The Butler — Restaurant in Sydney

How to ruin an otherwise perfect day. But who am I to complain because the visit did leave me with a couple of quandaries to ponder afterwards.

Food: above average Service staff: outstanding, they couldn’t have been nicer (I guess it is called The Butler) Management staff: appalling

After a lovely day with my wife we finished it off with a visit to The Butler.

We had a set menu for two called the winter warmers.

As part of the menu you get a choice of one of three different margaritas. My wife chose one but asked for no alcohol in it. I chose the standard margarita. Of course when they came, neither had any alcohol. Which is fine if you like salted cordial. I didn’t cause a fuss as I didn’t want to spoil my wife’s day. But I did enquire politely as to whether they hadn’t made a mistake on the order. The staff went to check if they had made a mistake, they claim they hadn’t and the manager got involved and went and asked his barman, who insisted mine contained alcohol. So they didn’t just replace the drink, they told me I was mistaken. My wife drank it as well as her own. I bought a glass of wine instead.

The entrees were very tasty. It was three (for two?) slices of bread accompanied with a seaweed butter. The second was two lovely empanadas. The entrees were the best part of the meal.

The main was a ‘make your own’ tostada thing with pickles, meat and an interesting cucumber dish. It came with three (again for two?) tortillas. The meat was a little heavy for my tastes, but the dish was nice enough. I wouldn’t order it again.

Then there was a desert which was effectively an apple pudding with ice cream. The description was fancier than that but to my tastes there was too much bland pudding, not enough apple and the vanilla ice cream was … well vanilla?

We paid and left with good grace.

My quandaries: Why 3 pieces bread and later 3 tostadas for two people ? Why not 4 of each? If you trying to save money, just give us two of each. In case you dear reader are wondering, wife and I did cut the third in two. But we did find it odd. When a customer mildly enquires if you have made a mistake on the order, why not just fix the issue? In this case give me another margarita. Don’t waste time on a witch hunt through your staff and then declare the customer wrong. A major part of your business is service. In a busy restaurant mistakes happen, surely it is cheaper and better to accept that with good grace than waste all that staff time proving to your satisfaction that the customer is wrong. I will never know whether The Butler makes good or bad margaritas. If that was a standard margarita then it was the worst I have ever had.

Thanks for...

I’m here on a work trip for a few days, being from Melbourne I am quite the spoilt foodie.

I was looking for the perfect spot for solo dining. If you are a solo traveller looking for the perfect spot with delicious food, a fine cocktail, lovely service and a beautiful view.. look no further than The Butler

I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the beautiful decor, everything from the lighting to the menu design was immaculate. The attention to detail and consistency throughout the venue was very pleasing. I saw one of the waiters resetting a table cloth with an iron, I was like wow, that’s next level but I love it it.

What I had to drink:

🍹I had the Mango Mezcal Tommy’s

What I had to eat:

🍽️ I ordered the crispy calamari tostada and shaved squash toastada !

It is usually a minimum order of two serves for each type of tostadas

I was lucky enough that my very kind waiter checked with the chef if she could do one each for me so I can try two different options

That way I didn’t have to order four to try the two options I was keen on.

And so grateful that they did this for me otherwise I would have struggled to finish them.

I preferred the calamari toastada, the calamari was cut beautiful in bite size pieces, not oily or heavy. It was delicate and balanced nicely with the chile arbol lime mayo. 😍

Not to say the shaved squash wasn’t incredible, I am biased because I’m not a vegetarian.

However as a former vegan/vego, if still was a vegetarian - I’d be blown away by the options on the menu and the shaved sqaush tostada was divine !

I could of stayed longer, the atmosphere was amazing, the view was gorgeous. I had to head off otherwise I would of ended up ordering one too many cocktails 😂

I’m really keen to visit again next time I’m in Sydney - thanks so much to the lovely waitstaff,...

Was taken here by my partner for our anniversary. Notes: • menu made to be shared • portions are good to share multiple dishes • thank you for the sparkler on the affogato for our anniversary • eco friendly - they don’t use plastic straws • would come back again

Positives first: Graham explained food and drinks very well oysters from SE NSW very good with the sauce and by itself, green sauce red empanadas juicy in the middle, pastry very crispy sweet corn has a nice kick of spice Ordered lobster gnocchi as we weren’t full, very pleasant, 1 lobster bite to 3 pc gnocchi. Texture was smooth and almost melt in mouth, I think it’s supposed to be a bit more chewy/texture but either way I think it’s very good. Manuka honey semifredo not too sweet but has apple (sour) and strawberry (sweet) and honeycomb (sweet and salty) and fresh fig (sweet), all the flavours complimented each other very well

Negatives: Didn’t refill water (only refilled at the end when ordering desserts) didn’t ask if wanted another drink, first drinks been empty for 10 min octopus taco - soft, juicy and flavourful but very salty wagyu rump cap special 250g medium rare bit underwhelming, felt like wasn’t worth $80. Had the option to also add truffle (in season) $20 for 3-4g table has gaps, when pouring water and some spills it’ll have a chance to wet your legs felt like $377 all together was quite expensive for the experience. Felt disappointed about the wagyu. ($107 on drinks) got a mosquito bite as soon...