NEL Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

So to start with lets list all the exceptional areas where Nel showed its skill and passion; -Service was all smiles, they have all been trained to the highest level and take pride in what they do, this was a joy to witness (albeit the storytelling - more of that later). The barman was exceptional in his skills. The cocktails were innovative, tasty and highly quaffable and moreish and exceptional in their value for money. -The ambience in the restaurant is warm and inviting like intimate dining at home, no fuss or frills on the table, so as to keep the focus on the food. -The plating was exceptional, from the colours and choice of placement on the dish, to the crockery that has obviously been meticulously chosen to bring out the best in the food. Stand out dishes; Smoked Eel, an inspired creation with its smooth unctuous smoked eel and the jellied cubed bites with the heat from the crumb and the wonderful taste left behind of the fresh tarragon. It was nothing short of divine. Leek & Potato Soup, was a delicate delicious balance of soft and crunch created in a unique way, with exceptional plating that didn't miss a single detail of flavour, whilst still holding those memories dear of a thick, delicious, no fuss Welsh classic, on a cold day. Fishcake, this was no ordinary fishcake, it was packed with flavour and yet delicate at the same time and with the roe popping in your mouth and the micro herbs adding to its delicacy, it was a delight on the tastebuds and the bisque....well, I could have drunk a pint of that! Any high end French Michelin chef would be proud of that magical bisque!

So having waxed lyrical above, there were a few things I found to be less than expected and these are the reasons for my 3 star score; -The tables where we sat by the kitchen, were uncomfortably close, I know it’s meant to feel like bunker-esq intimate space but that shouldn’t mean I can feel the breath of my neighbour!😂. I found this seating spacing intrusive and almost awkward at times as my neighbours conversation was louder than mine. Seating elsewhere was better spaced. -Alcohol paring was expensive and disappointing, when your alcohol costs more than the food, you set expectations...... -My husband and I felt the portions were tiny, whilst elegant and beautiful of which no one can deny, we had cheese on toast when we got home as we were still hungry and no, I do not consider either of us to have over the top appetites! 😂 -As a Brit, who loves a good background to what I am eating, I found the stories repeated verbatim (which I could hear echo'd all around as the waiters presenting others food were so close!) like lines from a play to almost be dare I say it, slightly patronizing and insincere maybe due to it not being their memories. -The courses, felt rushed, we had barely put cutlery down and our next course was in front of us. Courses that disappointed: Welsh Rarebit was cold? personally my memory evokes hot oozy strong cheese, so this course challenged my tastebuds and for me personally was an unfortunate start. -Pork pie felt like it was missing a jelly alternative or something with that texture that is so synonymous with a British pork pie. -The Fish and Chips, were crying out for that taste of vinegar to catapult me back to the seaside, I wanted to feel that fresh sea salt air dancing on my tounge with the wonderful clash of sharp vinegar on cracked lips to take me sharply back to sitting on the beachfront wall, full of sun and sand in your hair! -The Steak sandwhich was provided with no steak knives, I had to tear my steak with a standard knife, 8+ wagu, shouldn't it cut like butter? The red peppers also dominated my palate and felt like the odd man out and ruined the dish for me. -Crunchie; no gold leaf in sight - was it forgotten or has the recipe been changed from the website image - it lost all sense of that beautiful cadbury milky crunch that catapults the friday crunchie feeling, as the honeycomb was so sparse and the chocolate so dark and overpowering!

At $527 in total, personally felt it was on...

We ended up having the "Disney" themed menu, and as parents of young children having Disney themed music playing throughout dinner was grating and unpleasant.

Firstly, I was pretty miffed to discover a 10% "Friday" surcharge. I've never paid a Friday surcharge anywhere before, and it wasn't advertised.

Anyway, on to the food:

First course "Lucky Cricket": Nel's spin on prawn toast. A crunchy pillow encasing prawn paste, topped with toasted sesame seeds. Prawn flavour completely overwhelmed by the sesame flavour. Not a bad taste, but a waste of prawns. Very one-note in flavour - a theme throughout the meal. They missed a trick here - I think salt and pepper crickets/grasshoppers would have been a great intro dish.

Second course "Make a wish": middle eastern spiced chicken & egg encased in a pastry cigar. This started badly, as when the waitress tried to use her "wand" to light a scent spray it malfunctioned and she nearly set me on fire. A replacement wand arrived, and she set the charcoal base of the dish on fire, leaving us with an incredibly unpleasant acrid smell filling our noses - we had to wait a few minutes before we could taste properly again. Cigar was soggy, taste was just ok - and one of our diners had a stated cinnamon allergy and this dish was spiced with cinnamon.

Third course "Deer in the forest": Venison tartare. After two pretty poor dishes to start, it was nice to get a good dish. Well balanced, rich flavour, nicely cut venison. Excellent umami bomb. I'd come back for this dish.

Fourth course "The Masked Skeleton": Churros with molé sauce. A quite pleasant end to the "snacks" courses. Well cooked churros, nicely complex molé sauce.

