The Riverview Hotel — Restaurant in Sydney

Unfortunately we had a really disappointing experience here. We decided to have lunch at 1pm for Father’s Day - 2 adults and 2 kids. It took 30 minutes to order, then another 35 minutes to get one entree for us to share. During that time we asked for tap water for my daughter 3 times, after we’d only been served sparkling water for my husband, son and me. Eventually I grabbed a water jug from the bar and served her myself in front of one of one of the wait staff who didn’t seemed to realise that wasn’t appropriate.

No drinks menu was given to us, so we eventually asked for that when we ordered after half an hour, and we got the drink after 40 minutes. At the hour mark, I bought a packet of chips from the bar downstairs to give my 7 year old after who was quietly crying as he was so hungry. After the entree we were still waiting 20 minutes for the mains - it was 2.35pm at this point. Everyone else around us was being fed even the table of 3 who had a 2 pm booking!

We ended up talking to the manager and told him we’d leave before any more food arrived. I don’t think our order was even in the kitchen and we just couldn’t wait anymore, or trust we’d get the food. We knew we certainly wouldn’t enjoy it even if the food was good. The manager was apologetic and we didn’t pay for the little we did eat/drink, but I’ve never been so disappointed in a dining experience. We ended up buying sushi for us all in Balmain at 2.50pm. Happy Father’s Day!

The place was busy but not crazy so no excuse down the service. There was only 2 wait staff who were polite but had obviously not been trained properly on how to manage time and check on customers regularly.

My husband and I had our wedding reception here 10+ years ago and wanted to bring the kids here for a lovely lunch and to reminisce. Father’s Day lunch was ruined and I don’t want to ever go back.

I’m just really sad about the whole experience and it tainted our weekend and what was supposed to be a nice...

Valentines Disaster (and it wasn’t my date!!)

Birchgrove Restaurant: My husband and I arrived for our 7pm booking for the valentines set menu. We were seated promptly, but that was the only promptness of the evening. Our included ‘on arrival’ drinks & hors d’oeuvres took 20 min, and we didn’t place our food order until 7:45pm. By 8:20, we still had not received our entrees, even though one of the servers kept coming over and saying “still no food?” Mind you - she walked back to the bar, and didn’t say anything to the kitchen through the pass. 10 minutes later, we decided to get up and leave. When we let them know, we were greeted with a “sit down your food is coming” - it might have been in a joking matter but it wasn’t very comforting. We should have left, but we decided to give it a chance. When our entrees arrived, we asked that they started our mains as it was an hour and a half into the booking and we were starving - they said of course and made a joke “not much time in between courses!!” 9pm rolled around, and still nothing. We decided it was time to leave, we walked up to the bar and the one server had her back to us on the computer, the other was out of sight so we left and let the bar downstairs know.

Throughout the entire evening, tables that arrived after us were being served before us. My husband and I both work in the industry and are very forgiving, but this was one of the worst experiences we’ve had. Especially at $120pp - definitely not worth it.

The irony of it, my husband had to pay $120 deposit and confirm that our booking was only for an hour and 40 minutes…

We will note they were accommodating to us as we had let them know I was pregnant on the booking, serving me a non alcoholic sparkling, and the service at the beginning was very friendly, but overall we would not recommend or return unless you are not hungry...

Ok, so first off, service wonderful and faultless. Pleasant upstairs dining room too, unfortunately my table was opp the one external door which as expected in an old building had the coldest of drafts blowing into my legs, meaning I was uncomfortably cold. Ordered their Sunday roast. Very disappointed. The gravy was so full of mustard seeds it was all I could taste and it was like a swimming pool on my plate. Yorkshires were burnt (cleverly on the underside) so were very dry with a bitter after taste. The only vegetables on my plate were onions and beetroot, also swimming in the gravy. A very brown plate. No fresh green vegetables or cauliflower cheese or bright orange carrots as one would expect with a roast that said roasted vegetables. I love roasted beetroot but it can’t be the only vegetable on the plate surely?! Roast potatoes were lovely but as they were sitting in a huge puddle of gravy meant they had no crunch. It would have been better to serve with minimal gravy-if at all and brought the gravy out in a gravy boat thus allowing the diner to decide how much to put on one’s plate. The meat was tender and cooked nicely but over shadowed by the rest of the underwhelming plate of food and covered in so much gravy, yet again mustard seeds was all I could taste. The Brussels had some recognisable flavour but again were over cooked and had more of a burnt flavour than a crunchy crisp flavour which I believe was the idea. Maybe I went in with too high expectations, maybe the chef had a bad day, but this was pretty underwhelming on the verge of unpleasant meal and I’m still picking mustard seats out of my teeth! Such a shame, had high hopes. 5 stars for service but I am afraid it was quickly overshadowed by the awful plate of food served in a swimming...