Lazza Marrickville — Restaurant in Sydney

I once gave this restaurant 5 stars and I considered the food absolutely delicious, especially the sisig, crispy Bicol express and all the items on the breakfast menus despite my disdain for the owner who I find extremely inhospitable and unfriendly.

The reason I revised my rating is due to several occasions this year where the food was not cooked to order. As such, I had dishes served to me that were lukewarm or cold! This also happened during the lockdown; I ordered sisig takeaway only to find that it was not cooked to order - it was not sizzling and had no egg included, and worst of all the dish was served cold / lukewarm.

Lastly, the staff / owners are not considerate to customers! In June we had a reservation for 12 people at 7pm for a birthday dinner party. The staff wouldn’t let us in until all guests arrived (there was only 1 guest that was running late!) so we stood outside the restaurant like freezing ducks. And when they served dessert, they essentially asked us to finish within 5-10 minutes as they wanted to close early! Another example is they are supposed to be open until 9pm but when my friend and I came in at 8pm they turned us down saying they’re closed.

This restaurant could do better if the owner makes an effort to be more considerate to customers and also treat customers with respect, especially with making sure food is cooked to order and served warm!

For those considering visiting this place to try out Filipino food, I would encourage you to try Let’s Chon in Sydenham or Sydney Cebu Lechon in Newtown - the customer service in those places are much better than Lazza Lazza and the owner is...

(2.5 stars) Lazza looks more like a nightclub than a restaurant. Icy blue rope lights cut a geometric path across the room’s decorated rafters. A cluster of Edison bulbs dangle from a beam hung over the bar, with underset lighting casting an eerie green glow onto the cement floors. It says you’re somewhere different quite loudly, even before it fills up with smiling Pinoy family groups. They’re here for boards of crispy pata kare-kare ($35) where deep-fried pork knuckle is hacked apart and shared with vegetables in soupy peanut and coconut milk sauce, suka at toyo (a sauce made from coconut vinegar and soy sauce), and a chutney-like sauce that goes well on the fairly bland meat. I prefer the Cebu-style lechon at Sydney Cebu Lechon in Newtown.

Pork sisig ($22) served on a sizzling hot plate is also a bit bland here: even a good squeeze of lemon doesn’t get this version over the line. The best version of this dish I’ve tried comes just down the road in Sydenham at Let’s Chon, though I also rated the one I tried at the hard-to-find Pamana in Chatswood. By the time I get to crispy bicol express ($22) eaten over garlic rice ($4) I’ve decided it’s the over-cooking of the pork that’s making the dishes taste off-kilter for me. In this one the too-crisp and oily pork hunks are twice-cooked in a spicy coconut and shrimp paste sauce, that again is much better handled by Sydney Cebu Lechon. We weren’t inclined to stay around to try dessert like the happy families and couples surrounding us. I suspect Lazza wins “feels like home” points for people with Filipino backgrounds that makes the sum of its parts feel greater than the...

A friend and I had been meaning to try out this place for ages, long story short, she moved to Canberra and I went alone the other day. Being completely new to Filipino food, I asked the waitress what she'd suggest and without hesitation she said the 'pork sisig' with garlic rice; I also got a beer.

The food came out piping hot. I will do my best to explain the dish, it was tiny cuts of pork with onions and red chillies on a hot sizzling plate with a raw egg on top and a wedge of lemon. My waitress offered to mix it for me, effectively coating everything in egg and cooking it.

The garlic rice, while smelling wonderfully of fried garlic, lacked the bang of flavour I was looking forward to. I'm not sure what I was expecting with the sisig, but it was not as complex a flavour profile as I'd assumed it would be. Again, this was my first time eating Filipino food, so I kept an open mind. I asked for more chilli and mixed that in as well with lemon. I'm sure it's great sisig from all the rave reviews, however it wasn't my cup of tea (or plate of pork in this case). For me the dish was too fatty, cloying in its unctuousness. And this is why it was a miss for me. But again, that's my palate and by all means try it out for yourself.

I have to make a special mention of the waitress who served me, however - Lourdes. She ensured that I had a great experience: attentive, polite and very helpful. I wish I'd liked the food more, but the dining experience I had here was not to be faulted...