Gardens by Lotus

Gardens by Lotus is a lovely place to dine, with serene beautiful setting, tables well spaced, excellent service. However, it is not proper yum cha, the food does not come round on trolleys and one simply has to take the dishes you are given. Some of the dumplings were nice, some very ordinary. I missed some of the more adventurous food one can get in a yum cha. The fixed price should have alerted me perhaps that there would be no choice, but it didn’t.
So, I think Gardens by Lotus should either introduce a proper yum cha, or just become a straight Chinese restaurant, nothing wrong with that. With that setting, and excellent staff, it could be a really good place for a weekend lunch.

Long story short: Lack of communication between staff and kitchen for our table so had to constantly remind them about the dishes we had and were still waiting on throughout. Arrived at 12.55 for our 1pm booking, left at 3.30ish (suppose to leave at 2.30) because we were waiting for our final dish to come out. The dishes we received - some were good, others were sitting under the lights for too long so was luke warm and dry. Such a shame as could’ve been so great for our anniversary meal.
Oh and to top it off there was recording/interviewing happening next to us part way through our meal and they got all of there food instantly

One of the most authentic and delicious dim sums I’ve ever had since arriving in Sydney (kudos to the chefs!) Food came out at a steady pace and was all very tasteful, filling and substantial for the price; not to mention it’s truly bottomless meaning you can ask for seconds (only a few l items not reorder-able) so you really can’t go wrong!

The Gardens is a must-try purely for the value, taste & atmosphere, but in case you need more convincing: there’s also a waterfall feature you can sit near & the restaurant design is consistent with the rest of the Friendship Garden where it makes you forget you’re near the heart of a city centre!

We sat near the waterwall which was mostly calming, but because it was a corner table, we were ‘forgotten’ quite a bit once it got busier as our table kept running out of water 😭 It was also a bit strange that Garden guests kept walking through the rock wall would recommend implementing some signage so it’s made clearer for garden visitors & restaurant guests aren’t impacted. Music was also a bit to loud & modern which didn’t fit the traditional, tranquil atmosphere sadly :(

Staff was overall very nice, informative & helpful, but one other minor gripe I had was the presentation of some staff. I’m not normally judgemental on how people look (after all everyone’s entitled to present themselves however they wish to be comfortable with who they are!), but something I just couldn’t help but notice with one gentleman in particular was how unkempt his presentation was: his clothes were wrinkly & his facial hair was quite unshaven. Mind you he was still nice enough, but just thinking from a business perspective, wrinkles and scruffy hairs aren’t the most professional look >w<

All in all, we had a grade-A experience and can’t wait to return! Only deducted 1 star for very minor issues which are all easily resolvable~

Great service and delicious food but overall it’s a bit rush for 90 mins sitting

Had the bottomless yum cha. A little disappointed with the level of service provided by some staff members. Most of the waiters and waitresses were lovely and happy to provide us with doubling dishes despite not having all dishes come out yet. We noticed one waiter kept giving our calamari dish to another table hence why the main waitress (wearing terracotta shirt) was very rude and abrupt when we asked if we could get another serving of a dish. Did not allow us to provide an explanation, it was a simple “no” and walked away. Quite rude. It’s a shame as everything else experienced was great.

Good in total, but the pork and prawn in shui mai is still raw.

Most enjoyable. Loved the water dragons. Perhaps too many dumplings - variety please.

I love the food, the place and the staffs so friendly. Shout out to Kurni, Head Chef, thank you for amazing food!!

Staff around the restaurant are very welcoming. They have kept a well-performed social distancing rule as the distance between tables are precisely measured and set apart. The variety of food are worth its value so much, both me and my friends are satisfied with the food and the customer services. After YumCha, walking around the Chinese Garden is also a must-have activity! Overall, highly recommended!

The place was amazing and service was great. Food was of high quality but on the smaller portions, particularly we were only given one bowl of rice between two people which was disappointing portion for a set menu. Ambience can get a little noisy when there are kids around (we went on school holidays) but otherwise great experience.

IVE BEEN HERE BEFORE AND LOVED IT!
THIS TIME WE CAME FOR OUR ANNIVERSARY AND IT WAS DREADFUL, FROM WHERE WE WERE SAT TO THE QUALITY OF FOOD, INCREDIBLY DISSAPOINTED...WE WILL NOT RETURN
!

Absolutley stunning. With our a doubt the best Yum Cha in Sydney.

Lovely setting, unfortunately the quality of the food was well below expectations from Lotus.

It is one time experience. Food is okay, i am very picky with asian food and i can say it is pretty standard food.

Simply The BEST! Ambience, Scenery, Service, Food etc The ONLY Lotus in the yum cha Pond