Paddo Inn — Restaurant in Sydney

The girlfriend and I thought this would make an ideal date location pre-movie. Menu looked nice, and reviews were okay. Ended up being pretty disastrous though - I don't often leave bad reviews, but would encourage people to avoid this place until they sort some things out.

To start with, the place is like a sardine tin. We were seated 15cm away from two other couples on either side. Not only did this offer zero privacy, but it was almost impossible to get in and out without knocking things over - something that one of our waiters experienced when they knocked cutlery covered in beetroot all over my shirt. I get that businesses have to make the most of floor space, but seriously, losing a table or two so you don't falsely imprison customers who want to go to the bathroom is probably a good idea.

Then we come to the great #winegate of 2016. We ordered 3 glasses at the start of the meal, one before eating, one to come with the entrees, one to come with the mains. The entree glasses never came. We asked two separate waiters. They both assured us they were coming. No wine. Eventually one of our waiters comes back over to ask us what wines we had ordered because they had lost the docket. We no longer have the drinks menu. 5 minutes later the drinks menu arrives. 10 minutes later we have our wines despite not having any food. To their credit - they give us these two glasses free. BUT WAIT! We reminded them during this episode what our main glasses were as well, just to be on the safe side. We receive our mains, no wine. We finish our mains, no wines. We ask for the bill, THE WINES ARRIVE!

All of the above is pretty forgivable in a busy restaurant with nice food but here's the kicker - the bill at the end was $190, and the food just ain't all that. The kingfish sashimi and octopus were pretty good - and while I wouldn't recommend you eating here, if you do you should at least get these. Everything else is dangerous - the oysters tasted like nothing other than the rock salt bed they were brought out on; the lamb loin was tender albeit flavourless; the heirloom carrots were on the bland side of subtle. We had an eggplant that tasted vaguely of a jar of Leggos' Arrabbiata.

We left, $95 a head worse off - having drunken our wine as though they were palette cleansers for the following course, with beetroot stained shirts to have a drink down the road. The place is over-seated, understaffed, overpriced and under-seasoned.

Avoid. At least until it lives up to...

A Sunday Night Dinner Served with Attitude

I was part of a group booking including a 7 year old child. During the week my mum swung past the inn to check it out and make a booking. At this stage we we're advised we could do an alacarte menu.

Once getting seated it took 20 minutes to receive a menu and an offer of water. Though there seemed to be five staff on the floor walking around it took over five minutes to get that initial eye contact... Are we getting ignored???

Once receiving the menu the waiter wasn't sure the cost between the set menus (ok...we have all been there). After a couple of minutes my mum advised the waiter that we could do Alacarte after she was told at the time of booking...this seemingly became a big issue and the manager had to be called over. This issue was then resolved.

After the conversation with the manager, let's put on another 10 minutes until the whole table received the menu. 20 minutes goes by then we get asked if we would like wine (45 minutes from sitting down). Once we ordered the wine we we're advised there will be a long wait for mains...I then asked if we could order the food now but then the wine had to come first. As the waiter walked away... I could see that she then took the order for another table which is pretty infuriating as we have now been at the table for an hour and couldn't do it at the time of ordering the wine.

Once the food was ordered it took between 20-30 minutes which is fine. Though take note, it is about one and a half hours from being seated (8:30pm).

Once the food hit the table, people who ordered the beef from the grill did not receive their sides as per the menu but at this stage half the table just didn't want to argue. My brothers wife advised she was waiting for a side of chips with her steak in which the waiter repled... No you didn't order this! I can tell you she certainly did but it's not the point it was the attitude.

This is the first time a have written a negative review about any restaurant or product however as you can tell the above really ruined a nice family experience and this needs to be highlighted to the public and management... Especially when so many things happen and then you feel the staff going out of their way to make it worse.

Be aware of...

Booked for my husband's birthday.

Our first impression was good, nice vibe and nice looking restaurant. The positive stops there.

While the staff was nice, it was extremely hard to get anyone's attention. To be fair the place was busy but I do not know if it was a lack or organisation or a case of short staff. Our table wasn't the best either with waiters always walking past in a hurry.

We ordered everything at the same time and by the time we finished the entree, it took a good 20-25 minutes to get our main. When it finally arrived, it got served to the table next to us. That can happen, no problem, that was sorted straight away but they got our order wrong on one of our mains. No big deal, that can happen too.

What shocked us was that our replacement steak came straight away. The whole time we were there which was over an hour, we could see a few pieces of meat being kept warm. We did not think more of it until our replacement came and then realised the steaks just don't get made to order.

The steak was nothing out of the ordinary, even for my husband who ordered a more expensive cut.

I left the restaurant feeling queasy (not sure if from the meat or sauce) and disappointed that we had spent over $100 of hard earned money on a very disappointing meal when we could have had top notch food (the best steak you'll ever have) and service for close to the same price at Bistro Moncur which is just around the corner.

I can see the appeal of the restaurant for a snack and glass of wine with friends but we will not go back there. Hopefully it was just an unlucky night for us and...