nel. restaurant

food: because it's fine dining, the portions are obviously small, but i found the 8 (first 3 shared) coursemenuto be filling. i thoroughly enjoyed tasting new flavours and combinations ("egg hunt" was cute)

service: friendly and attentive, staff gave explanations of each dish. if you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary, let the staff know (we got asked, though) and you'll get a slice of complimentary cake.

ambience: dark, relaxed, slightly noisy because of banter competing with music.

overall: i would recommend to try nel at least once for the experience.

took melbourne foodie friends here and we all loved it. would easily return asmenuchanges every month. a lot of attention and craft goes into every course. the service is swift but friendly. small complaint would only be that the noise level in a fully booked restaurant means you can't really hear what the waitstaff are saying about each course as it is presented to you. nice clean kitchen operation.

the once upon a timemenuat nel was sadly extremely disappointing. we’ve been to many fine dining places before and this would be the first time i’d complain that the portions were way too small. it was a degustation course sure, but each item was the size of a chicken nugget before we got to the duck and the dessert.

firstly, the cheese crackers (in the book) started off great, it was umami, cheesy, crumbly & had a nice surprise which set the dinner up quite well.

then we had a charcoal pork dumping. it tasted like any pork dumpling i’ve had before but the skin was thinner and black... so nothing special there at all.

then we got to the most disappointing of all, which was a deboned chicken wing with a dab of peanut sauce. this chicken was oily and had no flavour what so ever. not even a sprinkle of salt. the peanut sauce was even not enough to cover the chicken or add any flavour to the meat. it was thoroughly disappointing and we thought they must have made a mistake.

also, i should mention we ordered 2 cocktails and one of them was wrong. thankfully they gave the wrong one for free and we were given our correct drink.

then the pumpkin bread was next. served in a massive hollowed out pumpkin. i will say the theme and concept is very creative and cute but it did definitely compromise on the food. the pumpkin bread was enjoyable, as well as the pumpkin butter. it had an interesting flavour but the pumpkin bread was tiny between 2. it was like 3 nuggets of bread and a dollop of spread which wasn’t enough for everything.

after this was the venison carpaccio with rabbit popcorn. this was tasty. i did enjoy it but each slice of meat was as thin as tissue paper and would break apart when we tried to pick it up. i’ve had carpaccio cut much thicker than this. it was literally 1-2mm in thickness. again the portion was tiny.

and so we moved on to a glittery broth/soup. it was just soup. almost tasted like pho broth. sadly the concept here couldn’t elevate the taste. not much to say here which really says it all.

moving on was the fish. sadly overcooked. you could just tell how dry it was when you’d cut into it and the nugget sized fillet doesn’t even fall apart. it also lacked seasoning. the purée on the other hand was nice to say the most.

from here, was the last main course of the night. we were still quite hungry and we don’t often feel this way, perhaps ever, when we’ve reached this point. a nugget sized, fried, shredded duck ball came out. it was probably the most flavoursome of the night, but again, not enough sauce and too small. thankfully, a ‘hearty’ cut of duck breast followed. perhaps the fried ball was a precursor to this dish.

the duck breasts were fantastic. cooked perfectly. the jus complimented it well and the fennel was great. however unfortunately couldn’t win us over.

then there were the desserts. an insanely cute melted olaf came out. the yoghurt and garlic ice cream was interesting and quite nice.

following this was a rose and berry slice of cake. it would have been up there as one of the heartier servings. it tasted lovely and the theme for this one was cute.

to finish, we had a portuguese tart with blue cream cheese. it was a nice bite to end the meal but not special.

lastly, we got a wood eye camembert slice (just because we knew we were still hungry) the cheese was okay and the condiments were fine. i personally don’t like pickles with cheese so my partner ate it but it was definitely just a stomach filler.

overall, themenuwas not worth $135 per person. i feel like we paid more for the decor and presentation of the food. unfortunately the theme has compromised with the food and the quality. may i add, the chef and portion was disappointing. we ended up spending more than we wanted to ($327) and it had to be the most money we’ve spent on the least food. to finish on a good note, their cocktails were amazing.

nel in surry hills really impressed, themenuis creative and there is plenty of technique on display. although there is plenty of technique, taste and flavour combinations are the main priority and it is good to see they do not lose sight of this. they offer eight course degustation menus every 10 weeks and the current theme is “australian” (until april 4). since our visit was two months ago, you will find the options we had won’t necessarily be available. however, given their chef and restaurant vision, we’re sure the newmenuwould be just as good. the new bug dish sounds amazing.

with such high expectations for this highly publicised disney degustation, my partner & i were thoroughly disappointed with our $465 dining experience.
for $91 per person for matching drinks, we were taken back that a drink didn't accompany the 'snack' portion of themenu- i wish our waiter informed us that the much publicised aladin and/or chip cocktail wasn't included in our setmenupaired drinks, additionally each poured paired drink was a tasting size rather than a full drink and i feel like we definitely didn't get value for money in this area.

the venue was also a bit of a let down, this underground location was cramped leaving no room for any sort of intimacy as we were in very close proximity to everyone dining that night.
- this small area was also an issue as we could overhear the schpiel of waiters prior to us experiencing it for ourselves.

