La Riva — Restaurant in Sydney

Dined here for my birthday recently with my husband and parents.

We had a 5pm booking which meant we were still there for the last half an hour of happy hour, we were seated, given menus then left to our own devices - didn't ask if we'd like any water or a drink while we waited for my parents to arrive.

Had to ask if we could partake in the happy hour, when we ordered some drinks and some food off the happy hour menu, we ordered a bruschetta - we weren't told it was one piece of bread for $10 - you'd think the manager would ask if we wanted more than one piece given there were four of us. Would mistake the bloke who served as the manager as he looked like he'd walked in off the street with the way he was dressed.

Food was okay, bruschetta as mentioned above was one piece of bread which was disappointing. The antipasti plate was just a plate of salami and mortadella, nothing antipasti about it - Wharf Bar does a better antipasti plate.

Pizza wasn't anything to rave about, it was good but not amazing - definitely tasted like frozen prawns on the pizza not fresh ones. Pasta portions are small and no offer of cracked pepper or parmesan cheese.

Plates being cleared while some of us were still eating. Feel like there are some teething issues esp when it comes to service, staff not attentive at all. Would we go back? No...

Love trying new places for coffee and breaky, however we were very disappointed in the service at Bar La Riva. The food and coffee was great however, whilst we were sitting inside the cafe, a huge gust of wind blew the window open and hit me in the face, leaving a bad bruise and a very sore face. I understand accidents happen, however the staff were more concerned with getting the pictures that had fallen off the wall, back up than seeing if we were all okay. When the owner came over, he seemed to imply that our kids had played with the window and therefore thats why it had swung open, which definitely did not happen. When my husband asked for ice to put on my face, the waiter brought over a cup of ice. When we asked another waiter for a tea towel, she brought over a used tea towel that she had just "wiped one table with, but it's pretty clean." Despite still not showing any compassion, a friend of ours spoke to the owner and he comped our coffee and pastries, however I feel this place needs to get their service skills right by just showing more care to their patrons. It seemed like there is a huge disconnect between the staff and customers. We definitely did not feel welcomed and won't be back. Stick to...

Table not set up for our booking on arrival. The menu is misleading for some items e.g. the truffle cream on the fries seemed non existent and I think it’s actually truffle oil. We expected creaminess. The sirloin steak and ‘winter greens’ came with slices of iceberg lettuce and tomatoes. That’s a summer salad, not winter greens. Most places will also serve fries or mash with this especially for the $42 that is charged. The waitress started to pour our water which was nice but stopped midway through because she realised we had our own bottle and said ‘woops sorry, you have your own water’ but didn’t continue to pour it for us? Just walked away after only pouring a 1/4 of the glass. Very odd. A man who seemed like the manager walked past our table without saying a word and took the dessert menu off and gave it to another table without asking or acknowledging us. We had not yet looked or decided. I mentioned this to him and he apologised but it was still very strange. We have two young kids and don’t go out very often so it was a disappointing evening to say the least especially for the price tag. We won’t be returning nor would we recommend this place. Wine was good at least and the pasta I ordered was...