Milky Lane Parramatta — Restaurant in Sydney

With Sydney socialite owner Christian Avant known for making extravagant decisions all in aid of keeping the good times rollin’, it should come as no surprise that his chain of burger joints operates with a similar ethos. Stepping into his seven-month-old Parramatta outlet from staid boring Macquarie Street, is like walking onto the set of a modern day Happy Days.

It’s hard not to stop and gawp at the colourful candy shop environment, where murals and paste-ups compete with Mortal Kombat arcade games for your attention. The tunes are energetic; the staff are engaged and smiling; and the cocktails are hectic. Even the tap water bottles are given a classic Coke bottle twist, with glasses coming with ice and (almost extinct) plastic straws.

Marshmallow-infused white rum forms the basis of the pretty'n'pink Bubblegum Sour ($16). Despite a sweet topper of Persian fairy floss and torched marshmallows, it's actually quite sour and reasonably easy to drink. I can't quite say the same about the Mint Aero Cocktail ($18) from the October specials menu. However it really does taste like an Aero Bar was flung into a blender with a decent slurp of 42 Below Vodka; and it’s certainly hard to withhold a smile when it lands, lashed with chocolate syrup, rimmed with chocolate flakes and buried under hazelnut foam.

Deep Fried Mash Potato Balls ($11) are another October extra that'll get you creating Snapchat videos involving injectable cheese gravy in no time. The fluffy golden balls are already topped with Mexican cheese, Parmesan and truffle aioli, though we threw in some chilli sauce for the complete Ken Done effect (and to help cut through all that rich, cheesy grease).

What you’re really here for is, of course, the burgers; and, if you follow Milky Lane’s social feed, the fact that they’re well presented smile-makers should come as no surprise. Looks aside, I really enjoyed eating Chic-Kanye ($19). It's Milky Lane’s take on a crisp Southern fried chicken burger, with maple-smoked bacon, the requisite oozing golden American cheese, butter leaf lettuce, and a trio of sauces (take that Bobby Flay). The jalapeno pineapple relish and the smoky barbeque worked wonderfully together, and I enjoyed licking drips off my fingers as they rained down in an avalanche of Carolina ‘slaw.

If you can believe it, Limp Brisket ($19) is even messier affair, but it's slightly less cohesive in the flavour department. Between two rapidly dissolving buns you’ll find a hefty mound of 12-hour Texan rubbed smoked beef brisket braised in barbeque sauce that competes with their special sauce, American mustard and ketchup to see which can ruin your clothing fastest. With onion rings and more ‘slaw to contend with as well, this burger is definitely not first date material, even if seems like a great idea at the time.

Just like blowing $1000 getting your cars towed home from a festival then missing your $1000 hummer home and having to take a $260 cab, visiting Milky Lane will likely be one of the best bad decisions you make (for a...

Had two terrible experiences with this place.

First, I booked a table on my first night going out after the lockdown in 2020. When I arrived there the lady at the door couldn't find my reservation, luckily I had a screenshot of it, then she said that they organize the reservations for the day before lunchtime and since I booked after 1pm my reservation was not considered for the day. In other words, they were extremely disorganized and left the website open for bookings when they were aready fully booked. Because of the covid restrictions in the number of guests at the time, the solution she gave me was to order takeaway or to come back another day and request a 10% discount ( but didn't give me any voucher for it, just word of mouth). At that time, I sent an e-mail to Milky Lane complaining about that but I never got a reply from anyone.

After almost 2 years I decided to come back yesterday, and again I had a disappointing experience. Firstly, they put us in a table that was super close to other people while the other part of the restaurant was empty. I imagined the heaps of available tables on the other side were reserved, but I spent around 1h30 at that restaurant and none of them were ever occupied, they were only sitting guests at the side we were sitting.

Secondly, the music was so loud the waitress and I had to repeat what we were saying a couple of times because we couldn't hear each other properly.

Thirdly, I ordered one of their famous Milkshake which was one of the reasons I chose that place for the night but my food came and after about 10 min I still hadn't received the shake. I enquired the waitress about it and she said it wouldn't take too long. Then she came back and said they didn't have the ingredient so she suggested other flavours and I chose a different one. More 20 minutes passed and nothing, I enquired again and she said she would check. She came back saying it would take more 5 minutes, and again more than 10 minutes passed and nothing. I then decided to leave and requested to cancel the order. She nodded positively and not even apologized for the delay. I gave quick feedback about it to the person at the checkout and the waitress came along and explained (now apologizing) that the machine to make the shake was broken. I asked why they didn't let me know earlier and she said that they just found out when they were about to make it.. Which for me doesn't explain the total disregard showed until that moment.

Not to mention that, while we waited that long time for the milkshake that never came, our table was packed with empty trays and serviettes because we had already finished all the food and the staff were gathered at the front laughing and playing with each other.

Sorry readers for the long review.. but just wanted to make it clear how disappointing the experiences were and how unprepared...

I was very embarrassed when raving about this place and taking my friends there. We were treated horrendously.

My friend made us a booking at 7:30pm. We arrived about 10 minutes early and were made to wait. We were more than happy to wait till 7:30 as that was when our booking was. However, we waited for way longer and groups that came after us that had the same number of people were seated immediately. The bald guy with the popped collar polo shirt was so rude about it and wouldn’t even regard our group.

We were then seated in this area around the corner (by far the worse part of the restaurant) and forgotten about. This area was where all the mothers take their babies when their babies are crying the heads off (not the restaurants fault but definitely annoying). Being in this area no wait staff even realised we were there. When we finally got their attention they took our order. We then had almost a 45-60 minute wait time on our food. In addition one of our orders didn’t even arrive and we had to remind wait staff 3 times about that order.

One of the worse things about the night was the water. Something so simple for a restaurant is to provide water. It was DIRTY. We are at a restaurant and we were served brown, dirty water. When we complained and asked for a new water. They took the bottle and brought back another bottle of dirty water.

Food wise I’ve been to this restaurant 4 times. Other times it’s been great however this time the food was very underwhelming. It could’ve been the service tampering my ability to enjoy my food but I honestly feel let down. In addition it is unbelievably overpriced. For how expensive their burgers are you’d expect to not have to pay for a side of chips as well.

I would definitely recommend going on a weeknight or any night where the Wanderers aren’t playing in Parramatta. The standards of this restaurant drop heavily when they are busy.

My number one recommendation would be to go to Bar Luca. Always friendly and not that far from Milky Lane. You are guaranteed a good...