overall, our night wasn't magical, but more so a regret heavily felt in my wallet.

when nel.’s website says ‘join us for a uniquely dining experience’ they aren’t wrong. every 8 weeks at nel. chef nelly and his team create a new degustationmenuand last night was the ‘once upon a time’ degustation menu. the food brought back lovely childhood story book memories. the attention and creativeness of each dish was impressive, the ambiance slick and the service impeccable. #nelrestaurant

so nel definitely is a fine dine affair without any stress and pressure on the diners. every dish is in essence simple and straight forward without having to really have a deep palette to enjoy.

we enjoyed what was the “australian” themedmenuand while it wasn’t exactly upmarket food, you can easily appreciate the effort in every dish. so if you looking into an experience and less of a meal - we have to recommend you nel, i mean we’ll be going back for their “disney” menu.

just know your paying a lot for the “craft” or “cookery”, and as long as you know that ahead of time; you won’t be disappointed.

getting a lancashire lad to cook pomegranates is a bit of a stretch, but despite being more about pork fat than these 'winter apples', chef nelly robinson rose to meet the challenge. joining me at nel restaurant in surry hills was an all-star audience of robinson's peers. everyone from roy ner (nour) to lauren murdoch (merivale) sitting beside her early mentor, iconic sydney chef janni kyritsis, who cooked at berowra waters inn, bennelong and later opened mg garage, was seated along two tables stretching the length of the intimate, basement space. for me, it was the first time i’ve been back to this restaurant since my initial review when it opened in 2015, so i was keen to see how it’s eating now across a five-coursemenuthat kicked off with a pomegranate spritz. the drink combined pomegranate arils, pomegranate syrup and azahara chardonnay pinot noir – a finely beaded sparkling wine. robinson operates his restaurant on a nightly degustation-onlymenuthat rotates every six weeks...

made a reservation almost two months ago and went there on wednesday evening. had a great time there
the service was good and food was fun and delicious
for starters we had some finger foods like popcorn.
the bread with walnuts was good and i’d love to eat it every morning for breakfast.
the ham balls in the beautiful glass were tasty.
i don’t like raw fish so no comment on that.
fish pie came with soup in a separate bowl. i ate the fish pie along as well as mixed it with the soup. the soup was salty so it was good with fish pie. but the fish pie itself was delicious enough.
i normally don’t eat goat but goat eating hay was great. it was crispy and juicy. the source was good.
the two desserts peter rabbit’s garden and shells on the sand were excellent! i really love them. as dessert they weren’t too sweet. it was refreshing.
in the end we had a little treat- ice cream on a small cone. the staff made it for us on the table. we had 3 choices of toppings to choose from. it was fun.
overall it was a great fine dining experience for us. the only problem is that the portion of food is so small but it’s a tastingmenuanyway. it’s more about experiencing rather than going home with a full stomach.

to be honest i was not quiet sure what to expect of nel. i can truly say that this is my first fine dining experience in a sydney restaurant.  imagine a cosy little place at basement level with soft lighting and a perfect view of the kitchen.

the service here was mostly excellent except  for what i thought was a few downsides. there was only onemenuprovided for a party of 5 so i had to ask for more but we only got one more. our server did not always sufficiently explain the dishes which could have made the experience so much better.

our party of 5 often gazed in awe in the direction of the kitchen at how organised everything was and how meticulous the chefs prepared every meal. nel served an 8 course menu: land + sea.
1st course: corn fields, river rocks in the wild, pine forest + tree nuts(braaied kangaroo. well it tasted liked braaied meat and it was delicious. this was also my first time at eating kangaroo)
2nd course: pea soup ( the best i have ever had)
3rd course: seared local fish
4th course: fish pie
5th course: goat eating hay
6th course: peter rabbit's garden
7th course: shells on the beach
8th course:99er at the beach

overall these guys sure know what the are doing and with amenulike above and food so flavourful, fresh and well presented it was definitely worth the experience.
 

came here for the britishmenuset and i am pretty disappointed as it was my first time here as well. the food wasn’t my cup of tea and it sucks that it’s a setmenuso we can’t pick what we want. i would come back to give them another go when they get a new menu. the dessert however was delish!!!!

one of the best and most memorable dining experiences i’ve had. themenuwas innovative and well thought out and the staff were all lovely to top it off. would recommend!

great atmosphere and location. tucked away downstairs of wentworth street, i would highly recommend, but more so with a partner or close friend. you’ll be surrounded by couples, went as a group and surrounding couples just stare at you.
the tastingmenuwas good, a variety of flavours and very presentable.

exceptional vibe and service! presentation was also on point, definitely adore how they plated a few or their dishes entirely to reflect their produce of the certain dish.
there are only setmenuoptions for $108 pp which was great!! only let down was pretty much the flavour combination and majority of the dishes lacked seasoning.

great experience of trying something different. every dish well presented , staff gives you a description, history about every course. degustationmenuonly. with additions like cheese platter or truffles available occasionally. food tasted great, service is friendly.