The Potting Shed at The Grounds — Restaurant in Sydney

After so many days of planning to come to The Gardens but not being able to simply because we couldn’t find parking and could absolutely not justify public transport in this era of virus, we finally came here. Though it wasn’t exactly the gardens. We were lucky enough to get a parking directly outside the gardens, and we made our way inside. It was a bit confusing at first because we weren’t sure where anything was located. I recall their website describing this place as a cafe, garden, restaurant, bar, and there’s probably a jb-hifi somewhere in there too. Anyways, after traversing through this maze we found ourselves at the front of the potting shed, which was also surrounded by plenty of empty car parks. We realised that this was just around the corner.

We saw a few people waiting outside, and realised we needed a reservation. Marika was on it immediately and made one for 5 minutes from now, at 6:15pm. We went up right after making the reservation and they gave us warm welcomes and friendly smiles as they sat us towards the corner of the restaurants. The interiors of this place was quite beautiful and the abundance of nature and greenery surrounding the place was astonishing really, I could never have thought it could go this far. It wasn’t until we left that we realised there was a macaw on a perch just 2 metres away from us, and it was a beautiful bird. It was somehow unbothered by the pollution of human chatter and went about its day with an orange in one claw and a messy beak.

We looked through the menu the gave us and everything was just… pretty expensive. The menu is pretty vegetarian and seafood friendly as they have a few dishes catered towards it. I simply ended up with the most basic item on the menu, a cheeseburger meal for literally 26 friggen dollars. Marika had the roasted Fremantle octopus and cauliflower beignets, and we also shared a mini cocktail set, named threes a party.

The drinks arrived first, and they were cute and decent tasting. They were pretty much mini versions of a Pina colada in the sunflower pot, gin, peach, elderflower and rose in the glass with a rose, and a gin, cucumber, elderflower, and apple in the martini glass. The rose one was the best by far, as the Pina colada didnt taste that great, and the cucumber one literally tasted like a cucumber marinated in alcohol.

The food arrived 15 minutes later and it was unique for sure. My cheeseburger was served on a shovel head for goodness sake. It actually tasted incredible though, but just imagine yourself eating a regular cheeseburger, and now imagine a much much better version of it. Marika really liked the cauliflowers, saying that it was amazing. She exclaimed that she would go back here just to eat it. It was very filling and felt like a main, and it was also worth the price of $9. It was not greasy at all which was good since it was deep fried. The octopus felt like a home cooked meal to her as her mum had made something similar before in the past, but given the price and portion, it was very lackluster. However, it was a pretty unique dish and was something you wouldn’t normally get at a restaurant. The capsicum ruined the dish apparently, as it felt forced and was simply tossed in there. It was bland and didn’t excite her, as the flavours didn’t blend well with the octopus and it felt more like filler food. The marinade was tasty though.

I think we spent just under a hundred bucks today and it was insane, but I suppose part of the cost went towards the experience. Its certainly something we wouldn’t do all the time, or even ever again, so im glad we paid this place a visit. The next stop is to actually visit the...

My wife and I were in the neighborhood and we spotted The Grounds and decided to give it a go for a late Saturday lunch. The organisation has a number of venues here where they run events. The signage wasn't great and it took us a while to navigate to the entrance of The Potting Shed. We were greeted by the host and even though we didn't have a reservation, but we were promptly taken to a table.

The atmosphere in the Potting Shed is pretty full on. In fact it's a potting shed on steroids. The place is big---very unexpected for the inner west---and crammed with tables with giant pot plants shoved between them. On top of that, flowers decorate the premises in generous quantities. The place was pretty packed and loud. It seemed quite understaffed as the servers were running around frantically filling orders and serving food. We had to wait around 10 minutes before a server had time to take our order. I ordered the burger (28 bucks) and my wife grabbed two small plates: the lamb skewer 16 bucks) and the smoky baba ganoush (which for some reason they spell as baba gaboush. Also 16 bucks).

