gypsy tapas house

get the banquet at your peril!!!. read this before going - maybe you can scam the scammers?!!

this was my 2nd trip to gypsy tapas house - the first time was with my partner which was a nice evening with average service, nice but small tapas plates for $9 each, but the ambience with a live band made up for it.
this time decided to bring a group along and were rather disappointed and felt cheated by the restaurant management. when dealing with gypsies, should have expected as much...

we were pressured into buying the banquet for $45 per head with no mention of the time limit of the banquet (2hrs), only that it’s “all you can eat” and that the plates “just keep coming”. the food was slow to come, but when it did it was basic but passable. the live band and ambiance was again quite nice. the food stopped rather abruptly, and there was a definite change in the attitude of the various wait-staff. it was like there was an awkwardness that once they had brought out some food, they expected us to say “o.k we’re done” and leave after half an hour of receiving our meals. we enquired about the provision of extra food as we were still hungry, and the waiter assured us he’d check with management. another 15mins and the waiter came back and said we can order more (from a very limited menu), but stopped us short, saying we can always order more later. the food came out again in about 15 mins and the waiter literally threw a plate in front of us, the rudeness of which was a source of both shock and amusement at the time. we were told that our “time was up” and whether would we like to order some more drinks (we had already had 2-3 glasses of exorbitantly-priced watered-down sangria each).

this cessation of service was not unexpected given the abrupt change in tone of the wait staff once they had served the usual run of bland meagre offerings. i had been warned by a couple of people that they give slow service to make you want to leave so they can maximise profits. we weren’t aware of the time limit, and the little swifty at the end where they said we “can order more later” knowing full well that they would conjure up a previously undiscussed "time limit", coupled with the really unpleasant attitude from the wait staff and management turned us all off the slippery gypsies. it felt like we were dealing with a bunch of carnival-folk with the obviousness at which we were scammed. it was all rather humorous in the end. we won’t be going back, however.

a favourite. i love this place. it's quirky and relaxed, serving yummy tapas and tasty sangria! staff are friendly enough and there's a good vibe as it's always humming and there's live music. a freo favourite!

sometimes the quality can be hit and miss but there are few dishes which nearly always please. the bocconcini meatballs are my favorite meat dish, but i usually prefer the veg options here such as the herbed fungi and the goji berry and feta salad

have eaten at gypsy 3 times now and i seem to like it more each time. with most of the tapas plates $9 each it's fairly decent value. we went with a group of 8 on saturday and tried the $45 set menu, we were a bit weary that we might leave hungry but that was not the case at all. plate after plate kept arriving. the only negative the vegetarian amount wasn't told when the vegetarian dishes arrived at the table. must try dishes, sticky cheek and the white sangria! we will be back for sure!

why book a reservation if the restaurant doesn't reserve a table??
so after hearing good things about this restaurant my girlfriend and i decided that we would check it out. so we made our reservation, drove the 45min journey to fremantle only to be greeted at gypsy tapas with a "you can wait at the bar until a table comes up". i don't get it, what's the point of making a reservation and turning up in time if the restaurant couldn't be bothered actually reserving your booking. needless to say i didn't wait for a table, we went elsewhere and had much better service.

hidden gem. i love the fact that this place is tucked away from the main strip on south terrace. it has a very alternative vibe, with a live jazz band in the corner and little tables tucked around lemon trees.

my boyfriend and i had the tapas banquet and were very pleased with the variety chosen for us. the food was tasty and kept coming out till we had to stop for fear of bursting our jeans!

a great little place to meet up with friends for a delicious meal.

ok, i get tapas...small morsels to taste and share...but are you kidding me? went to gypsy after reading a few good reviews. there were four of us, and even though the "meals" were only $8 each, we had to order about 10 dishes, and while they were mostly nice we were left fairly out of pocket and wondering, where's the food? $8 for two scallops or a sliver of lamb, as nice as the mouthful was, is ridiculous.
didn't bother with dessert, we all left looking for a cheap place to get a real dinner. i'm not recommending against it, but don't go there with expectations of being fed. would be good for a light lunch.

very hit and miss. the service started off very well, but quickly petered out; getting attention after the mains was a chore. we were served by three people, each increasingly disinterested, the last bordering on surly. i pulled a hair out of one of my dishes as one of the waitresses watched; she said, "is there a question?" i said, "no, there's a hair", and she departed with no further comment. most of our dishes, however, were very tasty, if on the small side. highlights were the paprika calamari, although it was a bit firm, and the artichoke salad. lowlights were a bland, gluey chestnut/beetroot ravioli and a terrible dessert. avoid the raspberries with cointreau and creme meringue; slimy berries (tinned??) float in a watery, flavourless solution, topped with some passable meringue pieces. my friends enjoyed their choc pudding, and we all approved of the deconstructed affogato. the music was very good. hey, we may even try again.

