Saveur Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

Dear Michael and Team,

Your response unfortunately comes across as the classic “we’re perfect and it’s always the customer’s fault.” I want to address a few points you raised, because there seems to be a disconnect between what you say and what happened:

Hiding the Valentine’s Menu You claim the Valentine’s Day menu was available on your website, but the link you shared leads to a “Wedding” page. I’ve searched your site again and cannot find any such “wedding” section, let alone the Valentine’s menu. I also clicked on ‘Menu’ section, ‘Functions’ section, and ‘Home’ section, however no luck to find the Valentine’s Day set menu. If the menu was truly intended for customers to see in advance, it shouldn’t be tucked away somewhere obscure.

Fresh (But Apparently Not) Fish Explaining that “fresh fish costs $60pk” does nothing to address the fact that it didn’t taste or smell fresh when served. If your supplier is charging a premium, maybe you should take it up with them—or check your kitchen’s handling—rather than insinuating that the customer is mistaken for expecting freshness. Premium cost doesn’t magically guarantee premium quality if it’s off on the plate.

Customer Service & Attitude When I pointed out the issue to the waitress, the complete lack of concern or follow-up was as disappointing as the suspect fish itself. Mistakes can happen, but it’s how a restaurant addresses them that really counts. Dismissing a customer’s concerns without so much as an apology reflects poorly on your standards of service.

It’s regrettable that you seem more focused on justifying why your Valentine’s menu was overpriced and hidden under a wedding page than genuinely addressing my concerns. A truly great restaurant acknowledges feedback and seeks to improve—not deflect blame onto its patrons. Hopefully, this feedback encourages you to be more transparent and responsive in the future.

—————————————————————— Came here on Valentine’s Day for dinner. Before we got there, I checked the menu on the website and decided to go with the 3 course menu for $85pp.

When we arrived the restaurant, they only have the Valentine’s Day set menu for $149 pp - this is $64 dollar higher than their usual 3 course menu, it was not advertised on their website at all and it was a total surprise to us. Regardless, we decided to give it a go and expect the food to be nice.

I ordered the John Dory for main, however the fish was not fresh at all….it smelt suspect….so I left the fish on the plate. When the waitress came to take the plates, I told her the fish was not fresh. She took the plates and walked away without saying sorry / asking if there was anything she can do.

So got charged $149 for 3 courses, with totally average entree and dessert, and stinky fish.

Won’t be...

It was my father in law’s birthday and we just wanted a family celebration. We had 3 children with us and 1 was barely 6. We told them when we booked that we needed to leave early as it was a school night. They said that was fine but because we were a table of 10 they would have to put us outside. We then said ok as long as we don’t get forgotten!

We arrived at 630pm on time. They served the kids meal a whole hour later at 730pm! The adult entrees didn’t come until almost 8pm and then adult mains at 830pm. By 9:15pm we were still waiting for dessert so we were truly annoyed by then and asked to cancel dessert and wanted to pay the bill. At this point we were told dessert was magically ready but everyone has had enough waiting, so we just went to pay the bill anyway.

The owner came out to explain in an annoyed manner that he cancelled dessert for the 3 course meals but insisted on charging full price for the 2 course meals even though he could have perhaps just charge for 2 x a la carte meals?

My opinion on what happened was that they did not have enough staff on and the kitchen was struggling and we were definitely “forgotten” being the only table outside. We literally had to go inside to look for staff to chase for our meals on several occasions. The floor staff did their best but there wasn’t much they could do if the kitchen wasn’t cooking fast enough.

Making children wait 1 hour and adults who didn’t order entrees 2 hours for their main meals was just insensitive and rude, especially when we told them in advance we needed to leave early because we have kids.

To be honest, I wasn’t completely impressed with my food even though I was completely starving by the time the food arrived. I had the chicken pate which was ok, but the toasted baguette pieces that came with it were chewy and stale. The orange duck confit was quite dry.

Anyway, the whole meal was a big disappointment and left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth (excuse the pun).

We definitely will not be returning to this restaurant as it is in my opinion overrated with substandard food and service for a massive price...

The ratings are really high with a lot of 5 star review which led us to giving this restaurant a try. My rating isn’t to be mean but to just give an honest review to help others in deciding.

The person running the restaurant and the staff were lovely, cannot fault them. We came when they just opened so now one was there yet and didn’t have a booking. They said they were fully booked but were kind enough to let us in.

The service definitely carry’s where they lack, and that was the food. The onion soup had a lot of garlic and quite large chunks as well. There was also wayy too much rosemary that it overpowered the soup. It was on the more watery side. Some people might like these but which is fine, this is my personal view. The confit of duck was fine, a little bland but we definitely recommend pairing with at least a side and entree to fill you up. The crepe itself was quite wet (not from the couli, the actual crepe was jelly like) and the ice cream had freezer burn. Apart from the potato dauphinoise, which was actually quiet good, I couldn’t finish my food, my partner ate the rest as he didn’t want to waste anything.

If you don’t mind the quality of the food and prefer a cozy place to dine in it’s great service that is what I would recommend this...