Young Alfred, Ground Floor, Customs House, Circular Quay

Young Alfred, Ground Floor, Customs House, Circular Quay
Tuesday 14 February, 2006

I called Young Alfred last Thursday to make a lunch reservation for today. I was politely informed that they don't take lunch reservations until the week of the reservation. So, this meant that I had to call back yesterday to make the reservation for today. What is it with Sydney restaurants and reservations?

Forget Valentines Day......today was lunch with some girlfriends. I suggested this location after dining here a week or two ago. Not because the food was sensational but primarily due to its location.

Today's experience was all about waiting - waiting for our order to be taken, waiting for our food and waiting for our bill. It is staggering to me that a city restaurant that caters to business people is unaware or oblivious to time constraints. How many reminders are required to constitute a GET MOVING?

As we watched food being delivered to the tables around us, we had a chance to suss out the extra menu offerings. Usually, it's strictly pizza with a very small selection of pastas but today the menu had extended to include steak, chicken, risotto etc.

The food was good - I enjoyed the '10' pizza with salami, olives, roasted capsicum & semi dried tomato pesto. My Valentines Day buddies chose the Gnocchi with fresh tomato chilli and peccorino and the Sirloin on a bed of mash potato. We all shared a bowl of mixed leaves. For lunch it's significantly less than the restaurant upstairs (Cafe Sydney) however it's not cheap either. The pizzas average $19 each.

Today's experience was average - but I'll keep it in mind.

Young Alfred - Ground Floor, Customs House, 31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay - (02) 9251 5192

http://www.youngalfred.com.au/