what a joke this place is!. this eatery is by far the biggest disappointment i have experienced in my whole 28 years of living in perth. please don't book here if your going with a bunch of friends because your guaranteed to leave with a sour look from the male manager who was the rudest host i've ever come across. it's very misleading and it was hard handing over $45 for the banquet. the "chefs selection" out of all the tapas available seemed to weigh heavily on the bread and dip side. no such sighting of the more expensive items such as the scallops, chicken curry, barramundi. when asked about, it was very abruptly told to us that they were all unavailable. there was a very clear change in attitude of the waitress when ordering tapas off the menu. it was literally thrown down onto our table by the male manager who seems to have completely forgotten that guests are paying $45 each which is quite a sum considering the sketchy size of the tapas. the waitress made mention that our "2 hours was up", what 2 hours?? this was quite a scam and the biggest joke i've experienced so far in perth. we all left much to the delight of the manager at 9 o clock hungry. fremantle has a lot to offer but this place is scraping the bottom of the barrel. avoid it.

this place has a great vibe- it has quirky furniture, you can sit outside, there is live music, friendly staff but i don't think their food is that great. it's simple tapas for reasonable price but their turkish bread with hommus or broccomole was quite plain and bread quite dry. fried ravioli was ok but a little bit burnt, their chicken was probably the best dish. i think overall it's a good spot for cheap tapas.

small tapas. rip off. not very tasty. expensive!

average experience. if you were looking for fine dinning, then this may be a let down for you. the food looks ok for $8.00 per dish but it depends on what you order. $8.00 for two meatballs however was a let down compared to ikea's swedish meatballs. on the other hand some of the other dishes were ok. what i dont get was each plate comes with turkish bread, i want the food, not the bread. it is surprisingly popular, and not really a place if you want to sweet talk as you wont hear your partner. no eftpos is also a downer as is cash only and the atm on sight charges $2.50 per withdraw.

still not impessed. ok so i convinced my partner to give this place another go as our first experience wasn't good. and i have to admit that whilst it was slightly improved, it won't be making a comeback appearance on my list of places to eat. i can't fault the service as they were friendly and prompt and i do appreciate the set price of all the tapas but my review on the food alone was that it was pretty average. came out fairly quick which some might argue is a good thing but it makes me wander how freshly it was prepared. no one likes to wait too long for food but this place seemed a bit too quick, like a take out! the food was better than our first experience but only marginally. there was no great "oomph" in the dishes and to me came accross as a little ordinary in flavour. seems though there are a few reviewers who might disagree as a majority seemed to like the place but i'm on that band wagon, sorry....


-----06 dec, 2009-----

not great. didn't really like the food here. it wasn't completely terrible but wasn't all that tasty either. the meatballs were dry and the eggplant kasunda was far too salty and unedible. they were fully booked from 8.30pm onwards so we felt a bit rushed and a bit like being pushed out. the food came out too quick which had me thinking it had been sitting on the bench rather than it being freshly cooked. the only thing i did like was the fact that all tapas were at a set price but i wouldn't go eat there again. eating out is meant to be a taste sensation for my taste buds and gypsy just didn't rock my boat.

fantastic!. i've been meaning to go to gypsy tapas for quite some time now. by chance my friend and i walked pasted the unassuming location last night and saw that matt gresham was playing. it was such a fantastic night! matt was absolutely divine, the service was second to none, atmosphere was fantastic and the food? still thinking about the chargrilled lamb- yum! can't wait until my next visit- my new favourite.

won't go there again to eat .... after looking at their site online and downloading the menu, three of us decided on the $40ea buffet after the waiter explained to us that each tappa was $8 and looking at the other diners portions, and quick calculation we'd probably need at the least, 10 portions each.
i ordered a glass of sangria, which was watery, my two companions a coffee and a natural coke.
around 8 portions arrived, hummas & bread, sardines, baked feta, olives etc which was quickly demolished and cleared. another 3 portions of various arrived and cleared and then another 2.
after that it was in drips and drabs. one little plate at a time. we thought they'de forgotton we were there. c'mon, three little meatballs, which were delicious but there were three of us. the baked polenta was yum, but divided up into 3 gave only a mouthful. that was pretty much how it was for the night.
little plates of tappa's.
the online menu says calamari, smoked eel, kingfish creole, duck raviolli, sticky rice w port, sage and porcini etc, but we didn't see any of that. there would of been only 4 items on that menu that we recieved.
however the service was excellent when we first got there, but petered out as the night progressed.
i must say however, the jazz band were excellent and the ambience great.
but in a nutshell, we won't be going back there again.
its very expensive for what you pay.
i don't mind expensive, s'long as the overall dining experience is great.