ACME - Rushcutters Bay

We were warned by the waitress that the servings were small and to have the degustation. Stingy serves ? Poor start. We didn't leave hungry but we paid for it. I watched chefs in open, noisy kitchen man handle salads and linguini ( why not tongs?) The food was tasty and really different but self serve from a common plate. The rice custard and coconut sorbet fantastic but was in one bowl ! We were given three spoons! One friend had a nasty cold so that had zero appeal. The music (mostly thumping bass ) sounded like my son practising his drums as a ten year old . Waitress very pleasant, waiter ( manager ?) indifferent. Unisex toilet ... never met a female who doesn't hate them. And then the bill $150 per head. Oh dear.

Service - lousy, the arrogant waiter brought out a can of beer (yes a can) and did not even offer a glass. When I poured the beer into a water glass, he took the glass way. Maybe I am not funky enough and should have drunk straight out of the can. Food - just OK. Baloney sandwich? Just tasted like a normal ham roll. Overpriced and over hyped. Even the waiter admitted the servings are small. So advertise the place as cool, get people to come by making them feel they are missing out on something special, give them small servings and then - rip them off. The open kitchen isn't funky, it is laughable. Would I go there again - Never!!!

We booked for Saturday night and had the 6pm sitting for a special dinner.We had an amazing waitress that ran us through the menu and was super friendly.We ordered 5 dishes and loved four of them, however the linguine with black garlic & burnt chilli reminded us of mie goreng two minute noodles and it seemed a bit meh compared to the others. Everything else was amazing!We were so amazed that they gave us three desserts on the house for swapping chairs with an older couple. AND THEY WERE AMAZING. Highly recommend the coconut rice cream, white chocolate dessert. It was very nice of them and not expected at all.

So much hype about this place but to be honest it's average. Mussels came out almost cold, cocktails took 20 minutes, the portions are tiny for the price, and the waiter was really awkward - he promised us a free dish for the late cocktails but never gave it to us. Overrated and overpriced!

Sitting in front of an open kitchen we thought would be exciting but it turned out to be quite a strange but comical experience at the same time. The female chef spent her whole night texting and talking on her phone. At first we thought it was just for a second but it actually was the entire night. The kitchen dynamics was so flat and all the chefs looked so bored so why have an open kitchen? When the chef who was texting started playing with her ponytail and then dipped her hand into a portion of pasta that did us all in. Mobile phones are dirty and not the right spot for the punters to have to watch this. If there was an emergency then she could have stepped aside. Food is tasty here, portions very small, they were out of two menu items by 7:30pm, they won't make a coffee w any type of milk just black only, trying to be Italian authentic I guess but then they put Tea in their Teamisu so obviously not taken themselves that seriously. Didn't feel any love here but staff were friendly, just not a sense of any generosity in this place and oh the phone! They could do much better.