The Charlie - Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Sydney

Quite disappointed by my experience here. My partner and I came for dinner and were greeted by a super cheery, friendly server. We were quite hungry and asked her if some of the seafood dishes were main-sized. She convinced my partner to order the Beetroot Salmon Gravalax, I went with the Baked Vegetable Crumble. She checked with the kitchen and confirmed that both dishes could be prepared without onions/leeks/shallots/etc.. because my partner has a serious allergy.

The appetizer-sized Salmon Gravalax comes out. It looks beautiful but it is NOT a main. It also appears that there is zero beetroot in the dish, just a three slices of radish. The waitress brings over the manager and he then tries to tell us that the beetroot is in fact radish (it 100% isn't and he absolutely wouldn't admit it.) The manager acknowledges that we were misled to think it was a main and offers us a free side dish on the house. This was very nice but i'm still so taken aback that he would lie about the missing beetroots.

My Baked Vegetable Crumble comes out and is filled with shallots- clearly the kitchen is NOT able to accommodate an allergy. This could have been a deadly mistake. It was also served semi-cold. It wasn't even heated up properly. Nonetheless, the taste was delicious and it came with a nicely sized side salad (my partner ate it in desperation because he was so hungry.)

Overall, I would not come back here for food ever again. Our experience was quite appalling- especially given that the staff continuously lied to us about the ingredients and dish.

This place has a lot of potential though! The kitchen and management need to work out a few kinks. All staff need to know the protocol for allergies, should be 100% familiar with the menu items, and take accountability when dishes are...

This place did not feel welcoming at all. My partner and I made a booking on a Sunday night before we arrive incase it was busy. Walked in and mentioned to a staff lady that I had made a booking under my gf’s name but they couldn’t find our reservation on the system. That’s fine, the restaurant was extremely quiet anyways and only had one other table occupied inside the restaurant. This light bearded guy wearing a blue shirt abruptly joins the conversation by yelling out my name thinking I made a booking via EatClub and says in a condescending tone “that’s not a booking, mate”, then looks away. Okay? Like no need to be hostile, I know how EatClub works. Could tell this guy is the owner. Would it hurt you to greet yourself and smile? If only this guy had the right attitude and not give people dirty looks, maybe then would this restaurant will start filling up.

Another thing, this same bearded guy (blue shirt) finishes making our food and he leaves it out under the warm lights. Mind you, there were only 1 other table occupied inside the restaurant so it could be their dish too. I though I'll just monitor the situation. Rather than bringing the dish out to the table, this guy decides to stare at his phone giggling behind the bar. It wasn’t until I stared at him and made eye contact did he finally bring the dish to our table that was sitting under the lights for 10 minutes, untouched. I was baffled.

Overall, this place is overpriced and underwhelming. Experience? Atrocious. Save yourself the money & time and eat elsewhere.

I’m keen to hear the restaurant/owner’s excuse and defensive response to this. It’s what they love to write based on their previous 1...

Very poor experience. Went with my toddler. Asked for a kids menu - no kids menu but they can make me a kid friendly pasta with butter and cheese. I said ok. Also ordered fries and beef tacos. The pasta was not cooked but tasted ok. Tacos tasted off, only had 1 bite. When I went to pay, I was it was $30 for pasta (carbonara apparently), I said that’s not right as kids pasta is usually only $16 at a normal Italian restaurant. And I told them the food tasted bad. To which they replied I should’ve said something before I ate the food. I said I didn’t eat the food, I only had one bite of tacos and 80 % of pasta still remained. And when my child started whinging alittle bit, they told me to take my child out. Rude staff, poor food. The toilets also was not ventilated. Disappointing.

Since I can’t reply to the owners reply, I will write it here.

The discount given was $5, not $15, as per owners reply. $25 for a kids meal was still too much.

There is a difference between al dente and thick undercooked hard hand made pasta.

I was not loud, Aiden the owner became very angry and defensive.

I didn’t raise a complaint earlier because I wanted to leave with my child so we could have a second dinner at home. She was hungry. But when I saw the outrageous price for the poor quality food, I had to say something.

I would’ve left saying nothing if the price was appropriate. But since it was not, I had to tell the owner the way he was doing business was poor. The owner couldn’t handle the complaint and became angry and aggressive....