To our surprise the food arrived in around 5 minutes. To my even greater surprise the burger and fries were served in a shovel. Yes, and rusty one at that. Although the shovel was lined with paper, i personally don't like the idea of rust anywhere near my food. Perhaps the managers misunderstood the term rustic. Anyways, corrosion aside, I looked around and saw a chicly dressed woman delicately slicing her bruger trying to not wobble her shovel too much. Anyway, I decided to go in with my hands. I saw that the burger is a standard lettuce, cheese tomato and pickle burger and looked appetising. But on my first bite I could see how the food was ready in 5: the burger was pre cooked. The beef was also dry. There is not way the kitchen could make uncooked minced beef that dry in under 5 without nuking it. For 28 bucks one expects a burger cooked to order, and ideally one that is not served in a shovel. Fortunately, the chips were fried very nicely, but also probably pre done as they were not blazing hot as one would expect from being straight out of the frier.

My wife's lamb skewer arrived at the same time as my burger. The lamb skewer really is as explained on the menu, yes it's a "lamb skewer" you read that correctly, "skewer" in singular, so it's one skewer for 16 bucks and a very small skewer at that. Only four cubes of lamb. It came with a strand of spear mint and a marinated chili with some sauce drizzled on the whole thing. My wife had no complaints with the taste. The "smoky baba ganoush" arrived shortly after the other dishes. Unlike the lamb skewer this dish was not as advertised. There was not a hint of smoke in this dish. In fact I don't think this eggplant had ever even been near any smoke or fire. It tasted like the standard stuff you get in the supermarket, but was a zhuzhed up with some pomegranate kernels and some pine nuts. Unfortunately if you start with a poor base, it doesn't matter how much you zhuzh, you don't get very far.

All in all the food was kind of mediocre for the price. The Potting Shed is the place to go if you want to be aggressively confronted with plants and flowers while you eat ok food in a loud and large restaurant. I was impressed that they were able to have so much flora in a room while not building up lots of humidity. I was happy not to be bitten by mosquitoes during my lunch, but wasn't excited by...

Ok, I'm writing the feedback for the Potting Shed experience I've had today. I have to say I'm really disappointed and this is why.

All based on my real exoerience today. I'm trying to not use extreme words, really trying my best to hold my temper.

1 waiting time was too long. We've been told it'll take about 1 hour and we'll get a text to notify us but after waiting for more than an hour, we had to go back to the counter and ask. And the lady said it's ready lol

2 after we sat down, nice environment, nice vibe. Waited for around 15 minutes, 0 Waitress had came and ask if we had the menu or water. We raised our hand and waited for another 5 minutes to JUST get the menu and see what we can order.

3 overpriced food. Same price can have better food and better service at most restaurant in the city. E.g. the Grounds of the city has a much better service and bigger portion food with similar price.

4 very bad table service. we had to ask and wait for everything but still no one came to us! Waitresses was just fluffing around and seemed really busy but really observing, pretended busy lol. When you need them, they just gone to somewhere else and avoiding eye contact (good job lol). We've had to ask a manage level of lady to get us water and then she told the waitress our table was the one she need to cover. So bad service, bad management.

5 Not mentioning waiting for our food for more than 30 minutes to come after waited for so long for all the frustrated stuff, we are already tired and upset. And finally we've had a burger sent to our table but we didn't order that. So we told the chef that's not ours and he seemed annoyed and took that away with a strange face without even saying sorry or anything. We should be the one got mad lol.

6 long waiting again, asked the waitress to check our order, she didn't get back to us at all.

7 we've finally got our dishes, same rude guy dilivered to our table. He literally threw the dishes to us . WTF. He didn't even ask which dish was whose. So we had to passed around by ourselves and he didn't intend to help or feel any sorry. Really rude guy and totally ruined our mood.

8 at the end when we pay, the lady asked if we would like to give them tips as it's Saturday. yes it's Saturday lol and we expected some good experience and spend good time with friends. That's why we came here even we knew it's gonna be a bit expensive.

But honestly, their food was ok. Lol and I've seen quite a bit of negative feedbacks on Google map and they all followed by the owner and asked for their email addresses and said will make it up for them. If you see my comment, apology accepted but the done cannot be undone unfortunately and we are pretty sure that will be the last time visit. Good luck with the future and if you are not taking these serious, it will only gonna be more negative feedbacks. Afterall, it's just a meal,...