Tins & Wood — Restaurant in Sydney

There is always a slight worry about visiting a restaurant you know but have been putting off, because you're wondering what it will be like. For those not in the know, Tins and Wood is owned and run by the son of the former restaurant La Notte Uno. La Notte Uno was a staple of my family growing up and I often wondered having seen Fanio take over whether I would want to find out if the magic was the same or not. Mustering up the courage, I decided to find out on Friday 25 August. It turned out that the son has far surpassed the father and started making magic of his own.

Tins and Wood is nestled in a beautiful little corner of Penrith with an extremely close and tight seating arrangement. Some people may be put off by this, but I highly recommend you try it - it's a beautiful thing to be able to sit down and smell every last aroma being produced by the kitchen and the beautiful sounds of talented professionals at work.

We arrived unannounced but were lucky to find a seat with no waiting in a packed restaurant. Service was delightful and friendly, and they were upfront that service was a little slower as it was peak time and it's a small kitchen. Not a problem - good food is always worth waiting for. We are attended to for drinks, and we order a garlic bread and squid for entree.

The squid that comes out can only be described as the freshest, perfectly seasoned and battered squid I have ever tasted. I was genuinely wondering if they had caught the squid that morning because it was incredible. The coating was light and tender, the seasoning was absolutely on point and just made the squid pop and the portion size was beyond generous. I would truly believe my entree would be a main meal in and of itself.

For mains, we had gnocchi and pappardelle. Both were again exquisite meals with extremely generous portions. The gnocchi I had was beautifully seasoned with the perfect amount of chili (you really need to give it a go, chilli in the pasta sauce is incredible), that gave it a substantial kick but did not burn your mouth out. By the time my wife and I were done, we wondered if we could even move, that we had been so well and fed.

And the best part? The ambience of the night was perfect. Service staff are attentive and friendly, always happy to help with what you need. There was a wait for food that some people (read: neolithic prepubescent idiotic impatient toadstools of humanity) would complain about as being "long", but when my wife and I reflected that we had spent 2 hours dining, the meal wait times felt perfect. Just long enough to let your food settle, not too long to make you cry that all the beautiful food that's coming out isn't yours to eat.

There is nothing we could fault about our experience, nothing we would complain about. Tins and Wood is about a beautiful warm experience of great Italian food, cooked to perfection and served with that wonderful feeling of love and passion. Make sure you stop by and try this excellent food and sample Fanio's incredible skill on display.

The only regret my wife and I had? That we couldn't sample the entire menu in one night, but then that means we get to keep coming back and being surprised each time as we discover...

I’d recently heard from a friend about their bad experience at Tin and Wood in Penrith, but I like to reserve judgement until I try a place for myself. Unfortunately, this visit confirmed their warning.

We booked a table in advance and were seated upstairs. The “ambience” was non-existent - just a bare room with tables and chairs under blinding bright lighting. Honestly, it felt more like stepping into a 7/11 than a restaurant. We asked to be moved outside, which was at least a nicer setting… or so we thought.

We ordered two drinks, which took 15 minutes to arrive. The waitress was kind enough to apologise, suggesting that the bar was busy. At that point, we placed our entree and main orders.

The entree took 20 minutes to come out - it was small, we finished it in under 10 minutes - then another 15 minutes passed before someone came to clear our plates. At that point, we were asked, ‘Are you ready for your main?’ Back to the entrée, their take on ‘calamari fritti’ would have my Italian mother marching in the kitchen to show them how it’s done.

From the time we’d placed our order, it took a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes to get our mains. I had ordered a steak, medium, and what I received looked like it had been boiled, not grilled. There was no char, it was completely overcooked and bone dry. In addition, if you’re going to pour a heap of sauce over your meat, this should be explicitly stated on the menu, or at the very least, mentioned when the order is being taken. Admittedly, this was perhaps the only decent part of the meal.

Table service was non-existent outside of food being dropped off or plates cleared. Staff seemed run off their feet = maybe because the venue is spread across four separate areas: downstairs, upstairs, next door, and outside. We were the only ones seated outside and were basically ignored the entire time.

When I’d re-entered the venue to pay the bill, I mentioned that the steak was terrible, to which the waiter replied, ‘oh no, I didn’t expect the steak to be bad.’ I should hope not!

First and last time. I really should’ve done my due diligence and sorted these reviews by lowest rated prior to making a booking as I’m clearly not the first to experience excessive wait times. The owner using ‘we were busy’ is a now dated excuse, where resourcing to accommodate weekend foot traffic should be business 101. The restaurant has been in operation for long enough to understand how many patrons they can adequately service at any given time.

I’d heard bad things, but gave it a fair go. The ambience and service were bad enough, and I would not have been bothered in leaving a review if it wasn’t for the terrible food. Perhaps their Pizza and Pasta are decent, and if that’s the case, this should be their exclusive focus, as it should be classed as a crime against humanity in serving a customer an extremely sad looking piece of steak like the one I’d received.

There are far better Italian inspired restaurants in the Penrith area that actually know how to cook a steak and look after...

Actually nice food and they listened to me when I changed the pasta order but….. and this is a big but…. The service was terrible. Like horrendous. We didn’t get acknowledged, (despite having a booking)when we walked in because the lady behind the counter was giving the bill to someone and I think there was a problem, she did not acknowledge us at all so we trotted ourselves outside and sat down and about 5 mins later got asked if we wanted to move inside.

We did, but it was next to drinks fridge with lovely fluorescent lighting. So we moved again. Still all good, but I was getting slightly annoyed, as we still didn’t have a menu and the table was damp from cleaning it when we sat down (she looked a bit put out that we requested she clean it) The dampness was wiped up, however, after I commented. We had to ask twice for wine glasses (byo) before they came out. Fast forward 15 mins and our order still wasn’t taken, I had to ask for it.

Order in, all good, now the food. We ordered a pizza and pasta, which came out in a timely manner, the pasta was pretty good, I changed it a bit and they were fine with that, I did order garlic as an extra in the pasta, but it didn’t taste garlicky at all. The pizza was ok, my hubs wasn’t impressed, he swears it wasn’t wood fired, maybe it wasn’t. I’m not sure. I thought it was a wood fired place, but we might have mistaken it.

The service was really bad during this whole experience, not warm, not friendly, not professional even. At one point they were smashing glasses and plates down within 30cm of my head on a table to store them whilst we were trying to have a conversation.

The toilets were badly in need of repair, there were tiles missing and the hand towel dispenser was on the floor. It looked unkempt with dirty windows and cobwebs everywhere. Honestly all things are covered of the food is amazing but it was just ok, and the prices were worse than in the city and we are eating in Penrith.

Not once were we asked if anything was ok, or if we required anything or if the food was ok. There was just a lot of ignoring and walking past without any acknowledgment of anything. I had to ask for the bill and then gave her my card which she brought back and literally said ‘Tap it’ and walked away. Not another word was spoken to us. Just ‘tap it’.

Overall I would rate the food as ok, but the staff as distinctly unfriendly and the restaurant as a bit unkempt, uninviting and a bit unclean.

We love going out for dinner and trying new restaurants but we won’t be back. I’m sorry, I’m not usually so blunt but this was a restaurant with potential that was let down by the staffing and...