The Dolphin Hotel — Restaurant in Sydney

The Dolphin hotel has long been in Surry Hills and a popular venue for those that love a good meal and a drink or two. It is open 7 days a week for all day dining from midday til late. You can book or generally be pretty lucky with walk-ins. We often sit out the front on their long tables but there’s also an indoor dining room, and outdoor space on the terrace upstairs as well as private spaces for functions.

We’ve recently been twice as we enjoyed it so much and have thus sampled lots of their food. The food ranges from quite upmarket dishes to pizzas and burgers and you can eat any of the food in any dining space. The indoors is more of an upmarket setting and a little more casual outside.

We began with a few small plates to share; San Danielle Proscuitto (aged 18 months), served with melon, as well as the whipped ricotta dip with Vincotto, roasted grapes lemon and olive oil. This pairs nicely with the fluffy foccacia and a glass of one of their natural wines or cocktails. Their margarita is excellent, a gin and tonic or even a negroni. Moving on, light dish that can also be eaten as a starter, and one we quite liked is the grilled octopus with salsa verde, marinated nicely with green olives, white beans and herbs, and the octopus was nice and soft and had been prepared well. The king prawn linguine was another great dish, beautifully cooked, flavoured with the Crustacean XO Butter and lemon, the linguine was superb and not too heavy which is good whilst you’re out having a few drinks.

We had a really nice brined and roasted free range chicken; this method of cooking ensured it stayed super moist inside with a flavourful skin, served with polenta, tarragon and greens. A decent sized dish too.

The 450g T-Bone was a great option to share, the meet perfectly cook to our ordering requirements and served sliced with the bone. Just seasoned with olive oil, lemon and watercress, this is a really good meat.

Whilst you’re there, it’s highly recommended you get a pizza, and our choice was the Pepperoni Du Bufala - double pepperoni, tomato, fresh buffalo mozzarella and woodfired.

We ordered sides of broccolini with chilli and garlic as well as shoestring fries.

We finished off with their Delfina Tiramisu, a huge slice of coffee soaked Savoiardi, Tasmanian Mascarpone, Vanilla Bean, Marsala and Coffee Liqueur provides for a creamy and delicious dessert.

It really is a good space for a meal and catch up...

Fri 31/1/25 - Exec Summary: even better than previously (part of upstairs floor removed so dining space views are now of super high ceilings, visibility (whilst seated) of both open kitchens retained so you can still see the chefs “working their chops off” whilst they create the great dishes, table delivery staff “zoom about” (brilliance in Action!), and a SUPERB SURPRISE…when something “goes wrong” (& it wasn’t that wrong AT ALL, they manage it WONDERFULLY WELL.

Details: I used to come frequently when on Corporate $ but now I’ve chosen to be a Hospo myself (very low $) it’s no longer an option. 2 generous cousins shouted me dinner & drinks on Friday & it was divine. We showed up on time, registered arrival for booking, drank fabulously, then sat down. It was busy but well staffed. Dishes ordered with drinks at the Bar (we were properly advised to do that from the start) arrived beautifully (the pasta dish made with vodka in it is SUPERB - I drink Gin, not vodka, but vodka & pasta are EXCELLENT). So what went “slightly wrong”? It took 80 mins for 2 of the dishes to arrive. Who cares - That’s NO DRAMA WHATSOEVER! Why? Because:

1. we got some of the dishes much earlier (all were “gobble it NOW 🤩)
2. We saw the chefs were “blasting away” (it was busy) so we knew “it was coming”
3. The BEST OF THE BEST? Whilst waiting for last 2 dishes, a “Total Sweetheart” Irish-sounding staff member came over, asked us if we were waiting on any other dishes, apologised for the delay THEN offered us 3 a free drink for the delay
4. We thanked him & said “No, not necessary” but I want to say it was GREAT he did so!
5. I work in Hospo. Like many industries it has “technology that often goes wrong” (the BePoz system used in most pubs is “a freaking useless nightmare” for most fabulous staff who have to use it, and I SAW the chefs working incredibly hard & I & my 2 fab cousins DID get to have a great experience over 3 hours here.

If you ever read posts in which people sledge a venue, please remember to think about your experience as a customer with the STAFF. If the Staff were DIVINE, that simply means any problems (& ours here were NOTHING, they were simply a slight delay which enabled more fab conversations!) are usually the result of technology or other infrastructure running the business - not theirs - so please appreciate them...

Always great place to catch up with friends generally, easy location to get to and warm atmosphere. It can be a bit tight for space at times but otherwise would recommend if you're looking for a place to catch up with friends for dinner and drinks!

I wish I could review "The Wine Room" separately but since it is a part of The Dolphin Hotel, I will have to combined the review unfortunately. I have to say that the food was impeccable, so I was very impressed by the quality and quantity of the food. The pricing was reasonable and I would have given The Wine Room 5 stars just for the food and the atmosphere of the place. As for the staff, I wish I could say the same. I hadn't received a menu for at least 10 minutes and watched two staff members chat to their friends, both staff saw that I was watching both of them but continued their conversations. It was hard to catch any of the staffs for drinks or even water and so I tried to be understanding as I had a feeling that the place was understaffed. It was at the end of our dining experience that I felt it was getting a little ridiculous when it was time to pay for the bill. I am sure we could have walked off and no one would have noticed us but this was not in our nature and so we got up to pay and there was no apology for making us wait for 20 mins for the bill. The lady appeared to be the manager but I cannot be sure but regardless I feel that some feedback is warranted on this. I would have given 2 Stars to be honest but because I generally like The Dolphin Hotel, I felt it was unfair to do that. This review is purely to help make the place enjoyable for all and for the staff members to be a bit mindful. If someone had acknowledged what was going on and explained that the place was understaffed (for all I know it could have been well staffed and I'm just trying to be nice), then I would have experienced my time differently....