To sum up - pretty good tapas, lovely wines by the glass and dreadfully slow/spotty customer service.
My friend and I came here on a Saturday afternoon and sat out the front, at a table yet to be cleaned. We proceeded to wait...and wait...and wait. There were other people sitting out the front. But where were the staff? Eventually a few came out with drinks and yet none made eye contact or engaged us. Eventually another staff member came out and we managed to flag her/make eye contact. She turned out be a lovely young British woman with a charming London accent. I immediately felt less annoyed. She said she would clean the table up and also brought us menus, cutlery and water. And then...nothing. No one came to see us for another 20 minutes. I got fed up and went inside to find the woman. 'Oh, your waiter has not come?' she asked, apparently surprised. Well, no! Seems she finally got the ball rolling and someone came to take our order.
We got the potatos bravas, cauliflower tahini salad, meatballs and fish tacos (the latter two were for my non-vego friend). I ordered a glass of the Argentinian malbec (the second one of the two on the menu is the recommended one) and my friend got the Kimi sav blanc from Marlborough, NZ (but of course). The food and wine came out in reasonable time. So did an order of the mushrooms (which we definitely didn't order). I was going to send them back but my friend wanted to keep them as she had been debating on this dish, and so we did.
My friend absolutely loved the fish tacos and her wine. She even declared they were both the best she'd ever had, and she took note of the wine. I really enjoyed the wine as well as the potatoes, cauliflower and randomly appearing mushrooms. The cauliflower could have been slightly crispier but the tahini dressing was nice.
Although the staff were all friendly and asked us if we liked our meals they didn't engage us too much further. They cleared our plates and let us be without asking if we wanted another drink or anything. We wouldn't have ordered one (but that is not the point, is it?). Eventually a staff member I had not seen came over and politely advised us that he had a reservation on this table and the party had arrived. He wanted us to slide down to a smaller table. I said we were planning on leaving and could we get the bill. He told us we needed to go and pay inside (no one had mentioned this before).
We went inside and paid with the lovely barman (formerly of InSitu). It came to around $90 for everything. Happy with everything we ate but the service really let them down. Fortunately for them we were catching up and had plenty to talk about. The whole thing took about 3 hours -
had I of been hangry or in more of a hurry I would have been irate. The original Manly location has the same menu but much prompter service. I'm told the old owners of InSitu and a few other staff work here now - perhaps they will raise the bar. read more