then buy herself a thyme plant, so she could then have it fresh on tap herself. She and I were both impressed with the Halloumi too. We really enjoyed our meal at Kitanda Bevs and Bites. Loved the decor and a little of the back story that goes with the place and the nod to the Brazilian politician, activist, sociologist and feminist: Marielle Franco who was assassinated in 2018. It was the ‘in memoriam’ to her, that also finally drew us in to this restaurant alive with ’heart’. Something not easily achieved or actively accessible in most restaurants in Australia, but here, we were in Brazil for a couple of hours. I’m informed that they also liven things up regularly with Salsa nights etc. Wow 🤩 and again, love love love it here. If I lived in Darlinghurst, I would go there regularly. It’s fun with good food so a fabulous mixture. Do yourself a favour and check it out...

If I could give 0 starts I would. Booked a table for 10+ people, so far so good, no one has mentioned about ANY extra charges for that.

Arrived and found our seats and first issue comes; takes about 25 minutes for a guarana zero and 2 normal to be sent to our table, when asked staff the response was always “its coming”.

We thought, well let’s order as is taking long so we did proceed with our order leaving only 2 feijoadas and a few entrees to be ordered less than 5 minutes after the whole table, that’s where the nightmare started, all food arrived besides those 2 plates and we have patiently waited for over 35min to arrive and it did not, once everyone in the table had finished eating for 20 minutes already, I decided to ask the manager about our remaining plates and her response was rude and from an insecure point of view, “ you’ve ordered after the others” , so i said “ yes but it has been 20min since everyone FINISHED eating (not counting when started) and we haven’t received yet”, so she replies saying “ i have a full house today..” what impressed me is that NOT EVEN ONCE she said sorry, and nevertheless after that when she, herself went to deliver the plates to our table.

Food was extremely salty, not only ours but whole table. Wouldn’t complain if wasn’t for its horrible service.

Anyway think if finishes there? WRONG. Payment time, we were charged for 10% weekend rate( so far so good) and on top of that 10% added already in the bill we were charged another 10% for being a group higher than 6 people, an absurd as no one has told us about that and double charged us, that gave us an extra 100$ to the bill. Well done to owners/management on fattening your pockets, but you’ve lost a huge group that won’t ever come back and not for the money spent, but yes for your depressing and disgusting...

Planned on going here for the live music, we got there and was a bit disappointed to see that the band has already packed up at 7:30pm. Since we're already there, we decided to stay and look at the menu.

We had the salted cod croquettes and beef ribs coxinha (4pcs each, party size!) which was like $4++ a piece. It was good, it tasted nice but was it worth it? I had better ones at a proper Portuguese restaurant for a lot less.

I ordered a cocktail which was full of foam and the cocktail itself was probably just around 40 to 50ml, it felt like a shot. My partner ordered a $5 beer with the glass size fit for a hobbit! 160-180ml? I've never seen such a tiny glass of beer hahahaha

Food was good but we decided to leave anyway, even if we wanted to try more we didn't, it was just too expensive we could spend that money on a proper restaurant with proper meals and proper drinks.

As we were about to pay the bill, oh what a surprise when they actually charged 10% service fee on a normal Saturday (is that a thing now? It may be for the rising labour costs, but idk) they could've at least informed us ahead before we sat down.

As much as I would like to try the other dishes, I won't go back. We left hungry...