North Bondi Fish — Restaurant in Sydney

It used to be one of my family’s favorite restaurants in Sydney - on one occasion I had also arranged there an important corporate lunch - so much so that when on Friday we saw the weather report forecasting a nice sunny day on Sunday, NBF was our immediate choice for a much coveted lunch out after the long weeks of never-ending rain. After yesterday’s lunch, we will never go back again. Apparently, NBF has joined that specific category of venues in Sydney where patrons with kids are treated as a nuisance. They would normally give you the worst table available, generally the one next to the toilets’ entrance (and sometimes one cannot help but feeling they would happily put you inside the toilets themselves if they could). We had a booking for lunch at 12.00 for 2 adults and 2 kids (1 high chair). We arrived at 12.15 but we were still among the first patrons to enter the restaurant and there were still few tables available outside, on the balcony (with the glorious view to the beach, one of the 2 reasons people go to NBF, the other being the food but I will address that later on). While I was parking the stroller, my wife was shown to our assigned table, near the entrance to the kitchen and the bathrooms. She asked for a better table, she was given one in the middle of the restaurant. When I arrived, I immediately asked a waiter to be accommodated outside since there were still 2 tables available. She told me she would check with the manager but before doing that she attended another table or two and by the time she did speak to the manager one of the tables outside had been given to two couples who were queuing after us before we all entered; the remaining table could not given to us because, I was told, it had been reserved to someone’s else. So I asked what one needs to do to reserve a preferred table since the booking system does not give such option. The waiter replied that one cannot, it is basically based on first comes first (clearly contradicting herself). I then inquired about an empty round table which was indoor but next to the balcony, with a nice view, only to be told that it was only suitable for larger groups of patrons (eventually it was given to 4 patrons with an infant who clearly didn’t need a place at the table). We were very disappointed but nonetheless determined to try and keep the mood up with a yummy lunch. And here the second big disappointment came. I dunno if anything has changed in the kitchen or it was just our bad luck, but with the exception of the tuna tartare croutons the rest was simply mediocre. The fish tacos - a must at NBF - tasteless; the fried calamari soggy and over-salted, the prawn mafaldine, too sour and way too spicy. The service by the waiters although always courteous and performed with a smile was slow. The music was played very loudly and either because we were sitting right underneath one of the speakers or on account of a poor sound setting, the outcome was a distorted, relentless and...

Extremely disappointing, we were very much looking forward to our first night with international friends visiting Bondi and thought North Bondi Fish would be a nice spot to bring them. We were very wrong and I wouldn’t bother wasting your money. We waited to be seated for around 10 minutes, despite having a reservation, they were busy when we first arrived so that was fine. However, after we were seated the service went from poor to terrible. We waited a very long time for drinks, they told us 1 hour after ordering our mains that they had ran out of one of our orders, then took a further 45 mins to bring our mains. 50% of the food was fine, the other half was poor. The pasta was dry and very underwhelming. A curry with mussels in the description turned up as bowl of shells with no mussels inside. After asking the waiter that brought the food, he brushed it off and said they would obviously be in the sauce, there was 1 in the whole curry! We then waited 10 minutes while trying to get someone’s attention to ask them to bring the missing half of the dish. By the time they arrived we had all finished our food. We were not asked if we wanted more drinks and it seemed like an inconvenience when I asked for drinks while they were clearing plates. I would understand slow service, but still wouldn’t expect poor service given the prices, if it was packed with people dining and the staff were rushed off their feet. But after around 40 minutes of us being there, the restaurant had cleared out and there were only around 6 tables remaining, so that was not the case. I don’t like complaining about restaurants but I don’t want someone else to have the same disappointing experience, better to look elsewhere. Perhaps it was just a bad evening to visit but sadly after our friends had flown 24hours it was a very unsatisfactory...

I’ve always had good dining experience with this restaurant until last Friday. Our booking was for 8:15 and we got there for 7:30pm for pre-dinner drinks. I advised them that we have arrived (not expecting to be seated) and the maitre d’ told us rudely to come back at 8:15 (even though half of the tables were free). He didn’t even offer for us to get some drinks by the bar. I then politely told him that we were not expecting to be seated and that we were happy to get some drinks by the bar – which we did. One would think that he would promote people to buy some drinks at their bar???

We cannot fault the food – it was great. Then we asked for the bill – and noticed that they have charged us an extra bottle of wine. We questioned this – and 20 minutes later, the same maitre d’ told us that they have checked their stock and it was definitely showing in their transactions that they have given us 4 bottles of wine. We again politely told him that it was s mistake in their part and that we definitely only had 3 bottles of wine(there were 6 of us – 2 of them didn’t drink at all). He then came back and ‘slammed’ the bill on the table. We were gobsmacked with his behaviour and just can’t believe how rude he was. Despite that, we all still left a tip as we thought it was a proper thing to do – for the other wait staff – not for him!

We will definitely not going to come back to this restaurant – we all live locally and it’s a shame that his behaviour is enough reason not to come back. Matt Moran I’ve been to all your restaurants more than enough times and the behaviour of your maitre d’ that night...