The Grounds of the City

Gorgeous fit out sets the scene for a lovely meal. The burrata was oozy and delightful. The steaks cooked perfectly and delicious. The trifle!! Oh the trifle was so amazing and pretty and perfect to share. The only (slight) flaw is that there is no bathroom, so you have to leave the cafe to wander through the shops to the centre bathroom that was not very clean.

The burgers were great but the beer selection is limited

I booked a table one week before the time, and when I came to the reception, the lady kindly informed me that once a table is ready and she will call us. Unfortunately, she was so busy and forgot to activate us on their list. Finally, we got a table when I waited for more than 20 minutes and confirmed our situation in the reception again.

Service was not so good since they were so busy. Even when we got the table, we still waited for more than half an hour to get all our food ready.

First time at the Grounds of the City but have frequented Alexandria. Loved the atmosphere, the prompt service and of course, the food.

Book online before you go to avoid waiting!

Staff were very friendly and attentive and the blackforest cake was delicious!

Great atmosphere. Portions for the dishes I ordered were rather small for the price, but really enjoyed it overall.

We really enjoyed breakfast here. Food was great, service was a little slow but good when it came. There definitely was an element of making the place feel exclusive by needing a booking and making people wait outside, when the inside was half empty, which was a bit pretentious. Otherwise very nice.

It was a lovely experience - a ladies lunch do we were very happy with everything!

Great food and style! Very busy cafe and was very noisy but still managed to have a conversation. Coffee was slow but food was quick. Great meal!
Will be back again.

food was alright but Stephanie was an amazing wait staff - super friendly and helpful!

I ordered the Lobster Beignets and what a disappointment they were ! For $22 I would expect more than one teeny tiny piece of deep fried lobster on my roll. The Lobster was literally the size of a 20 cent piece and sat tucked in the middle of what now appears to be a monstrous brioche bun ! I would have preferred prawns that actually filled the contents of my roll rather than the sad offering I received on the pretence that my lunch was lush ! You won’t be getting my money again !

Service outstanding Food always of high quality great experience thank you have made this my venue for all business meetings now

First time visit to the Grounds of the City. Positives - excellent “meet and greet”, speedy, friendly, shown to the table right away. We have asked for two pastry baskets but there was only enough for 1,5 , so we were given all the pastries left but only charged for 1 basket. Pastries were delicious!
Things that perhaps can be improved on - long wait to place an order, had to ask a passing member of staff. Coffee was very prompt but teas were made and waited on the counter for 15min to be brought to the table. We were having pastries but no plates were offered, had to ask for plates.
All in all, all members of your team when talking into us were friendly and helpful but it felt a bit like they were all rushed and no one in particular was in charge of our little table.
It’s a lovely restaurant and we’ve enjoyed the atmosphere. Would probably try again , perhaps for lunch as menu looked very interesting

Great spot for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a quick coffee. Outstanding service.

thanks to your beautiful waiters and services! Nice coffee!

Very expensive for the portion size and the food taste.

As always great energy in the room tasty food. My fries were cold but still too good to send back! Well deserved cocktail lived up to expectations. Thanks!

Great ambiance and attentive, but not obtrusive, service. Coffee great, food well presented and tasty. Worth booking a table as it can be busy. I have no particular insight for improvement.

Perfect venue for our group of 6 on a Sunday evening. Good food and service. Buzzy atmosphere.

Great Art Deco ambiance. Very bland seafood pasta and rib eye steak. For the price, the menu needs good quality and tasty food.
Wait staffs seems to be interested in serving their friends' table than paying attention to others.

There was a hair in our food, the waiter who served us was lovely but the one who took the orders was too grumpy and could not have rushed it more.

Food was nice, service was severely lacking. Even after telling us we would have to vacate our table we waited 20 minutes for the bill and even then we had to ask for it again. Weren’t offered coffee or dessert after our main meal. Had to ask for our water to be refilled. Tables are too close together (assume to fit more people in). Like it’s counterpart in Alexandria the venue is overrated. Wouldn’t go back.

Unfortunately not a very good start to the day. Coffee was warm. My friends and I ordered 3 juices. 2 came and the 3rd never arrived. Had to follow up with 2 different waitresses, to be told that they had run out of watermelon, hence they could not make my ordered juice. Was making it now, without the watermelon, "won't be long". No thanks!!!

The food was disaponting for the price we paid, $22 for 6 extremely small oysters and the other meals were not worth the price we paid. We were there celebrating the 20th wedding anniversary for some amazing friends and we were very disappointed with the meal. We go to the one at Alexandria and we like that but we would not be returning to the one in the city at all

Fabulous food and a beautiful place but the service let it down sadly. They were very apologetic that we had waited 10 minutes for our tea top up (we had ordered the bottomless cup) and gave us free cake and coffees as well as not charging us for the teas. Cannot complain at that!

I took a friend there after raving about it.
I had smashed avo, my bread wasn't toasted.
my meal was cold.
and the portion size definitely lacked.

It is a lovely and warm place to catch up with friends, just a bit noisy and not easy to find someone to serve u, seems like everyone is busy with something else. Overall, it’s great

The food was good, but a little overpriced for what we received. Unfortunately the tables are much too close and was very noisy b.c and difficult to have a conversation.

Our waitress Gaelle was super kind and attentive! Great menu knowledge and conversation. It was nice to see the manager Christian be so present and attentive to all tables too. I was taking a visitor here and will definitely be bringing future guests!

Previously i have lunched at the Grounds and the meal was a decent size and delicious. This time around my meal was absolutely tiny but over $30 for the plate and average tasting. I would return but avoid the main meals and stick to salads and sandwiches.

We ordered some coffee and cakes. Little bit slow to bring out the coffee this time and surprisingly the cakes were brought out before the coffee. I'm not sure why they wouldn't of been brought out together. I will definitely go back and still love the place.

The grounds are beautiful. The food looks amazing. However the food was cold and the service was bad! We waited 15minutes after being seated to even get a glass of water. Oir server didn't tell us about the specials, and didn't have very good knowledge of the menu, or basic dietary requirements such as dairy free...

Very quaint and unique but food was nothing special. Coffee was especially bad but the service was excellent.

Not a great welcome waiting for a long time in a queue when I had already booked a table. Finally seated into a corner.
Mains were okay.
I had to ask for the dessert menu after waiting a while at our empty table. I ordered a salted caramel cake off a tray of cakes. It was terrible, dry and bland! It looked pretty, tasted awful!
Wouldn’t go back.

Great place, during a two week stay in Sydney me and my friends kept going back there, we couldn't get enough of it. Food is delicious, beautifily served, the staff is friendly and helpful. This place is perfect not only for breakfast but also lunch/ dinner and coctails!

great service from the platinum blonde haired man, was told by a lady i couldn’t do split payments only to he able to do it by the man, great food, pricy however. 👍🏼

Good vibe and bustling but so noisy my guest was almost yelling to be heard. Service good but expected more from the food

Simply great gatsby-esque and fantastic, irregular visitor but always make time for this wonderful establishment

I would recommend the grounds to a friend, the food is great, the staff were lovely and the fit out is very cute. However the noise was horrendous and the space between the tables was incredibly small, even very slight people have trouble sneaking between people already eating. I think taking out a table in the back row and investing in some kind of sound proofing would make the experience feel more luxurious, rather than something to be endured!

The Grounds never fails to impress. Delicious and creative food, beautiful setting, great service.