Santa Catarina: Oaxacan Restaurant & Mezcal Bar Sydney — Restaurant in Sydney

I don't usually write reviews but my experience at Santa Catarina was one of the worst dining experiences I've had in a while.

I made a reservation around 8pm on a busy Friday night. Host was lovely, led us to our seats. However, it all went downhill from there.

Ordered a few entrees and two drinks from a lady. Guac was okay. Chorizo was good. Tacos were meh. Standout was the beef taco but the pork taco was super dry. Fish taco was good (albeit there was a small bone in one of them).

At this point all of our dishes had come out and we still haven't received our drinks. I get it was a busy Friday night but simple things like this shouldn't be missed. Was not enjoying the food and decided to give dessert a shot. Got the banana crème Brule - probably the highlight of the night.

As we wrap up the meal we saw a cockroach / bug crawling across the shutters. We asked for the bill and notified the waiter and his response was "oh no" and instead of doing anything about it, just comes back with the EFTPOS machine. It's not a good look when it feels like you want to rush your customers out of the restaurant without addressing an issue one of your diners pointed out.

As he brings the EFTPOS machine over, he drops it directly next to us, creating a loud bang which gave us a fright. The receipt roll of the EFTPOS machine drops out and he spends 2 - 3 minutes crawling around looking for the receipt roll - he eventually finds it under the table next to us and asks one of the diners to hand it to him.

It's a busy night. Mistakes happen. I get that. But simple things like remembering your drink order and addressing the bugs shown by your diners should not be second guessed. Food was overall below average (but this was maybe because we did not try any of their main dishes).

Not a...

Had a rather unpleasant experience there. Most of the dishes we ordered were on the average side and there were 2 of them that really just put me off - the Sea Urchin telela & the cut of the day.

🫔The sea urchin one was completely different than I expected and in a bad way, they were basically cold triangle pockets with some black fillings that I highly doubt contained any sea urchins. Was dry and tasteless. They felt not only not freshly cooked but had been left out for the entire day and served to our table.

🥩Then moving on to the cut of the day, I don't think I have ever had a steak tougher and more chewy than the one from here. Me and the friend had about 2 pieces(it was chopped) each and couldn't put our jaws through the hard work anymore. One of the sauces was super bitter as well.

Then one staff member tried to convince us that it is the Oaxacan flavour and it might not suit everyone’s taste after we voiced our dissatisfaction with the steak. Which was absurd because I can appreciate the exotic flavours but the issue is the produce itself - you cannot serve your customers some poorly cooked low grade piece of beef and tell them the issue might be that they are not used to the type of cuisine when they say they don’t like the food😑. FYI the steak was priced $55 but trust me that cut was worth only about $15.

Food wasn’t all bad though - the grilled prawns and the catch of the day were both nice. Such a shame that they aren't able to keep their food quality the same.

For a place that is marketed as a fancy Mexican restaurant, they definitely need to...

⭐☆☆☆☆ Extremely Disappointing Customer Experience – Won’t Be Returning

Our recent experience at Santa Catarina was unfortunately soured before we even arrived, thanks to their incredibly unaccommodating and customer-unfriendly reservations team. From the start, the process felt more like booking a hospital procedure than a dinner out — rigid demands, no flexibility, and a tone that lacked any hospitality warmth you’d expect from a venue of this calibre.

We were pressured into a set menu without any consideration for our preferences due to the “party size”, and the tone was more “take it or leave it” than anything remotely welcoming. Then came the relentless push about timing — constant reminders that our table had to be vacated at a certain time to allow for the “next booking.” Fair enough, except… no one actually showed up after us. The venue was relatively quiet with empty tables, yet we were made to feel as though we were inconveniencing them.

Restaurants that operate like conveyor belts, prioritising table turnover over guest experience, completely miss the point of hospitality. For a place that’s supposed to offer an elevated dining experience, Santa Catarina delivered rigidity, pressure, and a complete lack of care for the guests and their celebratory event.

There are far too many incredible venues in Sydney that understand how to treat their guests with grace, flexibility, and appreciation. Sadly, Santa Catarina is not one of them.

The only positive was the 2 piece band that were trying to entertain the minimal guest that were in the restaurant...