1821 Restaurant - Sydney

1821 is a Greek Restaurant on Pitt Street in the city and has had a lot of hype in the paper, over social media etc. since its opening. As such, I have been wanting to go for a long time. The space is styled nicely, with Greek influenced columns and embossing on the walls, quite a sophisticated vibe to it, and there’s an upstairs area, with high tables looking out over the below dining space. This is where we sat for our lunch. The menu has an extensive wine range and cocktails as well, we ordered a bottle of red and wine for the table and we were offered more as it was finished. Our wines weren’t topped up by the waiter, we did this ourselves. It was clear from the outset that the waiter was not particularly friendly or attentive to our group. Perhaps this was because we ordered food to share, and not a plate each. The food is extremely expensive and thus we ordered in a sharing manner. We began with breads and dips including taramasalata, eggplant and chickpea dip. My friends ordered the pork belly baklava (which was more sweet than savoury), the fish of the day, the prawns saganaki and I myself had the prawn dumplings. These were egg pasta dumplings, with a carrot puree, feta, candied walnuts, burnt butter currant dressing and fried mint leaves. It was absolutely delicious but with only 4 dumplings, it was extremely small. My colleagues shared the moussaka and lamb shoulder which I tried and the lamb in particular was outstanding. I also ordered a dessert, which is out of general ordering practice for me, but I was still hungry after my prawns. It was a lovely deconstructed pannacotta, with fruits and walnut cake. This was really light and delicious. From other reviews I read, it seems like most diners have had good wait staff, but unfortunately on this occasion, we did not. He was extremely non attentive, and we had to call him over to order things, he didn’t top up drinks or engage in any conversation, simply cleaning up. His general demeanour was that he was grumpy, and rather unimpressed with the table he had to look after. He also made a comment to my friend saying that “he was surprised she finished her dish herself, because it was a large serving” (it came across as quite rude and she was too self-conscious afterwards to order a dessert!). It is possible he was just having a bad day, but in the industry, you just have to pretend you’re not. If the rating was on ambience and food, it would be a lot higher, but unfortunately the perspective of all 8 diners in terms of the service was that we were not happy with the waitstaff on the day. It makes up a lot of the experience in my opinion.

1821 is a Greek Restaurant on Pitt Street in the city and has had a lot of hype in the paper, over social media etc. since its opening. As such, I have been wanting to go for a long time. The space is styled nicely, with Greek influenced columns and embossing on the walls, quite a sophisticated vibe to it, and there’s an upstairs area, with high tables looking out over the below dining space. This is where we sat for our lunch. The menu has an extensive wine range and cocktails as well, we ordered a bottle of red and wine for the table and we were offered more as it was finished. Our wines weren’t topped up by the waiter, we did this ourselves. It was clear from the outset that the waiter was not particularly friendly or attentive to our group. Perhaps this was because we ordered food to share, and not a plate each. The food is extremely expensive and thus we ordered in a sharing manner. We began with breads and dips including taramasalata, eggplant and... read more

We booked a reservation for a work lunch and decided to go with tasting menu which was 55 per person for the 5 of us. The couple across from us also ordered the same tasting menu as did a couple in the corner of the restaurant easily in view. Both couples got the exact same portions as our group of 5. When one of the women in the group asked the waitress if we were getting any more food our dish for 5 people was the same as for 2 people, she said no, that was all we were getting. The food was good, but not amazing and very disappointed we were unable to leave satisfied.

Went there for lunch, first impressions were very good. Waitress took our drink orders then came back for the food order. After waiting for almost an hour and our food started to come out and we still hadn't received our drinks, asked the waitress twice how long the drinks would be and each time she said they are on their way. Food was average, nothing to rave about. If you want good tasty Greek food I highly recommend Apollo or alpha. We sat there for almost an hour with empty plates on the table, before I ask for someone to clear the table and order desert... the wait staff were not very attentive. Ending the meal with vanilla ice cream baklava that was icy with rolled oats in the middle was disappointing to say the least!!

While visiting Sydney, had dinner with local friends It was located conveniently across our hotel - Westin.