My partner and I visited O-bar yesterday evening for a belated birthday dinner for him. I was extremely excited to go here and my family kindly helped us pay to have some snacks and drinks here as a present for. For the bar snacks we ordered sweet potato fries (which were lovely) and the feta and chilli hummus dips (each dip was $14 which I thought was very expensive). When I ordered I asked what the feta and hummus came with and the waitress said bread which I was pleased with. When the food arrived however we received a single half a piece of sourdough each and that was it. I was really surprised about this as I assumed surely each dip would have at least come with half a piece of bread on their own let alone me having ordered two, if that was the way they chose to serve the food. There were two of us, two dips and half a piece of bread each. I wasn’t sure if we were just supposed to eat the rest with a spoon and honestly for the price both were really average. Later on when we both had our drinks I decided to ask if there was anything else small on the menu we could order as I was still hungry and the waitress said there was in fact extra bread for $3. I was more than happy to order and pay for that (which I did) however I wish that this would have at least been offered alongside the dips, or better they just give you more accompaniments in the first place. Finally when I went to pay I was asked if I would like to add a tip and I said no. I then noticed on my receipt that an almost $11 gratuity tip had been added? I wasn’t sure if this was just standard and the tip was meant to be extra or if this was the tip and the lady didn’t press no on the machine but I was really unhappy about it. Normally I would have just left it. But this was meant to be a one off amazing experience and it wasn’t. We spent nearly $42 on bar snacks and received half a piece of bread and that was it, on top of spending $142 overall including the drinks. I do want to be transparent and say the staff were lovely and refunded me the gratuity amount which I did feel really awful about. They were all pleasant no issues there. It was more the lack of value for money, overpriced and very average tasting food.

EDIT: 23/11/23

We were kindly invited back to O-Bar to re-try the experience and I have to say it was amazing. The ambience was incredible, the place smelt lovely, it was clean and the staff were so attentive. The food was presented really well, and was extremely delicious. We were kind enough to be offered the 'Signature Experience' which I would highly recommend. Our cocktails were light and fresh, the dips and fetta were incredible, and I loved having more of the sourdough bread. The small plates were also very flavoursome and filling. This experience definitely changed my perspective and it seems I just had a bad first impression. I am very grateful to have been given a second chance to visit O-Bar as this time it did not disappoint. I would definitely return.