Mrs Top French Restaurant

Decent regional French food — some would say comfort food — in a pleasant setting on the corner of Kellett Way Potts Point. They used to be in Neutral Bay so this is a big shift.
We thought we’d give it a go using a Groupon voucher
Between four of us we had country style duck pâté and French onion soup (with caramelised onions, toasted bread and cheese) for starters, and boeuf bourguignon and coq au vin for mains. It was all nice but nothing extraordinary.
The waiters were pleasant and efficient but they seemed stressed.

The Valentines Day Massacre
OK so it’s a busy evening and the restaurant is packed.
We arrive on time and it doesn’t bode well when the front of house manager walks past four times saying «I won’t keep you a moment» each time, as we stand there listening to the French café musak.
Eventually we see her making up a table with a clean tablecloth (but no cutlery, napkins or cruet) and she gestures us to follow which we do — passing the bar, the busy kitchen, the piles of dirty plates in the hatchway, the wet floor as we enter… MORDOR.
A former courtyard I would guess, it has three tables and a gnarled tree growing up through the plexiglass ceiling, with a few wilting plants underneath and a large candle in a glass container. There are some spotlights on the ceiling — unfortunately none of them pointing in our direction, so we wait in the gloom for some service — envious of the table candle of our fellow diners who are all Chinese couples. I have a view of the bar and kitchen — alas my partner only has a view of our fellow victims.
Mrs Top is features regional French cuisine apparently, so naturally we ask the manager for a Kier each. The blank look of the front of house manager makes us realise this is a region of France that doesn’t exist in reality.
I explain that Kier is a French traditional apéritif made with Crème de Cassis and either white wine or Champagne if it’s a Kier Royale. «Ah a Champagne Cocktail» she exclaims and returns with the Cocktail menu which does contain a Champagne cocktail but they have no Cassis. So we settle for a glass of champagne each which duly arrives delivered by Oddjob — who seems to be a manager (he’s the only one with a white shirt) spending most of his time arguing with the black-​clad waiters.
We peruse the menu having managed to acquire a candle from the table of a couple that had left and realise the fixed menu is the only menu is available. It’s explained that you get two starters (oysters and stuffed zuchini flowers) then a choice of mains (duck comfit, bouillabaisse or calves cheeks), desert and petite-​fours. I ask for a substitute for the oysters as I can’t eat them and I settle for a salad and the bouillabaisse for main — my partner orders the duck. Soon the champagne arrives and then the zucchini flowers which are in a nice crispy batter — only we can’t eat them as we have no cutlery and I have to retrieve the cruet from another table.
Our plates are cleared by another waiter and we point out that we haven’t received our oysters and salad which bemuses him somewhat and we wait… and wait… and wait.
Just as I’m about to phone the restaurant to ask for some service, I see a waiter clutching a salad appear but before it can be delivered to the table, Oddjob appears and is about to snatch it away before they realise the newly arrived Chinese couple behind us had also ordered a salad — which is eventually delivered to me. We ask three staff members for the oysters and finally three appear on a plate half an hour later. We then have to wait for cutlery to appear when it does, it appears to have been stolen from an airline as it’s so small and cheap-​looking.
Another long wait while we wait for the main courses — I’m reaching for the phone to call the restaurant when the manager appears with the mains. I get the Bouillabaisse — a small collection of seafood in a swimming pool of orange sauce. My partner is given something that appears to be meat but it’s hard to tell in the gloom — his first mouthful revels that it’s calves cheeks and not duck so we beckon over the manageress and she disappears with the plate. I get on with my bouillabaisse which naturally I manage to splash on my shirt.
The duck finally arrives just as I’m finishing my Bouillabaisse and we are offered a free glass of wine or champagne as compensation by the chef. I take the wine my partner takes the champagne and then he disappears off to the toilet. Oddjob appears with our drinks — he puts the wine down with a flourish but this upsets the tray and spills champagne all over the table and my trousers. He lays our napkins over the sodden table (which he doesn’t replace) produces another glass of champagne.
The heart-​shaped deserts arrive which are more like Italian Semifreddo than anything I’ve had in a French restaurant. It’s ok but nothing to write home about and we ask for the bill — Oddjob reminds us we have another course — and a selection of berry fruit arrives covered in melting chocolate. Nice but not exactly what I would call Petit Fours.
The manager is gracious enough takes the sting out of the tale by only charging us for the food, which actually wasn’t bad, and the staff are mostly anxious to please — or perhaps in a state of anxiety because of the many stuff-​ups. But I do wonder if the letters of this restaurant should be rearranged to form «Mr Stop» — as that’s what I’d suggest you do before you make a reservation.

Didn’t like it. The Xmas 6 course lunch took almost 5 (!!) hrs. Average food, nothing special at all. The service was very poor, e.g. they never asked whether we need more drinks or refilled our glasses. There were no towels in the bathroom and a bad smell of urine in the toilets. Ok, it is Xmas, but still…

Rude waiters, mediocre food, a set Xmas menu took over FOUR hours.
I will never come back.