Fifth course "Arendelle": Ocean Trout, plus alternate dish beetroot rose. This was a tale of two dishes. The ocean trout was superb - dish of the night. Perfectly cured, beautifully balanced sauce, with a great crumb adding a little crunch. I'd have happily had 3 of these. On the other hand, the cured beetroot was inedible. it was aggressively pickled to the point that we literally couldn't eat it. Worst dish of the night.

Sixth course "De Vil": gnocchi in a mushroom sauce. Absolutely delicious dish, but again very one note - no complexity at all. That said, would happily eat it again.

Seventh course "A fine young kettle of fish": Lemon Myrtle crusted barramundi. The lemon myrtle was so strong as to render the dish inedible - it completely blew out our palates after one mouthful. After stripping the crust and outer layer of fish, there were a couple of mouthfuls left which were fairly nice, but again one note. Both of us left most of the dish on the plate.

Eighth course "A young warthog": Pork belly. This was a pleasantly complex dish - one of the few that was not one note. My serving was excellent, but the other diner's pork belly was incredibly fatty, and half the dish was left on the plate - disappointing quality control for a high end dish.

Ninth course "The Pixie Hallow": Blood orange sorbet on a salted caramel base. We disagreed on this one - I thought it was well balanced and a lovely dish, my partner thought it was too sweet and only had 2 bites. Judge for yourself.

Tenth course "King Louie": "Banoffee pie". Tempered white chocolate encasing a banana cream. Beautiful slightly overripe banana flavour, but incredibly one note. No relief from the flavour, and neither of us were able to finish it. A dark chocolate crumb or a dark cooked biscuit would have offset the flavour.

Eleventh course "The glass slipper": It was called petite fours, but that was a misnomer. It was salted caramel and chocolate, aggressively seasoned with cinnamon. It was fine, but Haighs would deliver something similar for just a few dollars.

Overall Nel sits at the bottom of my degustation experiences. Not a lot of complexity in flavour, a couple of genuinely inedible dishes, mixed bag of service - we both agreed we'd have rather eaten almost anywhere else.

We wont go back, and also can't recommend it...

One of the worst fine dining experience i've ever had ,extremely overpriced for what we had and was memorable for all the wrong reasons. We came to Nel Restaurant for our anniversary dinner on a Saturday night for the first time, as I came across Nel's website and the food in the photos looked really great on the website and saw that it had a fun dining ' A trip to Broadway ' 11 course degustation experience I wanted to try so I booked it online. On arrival we walked down the stairs into a very small dark space restaurant , and the first vibe I got as I first saw the open kitchen was that It had a pub like feeling and tables that were very close together. My partner and I were very excited for this experience as it was our anniversary and as we had been to other degustation's at other fine dining restaurants before that we really enjoyed. We got seated at our table and noticed we were very close to the people sitting on either side of us that we could hear their conversation and it didn't feel very private. We were introduced by the waitress and explained the menu process then told to orders some drinks and as we chose to have matching wines with our meal , they said it wouldn't start till our main meals and were told we could order extra drinks ,so we ordered two cocktails. The first dish that came out was the ' Snacks ' the presentation came out wonderfully , we were really impressed . They were very tiny biscuits like snacks that looked like leaves that tasted ok. The presentation stopped at the ' Snacks ' and the mains came out ( which were entree size at best ). We had to call over the waitress as they had forgotten our cutlery, every meal after that. The meals and wine felt very rushed and the wine and the portion sizes were ridiculously small even for fine dining and nothing really special or exciting about the dishes. The meals tasted very bland and after each one I kept hoping the next dish would taste better but it didn't it , it lacked flavour and size. After the last dessert the restaurant started to empty, and the waitress gave us a ' anniversary' dessert with a sparkler 2 heart shaped chocolates , then after that she came over and slammed down the bill in front of us , in others words to leave, to our absolute shock the bill came to $765 .... we were advised when booking that the meal cost was $300 for 2 and it was taken off our credit card at the booking time and the matching wines was included in the $165pp , but to our shock it was on top of the cost of our meal + our cocktails + a service fee... Really upset I asked to speak to the manger and she got out her laptop in front of us an showed us the price of the meals in an abrupt way and said that the prices were very clear on the website... I've never felt like walking out of a restaurant without paying as much as did that night. Embarrassed in front of my fiancee I had to argue the bill with the manager as she could see how distressed i was she took off the prices of the cocktails and the service fee. I paid the bill feeling absolutely ripped off and still hungry. it would have been a feast for ants , you would think you would be full after an 11 course meal...I don't even think all the 11 courses would add up to one normal main meal it was that little food, for the price we paid you could think they would be a little bit more generous with their portions. I wouldn't call this a fine dining restaurant, just a concept themed meal.( I wouldn't call it a meal" Would never come back or would recommend this restaurant as there as so many other wonderful places to dine in Sydney that as much more generous with their meal size, price & taste so much better. This restaurant just left a bad taste in our...