I went out for dinner last night with 6 friends to a fine dinning restaurant.
It wasnt busy in fact it had our table, an earlier table of 2 and another table of 8 people. Its not a large restaurant.

Entress were around $25, mains $40-45 and desserts $15 - not your cheap and cheerful prices.

In my mind I expected perfection, I expected something special, attention to details and sadly, was disappointed.

The meals were presented nicely but the plates werent hot. Four diners ordered scallops and reported that they were lukewarm, apparently they were meant to be ??? I had pork belly but it wasnt hot so the melt in your mouth concept was lost.

The decor was nothing special, it didnt have anything remarkable to mention, in fact I cant even remember if there were white table cloths. There was no atmosphere either, I dont even recall any music.

When I went to the bath room, the lights were very low (not romantic low, more dim and dark) and I noticed the toilet holder was about to fall off.

It was just average with no wow factor (Ok the desserts were good - Id go for a dessert and coffee).

No wonder people are preferring the hustle and bustle as well as value for money of our many Asian influenced restaurants. Im happy to pay good money but expect to be impressed and feel quite often attention to details is lost in many of our restaurants charging high prices.

What are your thoughts? Am I too picky and harsh? I know it costs a lot to run a restaurant BUT more people in the door = people talking about your place, word of mouth reputation, waiting lists ect. High prices and disappointment s is a recipe for disaster.

Vanessa

We don’t eat at “fine dining” restaurants any more, haven’t for a couple of years. The last one we went to, One Tree Grill, had dull food, aloof service and my fork was so dirty it must have missed the dishwasher. They scooped it up and replaced it without fuss when I drew it to their attention, but without apology. It cost around $300 for two including three glasses of wine. At that point we decided to stick to cheap and cheerful or home cooked .

A few years ago I used to love fine dining and went to some great restaurants overseas for it (no more expensive than ours, but light years better - we pay a LOT for this sort of thing). And sure, some of the food was spectacular. But I got more and more bored with over-refined food that had been messed about with tweezers and all looked like whatever was fashionable (smears, foams, yadda yadda yadda). Not to mention compulsory tasting menus that always took far too long and left you longing for your pyjamas. Now I would much rather go to a Malaysian/Thai/Vietnamese restaurant to get a wallop of flavour at a reasonable price.

Vanessa in general expensive restaurants are wasted on me but if I do go then yes I would expect more than you seemed to get.
We tend to do cheap and cheerful and then if it isn't as great as we had wanted then not much has been lost.

We haven’t eaten in a fine dining restaurant for a few years now. We much prefer cheap and cheerful when dining out these days.

No I don't think you are being picky. I'm sure you are not the only one to have been disappointed.

Did you give them feedback?

We tend not to do high end dining, cafe or ethnic restaurants seem more comfortable these days!

Having said that The Entertainment Book is good value for lunches at the more expensive dining places.

I love a high-end restaurant, for a special occasion. But I will totally complain about poor service/standards/quality etc. I'm paying big bucks and want it to be better than I could manage at home by myself. I do spend a lot of time researching though, and am not often disappointed.

We’ve given up on the truly expensive restaurants. We used to go for very special occasions but were at times very disappointed. Although we appreciate a nicely plated meal, we are not into foams etc and squiggles around often minuscule servings. Nowadays we’d rather have a home cooked meal with special ingredients we’ve splurged on and a good bottle of wine. If we go out then it’s to a reasonably priced ethnic restaurant after checking the rating given by our council beforehand. Saw some shocker ratings recently on stuff.

Wow we all have similar feeling about the fine dinning restaurant. Ive suspected that things are on the change for quite sometime and the fine dinning experience is a slowly dying out.

I much prefer the Asian or casual style with a focus of great food and service but I dont need the heavy garnish, the small portions, and many courses. I also dont need the cost.

Ironically Im off to Sidart in 2 weeks time as I got given a $250 voucher for my engagement a year ago now. Life has been busy and we just havent had a kid free chance to get there. You would think for $250 we wouldnt have to top it up too much but the food is going to cost us $160 each!!!!! And thats not including wine.

I feel really frivolous spending this amount on one evening. Im sure it will be special and a great experience but it does seem an AWFUL lot of cash to part with.

I will touch base and report back soon

Vanessa

Vanessa will look forward to your report on Sidart, it is a lot of $$$$, so do hope it reaches some of your expectations

Sidart is changing to an Indian food format (similar to their Cassia restaurant) on 15 July so you might want to get in prior to that change or not...

Vanessa, If you're thinking of waiting till the change takes place, I'd check and make sure your voucher is still valid after the change. You just might miss out if you don't use the voucher before the change.

In my opinion, food quality and the experience of the diners are incredibly important.

I often choose restaurants based on ambience, service and good food

My personal recommendation is ready meals Sydney. You can enjoy healthy meals, cooked in healthy fats (coconut or olive oil). And if you are too lazy to go out you can hire their catering service

One of our favourites is Mexican Chilli with Broccoli & Cauliflower Rice.

TPANDAV Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We don’t eat at “fine dining” restaurants
> any more, haven’t for a couple of years. The
> last one we went to, One Tree Grill, had dull
> food, aloof service and my fork was so dirty it
> must have missed the dishwasher. They scooped it
> up and replaced it without fuss when I drew it to
> their attention, but without apology. It cost
> around $300 for two including three glasses of
> wine. At that point we decided to stick to cheap
> and cheerful or home cooked .

I am honestly SHOCKED you thought that to be honest. We have eaten here 8 times in the past 4 years and I can't recall ever walking out feeling the food was dull. The dirty fork is most poor I have to say, but I think I would have just asked for another rather than let it ruin my meal. I have found the service to be good on the whole, but like anything it can depend a little on the person on the day, something I guess you may not expect that. If I eat at the restaurant, unless the service was really poor, it doesn't really factor for me much, as I care much more about the food. Good food will allow me to forgive a lot.

networkn Wrote:
-------------------------- The dirty fork is most poor I
> have to say, but I think I would have just asked
> for another rather than let it ruin my meal.
.....

A. Of course I asked for another fork;

B. It didn’t “ruin” my meal. Did I say that? No.