Ragu Pasta & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Sydney

As far as Italian food goes, I was expecting more from a $25 bosciola, but what I got was mediocre at best. Sure, I'll hand it to them for the presentation, but I didn't pay for that. I mean, no complimentary garlic bread, either? Seriously, if other restaurants can serve you a bosciola better than this, AND provide complimentary garlic bread all under $20, I don't know what else to tell you.

Also got a tiramisu for $14. This one I don't particularly have any complaints about, but I don't think this one is for me—comes down to preference, I suppose.

The waiter was friendly, which is always a good thing.

After all that. Bill time. Total would be $39, right? I didn't just outline the prices for nothing. Wrong. Don't come on a weekend, or they'll surprise you with a weekend surcharge they fail to outline until after you've had your meal. Does it hurt to tell your customers beforehand that there is a surcharge? Is it that resource intensive to provide a small courtesy? No, I shouldn't think so? But I get it. Businesses gotta run.

So they print out your bill, giving you a chance to review your order, making sure everything is right before you pay? How nice of them. +1 point.

But hang on, there's an included suggested tip bringing up your total? -1 point

Honestly, I think tips are valid, given that the service is exceptional and the food is outstanding. But it's mediocre at best, I already said how I felt about the food, but the waiters were just performing regular waiter duties? I mean, they're nice, but I've had good customer service before, and I can't say this was deserving of a tip.

"But you could've just said no to the tip," is what you're telling me? Well, it's rather difficult to say no when they've slapped the receipt in front of you with it included already. Wasn't sure if the guy at the cashier just wasn't having it today, but there was a vibe for sure, and not the pleasant kind. Anyway, I didn't bother to argue with it and handed them the money.

TLDR, food is mediocre, definitely not worth the price, and you'll pay more than what you ordered, and not because you wanted to!

Won't be seeing me here again,...

Ragu Pasta and Wine Bar is in the food court at Westfield and you can stop here for a break whilst shopping and easily order food to go, with pre made salads and paninis in the window to inspire your choice. They do also have seats at the bar, and dining in tables (black and white furniture and tiled mosaic tables) where one doesn’t feel at all like they’re in the food court, rather a restaurant, a world away from the crowds. We begin with drinks and being a Sunday afternoon, order the favourite, an Aperol spritz which goes down nicely with our entrees. Italian food is what is on offer here including antipasto, insalate, pasta, secondi and panini. We order the antipasto platter which was a huge plate of an assortment of deli meats, olives, cheese, crackers, breadsticks, marinated vegetables, salt and pepper squid and melted cheese balls, that pulled apart so cheesy. We decided to share food on this occasion, and from the secondi menu we ordered the pan fried sirloin and vegetables, some crispy potatoes and a salad of our choice - there’s so many to choose from and we go for the quinoa with roasted veg (beetroot, kale, baby carrots and feta) and we really enjoyed this salad. The pasta here is great as you can select from a variety of different fresh pastas, and then add your sauce of choice. We choose the fettuccini with tomato sauce and prawns. The food here was great and certainly a large serving, so we were really full! The service was extremely fast and the wait staff were friendly...

So we ordered some food here for takeaway, a ragu pasta and a risotto with truffle oil. They used to serve big portions, but they’ve definitely cut some costs recently and are charging the same prices for literally half the food. When we got the risotto there were pieces of rice that were still opaque and not cooked properly.

They told us that they tasted it and it wasn’t uncooked, it was just the brand of rice that they used. Apparently that they didn’t have any more rice, so they just put the risotto we’d already started eating back in the pan to cook for longer since we weren’t happy. Not sure how a restaurant could run out of rice - if they weren’t bothered to remake it that’s totally fine, but they could have told the truth instead of making a bad excuse.

After it was cooked the second time it the risotto was much better - looks like it did need a few extra minutes of cooking. But just a bit concerned since several people ate a few bites, then they put it back into the pan that they would be cooking everyone else’s food in (can’t imagine they are cleaning the pans between each dish).

Pretty sure we didn’t have covid, but if we did this could have ended badly. I’m not one to say things like this lightly, but I definitely wouldn’t go back here anytime soon knowing the lack of hygiene standards given the current health and safety...