Harts Pub, cnr Essex and Gloucester Streets, The Rocks

Harts Pub, cnr Essex and Gloucester Streets, The Rocks
Friday 5 May, 2006

Harts Pub continually gets rave reviews on Eatability.com.au, so it was about time that I ventured over there. Today, the occasion was a team member's farewell and a very sad one at that. Unfortunately, our experience at Hart's Pub can only be described as a debacle - a total, utter failure.

The site has a long history with the first buildings going up sometime around 1816. The Hart Buildings, originally a row of terraced houses, were constructed between 1890 and 1900 in a restrained Federation Arts and Crafts style. The buildings were originally dwellings and have been commercial premises at some time during their life. When the ANA hotel was constructed the buildings were incorporated for use as a pub and it is now all part of the Shangri-La Hotel complex.

We arrived for our 12.30pm lunch reservation only to discover (after wandering around aimlessly for about 15 minutes, with no staff in sight) that our table had been given away to another large group. Great. We ended up dragging some outdoor tables together ourselves and securing some menus so that we could order. As we were reading the menus and deciding on our options a staff member approached our table and announced we had taken the table of another group. What the!*@! We explained that we did, in fact, have a reservation and our table had been given away.

The next drama commenced as we attempted to order our meals. The menu offers pizzas, BBQ, seafood and a range of other items e.g. chicken ceasar wrap. There was one bar open and two separate queues - one for drinks and one for food. The problem was one staff member was manning both queues. Where were all the staff??? The Manager was out tending to the BBQ and another staff member was in the kitchen and also delivering the meals to tables. It was a ridiculous setup.

Our table finally made it the front of the queue to order and pay (not before almost having it out with other patrons who tried to push in because of the long wait). Due to the unorganised team managing Harts Pub, our food arrived at different times- so some had finished their meals before others had started. As all this was going on some staff arrived from the Shangri-La to help, but it was too late. Two of our pizzas never arrived, so a staff menu showed up at the table with a refund but no explanation and they ran out of beef patties and bread rolls - and the food that did arrive was OK, the vegetable pizza was good but the Heritage, meat lovers and pineapple pizza were average. The comments about the other food ranged from good to poor and in the words of one of my colleagues 'the service sucked'.

I'm sure Harts Pub is not this bad all the time but our experience today was a debacle.

Harts Pub - cnr Essex and Gloucester Streets, The Rocks - (02) 9250 6022

http://www.shangri-la.com/sydney/shangri-la/restaurants/en/index.aspx?ID=1609