Morgans — Restaurant in Sydney

A Corporate Family Day ruined by a greedy owner.

We initially started with 60 people when enquired, restaurant said ‘yes that’s fine’ , as the month went on, I sent emails noting we are nearing 90, again ‘yes that’s fine’ , another email noting we are nearing 98 , then I send through the orders noting we have 95 dishes in total (minus the babies). At what point do you say ‘I’m sorry we cannot accommodate a large group? Knowing very well your restaurant can only take 30 people? But you continued to take our booking and additional walk-ins.

They tried to say the walk-ins were accidently booked some time ago but some of those customers were asking me for a table thinking I was the waiter….that’s right a few in my group and I had to help run the food and drinks because this restaurant was so disorganised and only had 2 wait staff to run food. The owner tried to tell me he had a third person, but they cancelled – 1,2, 3 staff is still not enough to serve under 100 people. He then sends me text of their to-and-fro message…not my problem.

We arrived from 11.15am to find them still trying to work out the seating plan – this should have been done prior to the event, given the restaurant was provided over a months’ notice. I even minimised their main menu for our group as they had allowed us to choose from the whole menu. I also got our guys to pre-ordered and sent it to Tony a week before (as requested by chef). At no point was a budget discussed as that was not important, I could have easily spent $5/6k there had they got it right, so for the owner to blatantly lie in the response below is disgraceful.

To say ‘we have done our best’ is totally disrespectful considering you had plenty of time to organise this function. Instead of assisting your own staff you let them cop the pressure of the service -they did their best not you.

We received 10% off the bill, as a matter of fact we should have received more considering we had to help. I didn’t even get to eat my food as I was worried that my group wasn’t going to get fed.

Very disappointing as Kirribilli Hotel wanted to host us but we choose to support this small business. I did everything I could to help this place. I have emails that prove you wrong because I’m so sick of people trying to lie and blame their staff and other people....

Firstly, the place gets points as it's close to public transport and it's a nice vibe (having a street closed off so the cafe / restaurant can extend on both sides).

Beef burger review: The food (burger) looked aesthetic - but aesthetic alone isn't why one wants a burger. It needs to taste the part, maintain its shape whilst eating it too. This burger was difficult to actually eat (due to its height) and the taste just wasn't there (meat was a bit dry). And it wasn't just me saying this, another guest that day had the same comment. Given the price you pay for this type of burger - one would expect more. Rating: 2/5 (Note: happy to change this rating if I visit again - as I'm sure the large numbers impacted this too. See point below).

Review of Atlantic Salmon; My partner liked the Atlantic salmon. Kudos 5/5.

Kids meal: chicken schnitzel and chips. This was done well (at least the chicken). 4/5.

Large booking; We were a large group that day (and having read another review - the proprietor did say booking numbers changed on short notice). I know our contact person was getting orders in advance and we had our own people help serve that day too.

There was a manager on duty who was trying to be helpful (and I think that's why my partner's order probably ended up better than mine).

That said, it appeared the place was understaffed. I won't hold that against them and inclined to give the benefit of the doubt there. No points were lost on service from this point - so let's get that clear.

Reason points were reduced for service is really that there was no barista on duty (and how the messaging was delivered to us and with no solution). I didn't get a coffee from a rival shop nearby as I didn't want to appear rude to the place I was dining at. To have avoided that (and I get cafes can be understaffed) staff should have been trained to say that, "we can't do coffees today, given staffing issues, however you are welcome to get a coffee from another place and have it here with your meal." (Problem solved).

Again, this place has been reviewed quite well by others so do look at the four and five star reviews given recently and give them more weighting (as opposed to the 1-2 star ratings). My rating of 3/5 is tentative and is subject to change to a higher rating when I visit again...

TL;DR - waited 40 minutes and got no food delivered. Poorly managed and completely unhelpful.

Absolutely do not recommend this place when they are busy. We felt lucky, getting a table as it was very packed. We sat down, waited 10 minutes and made our order.

We sat there for 30 minutes after we ordered, received no coffees, nothing. Our only interaction with the staff was giving the order and getting water. We wait and wait.

I see a table who sat down 15 minutes prior get their food, so I go and ask someone where our stuff is. Guy says “we’re very busy it’s taking extra time”. I tell him that people have their coffees and food and sat down 15 minutes ago. He doesn’t offer anything other than the “it’s busy excuse”, no solution, no ETA. I tell him how long we’ve been waiting and that it’s frustrating to be hungry and seeing people who’ve just turned up get their food. I go back, sit and wait some more.

5 more minutes go past and another table who got sat 10 minutes prior got almost the exact same order that wife and I had made but had not received.

I get up and tell the guy we’re leaving (we hadn’t paid yet) and he says “there was a printer issue your order didn’t print I’m sorry”. If he’d known of the issue and had come and told us, I’d have understood and waited but the complete lack of care or attention to the issue was enough for us to leave. First time I’ve ever left a cafe after ordering. Hopefully it’s my last. It’s definitely my last time...