Sails on Lavender Bay — Restaurant in Sydney

Wasn’t planning on sharing our feedback here, but unfortunately our complaint was not handled by your team at all.

We'd like to share our feedback from our experience on the 24th of December.

We were running late for our reservation at 2:30.

We kindly called to advise we'll be late. The person on the phone just said ''that's fine, but just to let you know the kitchen will close by 3pm''.

We were booked for a 5 course share menu.

Rushed into the restaurant worried we won't be served, to only find out there were several tables who ordered or even arrived after us.

Although this is not important as much, as we do understand you have split services.

Upon our arrival we were asked for still or sparkling water. We ordered still water which took about 15 minutes to arrive. During this 15 minutes, no one approached our table to take our drinks order or check allergies for our set menu, which was already in our booking notes. We were expecting someone to just come and double check our allergies/dietaries as we pre-ordered, but instead it took the waiter 15 minutes to come and explain us A La Carte menu in detail or offer us Shared menu.

We kindly advised him, we've already pre-booked the 5 course share menu. Which means - there was no communication between the door and floor team.

We finally ordered the first round of drinks - 2x glasses of Veuve.

Waiter turned up at our table with two bottles, as one was short. The second bottle wasn't chilled enough, so not only the waiter poured AT OUR TABLE from two different bottles, but they were also visibly at different temperatures when poured in glass. We've requested fresh pour for my husband who got the warm glass. We received it straight away, however it was already too much hussle after waiting almost 20 minutes for a first round.

From then on, service felt extremely rushed and stressed. We understand Christmas time is hectic for hospitality businesses, but at such a place as your venue, we'd expect more professionalism. We felt uncomfortable as we sensed the team's stress and frustrations.

Also why would you leave butter pre-served on the table prior guest arrival? Haven't seen this in any fine dining. Had to ask multiple times for bread, as we were served mini peace.

Moreover, For our mid pasta course as well as our steak main course, our wines we chose to pair up with these specific meals, arrived half way through our meals. We had to stop eating our steaks, and wait for our red wine which is not ideal as we'd like to enjoy it fresh and hot.

Food was great, but not blown away.

Dessert was spectacular!

Upon sharing our frustrations with your team, sent a complaint email. All we’ve received was a missed call from management. At the time i was working and couldn’t pick up the phone. From this kind of establishment with high expectations i’d expect at least someone to bother and call again another day. Instead we received a text saying we’ll try again later. No-one did. No email follow up. NOTHING.

I don't think i’ve ever left a review in my entire life, but this time i had to.

We’ll not be back, and won’t recommend to...

We came here for my birthday dinner a while back and the experience was so lacklustre that I feel compelled to review it 4 months later. We had the 5-course set menu (priced at $155 per person) plus wine pairing (an additional $75 per person). It was an expensive meal, but we were happy to pay a bit more for good food and experience. It was a letdown, though. The whole dinner was meant to last 2 hours (as advertised on their website), and lasted nearly 3.5 hours. The service was shockingly bad - it seemed like we weren’t assigned to any waiter. When we were seated, we waited more than 30 minutes before flagging a waiter down to ask if we needed to place an order; we were a bit confused, assuming that we wouldn’t need to place any orders since we had specified in the reservation that we were doing the set menu and wine pairing. But when we spoke to the waiter, he seemed to not know anything about our reservation. Each dish took almost half an hour to bring out, and 2 of our wine pairings were forgotten. We were constantly flagging wait staff down, and confused how we could be forgotten when we were sitting in a high-traffic area in front of the kitchen. We suspect maybe they had recently hired new staff, so we tried to be understanding, but it’s really disappointing to have such poor service at such a high price point. Other patrons in the restaurant were less patient and actually got up to speak to the staff (so being forgotten was not unique to our table). Ultimately, most of our dishes were delivered by the wine sommelier, who was lovely and kind and apologetic (even giving us complimentary limoncello); we were grateful for her service and professionalism, but she was clearly doing a lot more than was expected of her. The food was decent, but I thought it was priced too high for what was received. It wasn’t very memorable - usually with restaurants that have set menus, the food quality is fresher and higher, and it is more innovative/creative with flavours and sauces, but it was neither of those things. I’ve included some pictures (unfortunately I don’t have any of the steak that was prepared, which was definitely the best). Note that these plates include the servings for both me and my partner (so 1 plate of pasta for 2 people). I personally think it would have been a tad nicer to actually divide the food between two plates, but I think that would make it more obvious that the portions aren’t that large. Based on our experience, I couldn’t recommend this restaurant. If service and food creativity improve, then I think it would be a lovely spot. The location is stunning, with beautiful views of the harbour. So I think there is a lot of promise here! But definitely a lot of room for improvement, and the current price point is definitely...

Me and my staff planned to celebrating the occasion of birthday and staff party at Sails we was booked for 6 people and 2 people.

First of all we were booked at 6.30pm and we all showed at the time but the manager told us to waiting outside ( very windy) because they are still preparing the table. After been asked to get in the restaurant 2 time , finally we got the sit at 7.00pm after that we been waiting another 15 minutes i have to asked staff to bring the drink menu to our table. Your staff have no attention at all i’m so disappointed with your service. Even tap water i have to walk to the bar and ask staff to bring it to me.

After we designed the drink. I got one of a sourdough bread the very cold and hard i was asked the staff ‘ are you serving bread cold and hard like this’ your nice staff was said “ this bread for free we serve like this” to be honest I was really shocked the staff's responded.

Food was cold you serve cold bread without butter also king prawns not fresh did the meet expectations. First dish started at 7.30pm i was ask to get the main at 9.30pm very very slow. Each dish took half an hour to come out. Also we need to ask every single dish what is this because staff just put to the table without say or explaining. I can’t acceptable your poor service. we’re all working in hospitality company as well that why we can’t acceptable.

Service was horrible without standard and without training. we were ask to get the wine with staff that dont have any knowledge about wine at all. I don’t want to said how much we are spending but we so disappointed with your quality of food and your service.

We was asked to bring small cake to be a HBD surprise but staff refuse us to bring it until we saw next table bring the big cake to the table and blow the candle so after that we can bring the cake to our table too.

You have non standard and your staff have not enough trining about what they have to do about services at all.

I would like to say, we will not come back. And will not recommend anyone to...