Sugarlane Lane Cove — Restaurant in Sydney

Disappointing Service Overshadowed the Food

This was our second visit to this restaurant. The food itself is decent—a mix of Thai, Japanese, and fusion flavors—but unfortunately, the experience was completely ruined by the poor front-of-house service.

The front desk staff lacked proper customer service skills, and the manager (or what seemed to be the manager) appeared overwhelmed and unable to handle orders and wait times efficiently. When we inquired about our delayed main course, I politely mentioned that if it hadn’t been started yet, I’d be happy to cancel it. Instead of an apology or a proper update, we received a curt response: “It’s already started. If you want, we can do takeaway for you.” No accountability, no effort to reassure us—just a dismissive attitude, which was shocking and rude.

Additionally, while the restaurant is dog-friendly (and the waitstaff were very kind to our dog), the manager’s approach was frustrating. He pointed out a piece of leftover meat on the ground near my dog—something that was clearly dropped by staff or another customer—yet made no effort to clean it up. Was he expecting me to do it for him?

It’s truly disappointing to see such poor service ruin what could be a great dining experience. The kitchen staff seem to do a great job, but unless the restaurant owner reassesses the front-of-house team’s customer service skills and overall management, this place will...

We had an amazing ‘Zoom Dinner Party’ last night across 3 households and Sugar Lane provided all the takeaway meals. I contacted the restaurant the day before and the manager, Sam, came straight back with simple instructions on how to use their existing pre-order system to request out matching food orders be sent to 3 places with the same delivery time. He personally checked on our experience the following day as well. Exceptional service from a professional team

The food was sensational and tasted almost exactly like it did when we dined in the restaurant about 8 months ago.

We shared cold entrees of kingfish Betel leaves and the raw scallop special before moving into an amazing octopus and green paw paw salad and pork mince in lettuce cups. Finally the signature brown fried rice was devoured with Crispy chicken and blood plum sauce. Servings were all generous and worth ever cent. It is certainly on the more expensive side for a takeaway meal but in these lockdown times it is the closest thing to going out to dinner with...

WARNING FOR GLUTEN-FREE/COELIAC DINERS

The first time I went to this restaurant, the waitress serving me at the time insisted that any of the dishes that could be made gluten-free would certainly be free from cross-contamination. She was very persistent when I questioned her.

Some six months(?) later at a subsequent visit, I was informed by another waitress that one of the dishes that I had previously ordered "is totally fine and gluten-free, but is fried in the same fryer with other gluten-containing food, and because I hadn't got sick, it is totally fine." Unfortunately with Coeliac Disease you can still be damaging your intestines if you consume gluten, even without displaying symptoms. I was very taken aback at the waitress's careless attitude to a serious health condition and it put a real damper on what was supposed to be a special night with my husband. :(

Please be very careful eating here if you have a gluten-related condition, as it seems staff are trained quite poorly in awareness, and you may be putting...