The Dry Dock Public House and Dining Room — Restaurant in Sydney

Such a disappointing experience. We booked for the restaurant about 6 weeks in advance, the place was buzzing when we arrived.We could forgive that we sat at the table for a long time before they took a drinks order, drinks came but took 4 asks b4 final drink came-and were told the beer requested had run out (at 6pm on a Saturday night, hmm). Could also forgive that a requested main turned up as an entree and then that the first mains arrived a good 10 minutes before the last person's main was served (this really is rubbish service). There were a lot of staff on the floor but the whole thing lacked system and process.

What really is unforgivable is a very officious French waitress stormed up to the table and barked at us that "Your booking is only until 8pm but I can let you stay until 8.30pm but only if you order dessert right now." Everyone was so shell shocked that they ordered dessert. We Were told the soufflé was unavailable (I expect this was because it would take a bit longer to be ready)-I called French woman back and showed her our booking confirmation was for 6pm to 9pm, she half heartedly apologised and said she was given wrong information. Regardless our desserts were brought by a team of 4 waiters with indecent haste. We then had our otherwise very nice young waiter attempt to hurry us out at 8.25. So infuriating, if they'd asked nicely we would have had less of an issue.

This is place of the moment, but with overtly rude, unprofessional service that doesn't honour their own rigid booking system and food that is OK rather than great. It won't last. We certainly...

Went to the restaurant at the Dry Dock Hotel in Balmain yesterday for Father’s Day lunch, as we had been there before and enjoyed the experience, thus we were expecting a similar great time. We could not have been more wrong, the entire experience was shocking. The service person hovered around us almost constantly, we had barely sat down when she wanted our order. After looking at the menu we put our order in. While looking at the wine list, the entrees arrived even before we had put our wine order in. We had only just had a sip of our wine when the mains arrived and before we had finished our entrees they started clearing the table of our entree plates before we had finished, we had to advise them we were not finished. The food although delicious was cold and the hovering by the staff made us feel uncomfortable. We felt rushed and had to gobble the wine quickly as they started to clear and wipe down the table while asking for our deserte order. We felt so uncomfortable that we didn’t order deserte or coffee, preferring instead to go to a cafe close by for both and to feel a bit more relaxed. We are never ever going back to that restaurant. It was meant to be fine dinning and the prices reflected that, but we have felt more relaxed in a food hall eating fast food. I know it was a busy day but there is no excuse for bad service, cold meals and rushing people. It was an awful experience for...

We are locals who enjoyed the old Dry Dock and were happy when it opened again. Seriously. Just happy it was open albeit in a new incarnation. The menu never appealed but today we had guests so it was new for all of us. The atmosphere and the decor is amazing. I would look forward to having a hearty soup or casserole in winter and just enjoy the ambiance. However. The menu is wanky and annoying. Two of us had $28.00 cheeseburgers which were served on a cold brioche bun. The meat was tasteless, underdone and cold. I would’ve told the staff this if there was anyone around. One of our party had a tough steak which he ate because that’s what he does: Eats and never comes back if the food is substandard. Our other friend had the crab pasta which he augmented with the chilli we asked for to try and give the burgers some flavour. He enjoyed it then. When the plates were finally picked up, where the two burgers were largely uneaten, I had to tell the waiter how dissatisfied I was; he never asked. The kitchen did offer to to replace but there really wasn’t anything else I’d choose. It wasn’t busy and if you can’t even get a cheeseburger right, I would be loathe to try anything else. The menu is terrible. Overpriced and badly cooked. It’s a pub. You will never be a destination restaurant. Just do good food in a wonderful atmosphere and...