Salwa's Garden Lebanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

I’m reposting a review that I left after dining here a few weeks ago. I felt my review was a bit harsh but I also feel compelled to give an honest review. Mainly because I saw this restaurant on a list as one of the best Lebanese restaurants in Sydney, this is why I selected it to take some friends to. We actually drove 45 minutes to this location based on the reviews and accolades this restaurant has received.

Firstly: the restaurant is a causal setting, seems to be a house converted into a restaurant. It was ok but kind of basic.

Service: Salwa was hospitable and kind, some of the wait staff seemed confused about what they were doing. The whole vibe was kind of unprofessional. I get that it’s a home cooking style restaurant. But it is quite expensive- so I expected more from ambience and service.

Most importantly- the food: We ordered a lot of food. In summary, the portions are too small for the namesake of the cuisine. Arabic hospitality calls for generous portions. The portions of the main courses were like entrees; and they were expensive. The fattoush was very good; loubia very good, malfouf good. All quite good and a distinct home- style cooking taste to the food. However, the grilled meat was dry and the meat and chicken quality was not great. Grilled meat is not a speciality of Lebanon, they are more masters of mezze and vegetarian dishes. If you want good grilled meat, Iraqis and Jordanians do it better.

The truth is, it’s quite hard to find restaurants that serve Arabic food other than hommous, falafel etc (which is actually what is eaten for breakfast). This is because most of actual main dishes with meat and chicken are quite labour intensive and would be logistically difficult to serve in a restaurant. Also, Mansaf is a traditional Jordanian dish, not Lebanese.

There were too many dishes on the menu. It would be better to reduce the menu size and keep the most popular dishes, and offer bigger portions. Lubia is just beans and tomato sauce- nothing fancy- so I think a bigger size can be offered for that price

It was nice food but it simply does not deserve the title of best Lebanese restaurant in Sydney. I just feel that the accolades are not justified.

EDIT:

Response to owner’s reply to my review. Thanks for your reply to my review. It appears you’ve misunderstood the main critique of your restaurant. Which is that 1) the portions were too small for the price charged and that is why we ordered a lot. 2)- the grilled meat and chicken was sub-par. I have no problem paying a handsome sum for good food when it’s worth it. We’ve smashed burgers from a burger truck on many occasions & paid close to $300, each time and left on a high. You know why? Because they use premium cuts of meat before they mince it, in house. The meat served was quite dry and tasteless. If you remember, it was pretty much the only thing left over. And we gave it to the kid who joined the group to take home as he’s a student. I would not have taken it home myself. 3) the prices on the menu do not reflect the ambience and level of service of the restaurant. Also, again, Arab hospitality was not reflected in the way the food was served. We go to restaurants to eat, not to sip negronis and nibble. Most of your customers are not middle eastern so would not have anything to compare it to. I hope you have the chance to visit the Middle East one day and experience Arab...

This is a fantastic local restaurant with some really top quality food. As other reviews have stated, the authenticity is a big plus! The building and it's surrounds are charming too, in my opinion. I would definitely recommend going here. However...

... I have two relatively minor drawbacks (which should NOT stop you from going here!). The following are nitpicks:

Firstly, the food is quite dearly priced, especially in the context of the current economic climate of working age adults increasingly struggling to get by. This probably explains why the clientele there when I (23yo) visited (7pm on a weekday) all seemed of retirement age - this is definitely not somewhere in the price range for young adults to frequent! Still, I understand that at the end of the day, premium food demands premium prices. Ultimately, if you're not too worried about spending a fair bit for a really good meal, don't hesitate!

The second, more disappointing issue I have, is that the staff, although polite, seemed to assume that because my mate and I were sat outside, that we'd eat and then run off without paying. The waitress would come outside to check on us fairly frequently, which we thought at the time was good service, but when we walked back inside to pay the bill, a man not in uniform (I assume the manager) quipped "you didn't run away, then?", which explained that we weren't being checked on for customer service, but rather surveillance!

As somebody who has worked in customer service for years now, I do understand that two young adults sitting outside may cause some concern in the overly paranoid, but seriously? We aren't 12 years old, for crying out loud. If you must know, the reason we sat outside on a cold evening when everybody else was inside was because we didn't feel comfortable inside. All the other customers were at least 30 years our senior, and were giving us looks when we walked past as if to say "why should you be here? You're too young to be here". So, we sat at the furthest possible seat away from them and had our own conversation and company.

I was pretty disappointed with the rude encounter when paying. I thought that comment was totally inappropriate to a customer.

Having said that, as I said at the beginning of this review, I will still recommend this restaurant, as the food is fantastic and there are still many dishes for me to try. However, I personally won't be visiting for a little while, so that my wallet can cool off, and that the sour taste left from the judgement of the staff...

Very disappointed with our experience yesterday on a Sunday birthday lunch of 10 women. They were very short staffed to the point of not collecting our filled table of dirty dishes and The elaborate birthday cake arrived on a table of dirty dishes. Terrible experience. We kept requesting for the service but not available. Never ever had this happen before in thousands of restaurants dined and not having your dishes collected. No coffee or anything else was offered and we had to go to the reception constantly and request all things that were missing . BYO was great as we opened and poured our own wines. 1 lady only ordered a sparkling mineral water and didn't arrive till an hour later when our meals were nearly finished. Salwa as you said to us you you were very short staffed and very busy . Communicate that to your customers please so that we are aware and choose to come or not. We had made a booking and you had our details. It's not fair to have us wait and no service. You said, that Saturday night you were so busy and had more than 100 people and very short staffed, so your making the money, your not cheap and food is nice but not like the pure authentic Lebanese Restaurants. Please pay your staff extra money they deserve it, they killed themselves running everywhere and they will work and look after you. Such a bad turnout.

I saw your response Swama. Your 1 staff that attended was crying from the morning as she was having a bad day. My rudeness was I pushed the plates away to make room on the table???? How was i rude to your staff when she couldn't service us, and we did ask for the cake many times and especially myself leaving our table to come into your area and requested it over an hour not 10 minutes. Like you am in business and look after my customers 100%. You didn't do that but defending your self. Look at what happened and...