Food Society

Food Society
Darlinghurst, Sydney
Dec 15, 2013
POSITIVE

FANTASTIC! After some abysmal experiences with SYD dining (being from MEL), I wasn’t expecting much when two friends took me here.
Boy was it a fantastic experience.
We started with the cauliflower (fried) with paprika, and also some puff pastry goats cheese. Both were FANTASTIC, even the salad tasted great as an accompany with whatever was on it!
The mains were amazing. The only things that were disappointing was the potato salad with pickle (potatoes quite hard, when they should be tender and soft). I had the lamb with rosemary, it was a bit cold and a bit of sinew made it a bit meh, but it was still delicious.
But the Kale, the lamb itself, and the poached chicken were all AMAZING. The Kale and mushroom dish was out of this world.
The service itself was brilliant from the moment we stepped in, every 5 minutes we had someone at our counter refilling our orders and talking to us.
A great memory here and will return for sure one day,

Just don’t do it. The food is ok. The service is really poor. It’s slow. It’s disorganised and you’ll have to follow up to get everything you ordered. It’s a place that gives hipsters a bad name.

I really like this place. I went on Friday night for a romantic meal with my friend and I have to say Food Society ticked all the boxes.
1. Cute and cosy décor
2. Really good food with a nice range if vegetarian dishes. We tried the crumbed mushrooms with cheese fondue dipping sauce (yes), fried cauliflower, pierogi and potato salad.
3. Fair prices — 2 people, 4 dishes and a bottle if wine came to $ 100 which I thought was really fair, especially considering we couldn’t finish all the food
4. Lovely service from waiters who seemed genuinely friendly.
Yep I definitely recommend it! Oh and they have an impressive range of vodka for pre/​during/​post dinner drinks.

We have been here once before, on our last trip to Sydney 2 years ago. Our return visit did not disappoint. We were a group of 4, and were able to opt for the communal menu. Fried cauliflower is not to be missed. Shrimp and octopus, nicely grilled. An excellent Greek salad, great charcuterie! The two mans were a chicken, crispy kale and barley dish and a veal, along wish a mixed greens lightly dressed, all perfect. No room for dessert, but everyone had the glow of an excellent meal.

Amazing vibe, noisy from groups but still homely — great décor. Service was great (well, it was after they tried to seat us in the world’s smallest table) but from that point on they were great.
Excellent food, but not a romantic dinner for 2 (well it wasn’t when we were there on a Thursday night anyway).
We had the cauliflower, lamb, pork belly and salted caramel sundae — they were all amazing. I’ll definitely have the cauliflower and lamb again.
Food, vibe and service was all ⁴⁄₅ but value for money makes this an overall ⁵⁄₅.
We’ll be back!

Not really sure what’s going on here. The menu at Food Society has a bit of everything, but I couldn’t really see a common theme connecting the offerings.
We started with the house cured beef, which I quite enjoyed. My date seemed to think the radish/​pickle topping was too strong and detracted from the flavour of the beef, but this is my review, and I liked it. The pork pierogies were mostly unremarkable, except for the over cooked diced pork/​speck morsels sprinkled on top. Nothing like a jaw work out to balance out the calorie intake.
The pork belly main needed some salt and would have benefited greatly from a sauce. The warm cabbage bed beneath it was pretty bland, and again, unremarkable.
The confit duck salad was probably the stand out of the night, with a surprising amount of beautifully flavoured shredded duck. Sadly it was overshadowed by the many many many cups of cabbage tossed in slightly too much vinegar.
After a mostly disappointing entrée and main, we didn’t stay for dessert. But for an incredibly lengthy wait for our bill, service was outstanding. I’m being generous with my 3, as Food Society is better than some of the places I’ve labelled a 2 but I’m really grading on a curve here.

I have mix emotion about this place. Most dishes are nice, love the duck and the beetroot salad. Forget about the dessert though. Service is sincere and friendly, but there is some not so smooth about it. May be just lack of experience. Definitely worth giving this place a go.

If someone told me that I had to eat the fried cauliflower and that it was delicious I’d tell them «Whatever, mom.» But hot diggity damn this fried cauliflower is good!
Came with friends on a Friday night (including Paul) and had to make a booking but it wasn’t too long of a wait. Food Society aims for a shared and open kitchen experience, so instead of being classier like the establishment conveys, we went a little overboard with ordering.
Awesome:
Fried Cauliflower
Goulash
Good:
Risotto (don’t let the ink scare you off, it’s just for looks)
Baby Dolma
Meh:
Roasted Duck
Pierogies
Cigars
Gross:
Pork Crackling
The service was decent, no complaints here but nothing extraordinary except for how they dress, which was well. It’s too bad they don’t have aircon… cause it did get a bit warm.
Cool spot, worth a visit.

Would I bring a first date here? YES, if she was a 7+
Would I bring a second date here? Yes, if she passes the test after a first date (elsewhere), she’s deserving of a cool fun place like Food Society
What is one must have item? fried cauliflower with paprika, parsley, watercress and red wine vinegar reduction
What is one thing I could have done without? the crispy pork crackling was definitely a waste of table space. coming from the dirty south, I got excited to see this on the menu but do yourself a favor and skip it.
What is one thing I wish they had? air con, it was a warm summer night and despite the fan and air flow, i felt a bit stuffy from the heat.
Service? Surprisingly good, I dig the bow tie look.

Amazing food with great selection of alcohol beverages!

Average to bad food, terrible atmosphere and service

Really really impressed with this place, great ambience and service and the food is gorgeous!
Must haves:
Lamb rack melts in ur mouth
Fried cauliflower injected with cheese and tangy spices
Walnut soufflé
and their version of mulled wine.
On sunday nights they have live music too

My experience at the Food Society is best described as mixed. For a restaurant that boasts «unparalleled service and old school hospitality,» I was disappointed that the service was the worst part of my dining experience. But the food, while not creative, was quite reasonable for this price range in Sydney.
I booked for two through the 3^rd party online booking system, however upon arrival I was informed that despite them having received my booking, they did not have a table available. We were asked to go and stand at the (already packed) bar and wait and the hostess would be over soon to take us to our table. After a short wait we were shuffled over to another bar area overlooking the kitchen. While it was fun to watch the food being put together we were put off with the proximity of this spot to the bathroom and the various odours emanating from them. We were assured we’d be moved as soon as possible.
Our waitress was friendly, however she clearly did not have a good understanding of the menu. We asked her to explain one of the drinks which she described as «vodka — they like to drink a lot of vodka in Poland» — it was not vodka. She took my drink, cutlery and serviette well before I was finished and left us for so long after our meal that we had to go to the bar to pay the bill.
The food itself was not bad. The Pierogi’s were tasty, if not slightly under done. The burek, however was a bland clump of undercooked pastry and over-​wilted spinach. We ordered the cheese board which was well balanced however the cheeses were local and on the cheaper end, and seemed a little out of place in an Eastern European restaurant. The lamb ribs were simple but tasty and the serving was quite generous. The cocktail (there is only one on the menu) was refreshing and I would recommend ordering to the bison grass vodka for those who haven’t tried it.
We were never moved to a less odorous table, however we were provided with a complimentary drink as recompense. This was a nice touch, but not the quite unparalleled service the Food Society dines out on.