A couple of years ago, I attended the Taste of Sydney festival – and I remember trying some of the dishes from Longrain, which I thought was fantastic. Especially their tapioca dessert.

So recently, we decided to give them a go. Longrain is a restaurant where you can’t book a table, and when you do get table… you’re pretty lucky (or so you think!)

First impressions of the place was friendly atmosphere with a decent sized cocktail lounge on one end and the restaurant and the other – in between you have a long hallway (Tony Hawk would love to convert it to a skating ramp).

The place looked busy, and I think know why. Since you can’t book a table, people rush in early to get their names on a list by the restaurant’s… let’s call him the bouncer, this guy meant business. So once you’re names is on the list, you wait – in their cocktail bar.

We asked for a “table for 2”, and he said “Sure, that’ll be 2 hours”. I had to clarify if he misheard me mentioning the number of people and not the number of hours. Clearly, I was put in place to say that it will take 2 hours. Great, so where to? Of course we were ushered to cocktail lounge and asked to “enjoy ourselves” while we wait – nice touch.

6 x cocktails (at $16 – $18 each), sparkling water, some oysters and a dish of mince pork lettuce cup kind of thing. I’ll be honest, I can’t remember much of it, partly because I wait for 2 f@*king hours! By then my taste buds had given up and it probably preferred a chicken kebab as opposed to a curry. Just as we were contemplating our decision, bouncer man comes and offers us a table.

As I sat down, I noticed that our ‘table’ was in between a birthday celebration to my left, a couple trying to have an intimate moment to my right, and a couple who were previously getting drunk at the cocktail bar now sitting opposite me – lovely!

Dinner time, and we ordered 2 main dishes, a salad, brown rice – all to share, followed by dessert (yes, I had their tapioca pudding) – but let me say that the food didn’t compensate for the lack of table service, mannerism of the restaurant staff and not even the table setting. Honestly the restaurant could do with more space dedicated to the dining area.

All in all, cocktail, nibles, mains, dessert came to $110 per person – so value for money wise, it’s okish. I’d rather spend an extra $80 and go Universal for a 5 course world cuisine with matching wine.

And to top it off, the staff decided to charge my credit card twice within a space of 1 minute. I got a call from my bank on Monday morning (thanks St George) to call back the restaurant if it was a mistake.

Admittedly, their accountant was much better to deal with and I would rather have her serve my table.

Longrain –I wish they called it Longwait!

Atmosphere – 7.5/10
Food – 6.5/10
Wine (cocktails) – 7.5/10
Staff – 5.5/10
Value for money – 6/10