El Bulli

What can I say. This place is kick arse. Every dish we tried was absolutely top quality. Highly recommended.

Lackluster tapas. Highlights included the pulpitos (baby octopus) and croquettas, followed by tomato sauce shrimp. The rest was basically olive oil with garlic and parsley on various meats (beef, lamb, shrimp). There was little in ways of variety of cooking styles. That said, the meat cooking temperature was fine. The desserts were the biggest let down. Half raw churros served with caramel frosting and whipped cream rather than thick dipping chocolate as well as a bitter tasting crema catalana that was more reminiscent of a badly burnt crème brûlée with no orange scent. Service was adequate. Not a particularly memorable meal.

TAPAS!!! What a great way to spend the evening. My friend and I decided we were in the mood for some late night Spanish and how lucky were we to find this cute little hot spot in Surry Hills. When we arrived the place was a bit full but mainly with people finishing up. We decided to share 3 main dishes and a dessert
1^st was Ensalada Catalana it had Mixed green leaves, egg, olives, serrano ham, baby sardines, grilled peppers served with gazpacho dressing. I had asked them to hold the sardines and they were happy to do so. This was such an amazing mix of flavours. I would recommend it to anyone.
2^nd was Patatas Bravas — Deep fried crispy baby potatoes in a tomato chilli sauce. Another outstanding dish that anyone would enjoy. Quantity was more than expected as well.
3^rd was Gambas a la Sevillana — Pan fried prawns in a tomato based garlic, chilli & olive oil salsa. This one blew me out of the park. The flavours all melted together so well.
From the minute I sat down I knew I was going to order the famous Churros. I have had this many times before back in Toronto and I was excited to see how it compared. I was a bit disappointed that they were not filled with the normal dulce de leche caramel sauce I have been use to. We had to dip the donuts in and I wan’t use to it.
All in all this had been a great experience and if you are in and around the area looking to try something a bit off the beaten track. salsa on in and ENJOY!

The food here is so good. Best to get a few dishes to share so you can taste a few things on the menu. Make a booking because it’s always packed. They also have live music… Well on the nights I have been there.

Slipped in with no reservation and a tight timeline before our show at the Belvoir Theatre. Warmly received at the door and guaranteed we could dine and dash in 60 minutes. The live music was refreshing and entertaining (3 man ensemble, smiling and playing great Spanish inspired tunes). Rather than spending time reading the menu, we asked for «tapas for four» and their seasonal special — coconut martinis. We were NOT disappointed! The plates came fast, flavourful and with engaging service. The chat potatoes were the highlight for the family … But a tight call given the variety of delicious flavours delivered.
Delighted with the food, service and ambiance — we will definitely return when we have more time. It would be great to spend a lazy dinner taking it in with a group!

I came here on Saturday night with a group of 10 people. Few of us were espanic background (Spain, Argentina and Peru) so we had them to choose our meals as we wanted to try the best espaniol things.
WE shared all this bellow:
salt & pepper deep fried whitebait served with fresh lemon, stuffed grilled mushrooms filled with pancetta, parsley & manchego cheese, TORTILLA ESPAÑOLA
, CHORIZO a la SIDRA, PATATAS BRAVAS, PULPITOS a la PLANCHA, sauteed mushrooms in garlic, parsley, white wine & olive oil char grilled baby squid in a salt & garlic sauce. Also we had 2 Paella — seafood, and chicken & chorizo.
For dessert we ordered the Churros cake which came with some cream and chocolate sauce.
The food was great, sangria was OK too. The service was very friendly and quite efficient.
They also had a band singing great lationo mix. Yes we did dance after dinner and before the desert.
Overall great place for a large group of people. Very loud and vibrant. Great for functions.

Oh El Bulli. Everytime I taste your delicious Tapasy goodness I feel like my life is somewhat complete. The food here is great guys. Its a little exy. but its oh soo good. If I had to pick my top 2 dishes — the Gnocci and the Pork Meatballs. nuff said.
p. s. The Sangria is amazeballs

Admittedly I bought a Groupon tapas deal, and so we didn’t eat from the main menu, however it shouldn’t have been this disappointing.
I read the reviews and I expected it to be fantastic but it sorely missed the mark.
Firstly, our tapas were brought out so fast, 2 to 3 dishes at a time, all out of order from the menu, and not explained at all until I asked… twice!
My friend and I actually finished our meal in 20 mins, Yes! 20 minutes. The toasted ciabatta was just Blah!, the olives were sent out in a tiny incy ramekin maybe 2 table spoons worth of soggy olives with no «kick» at all, I had to ask the waiter about the Paella because there was nothing but fried rice with no meat or taste of chicken or chorizo, the mushrooms were terrible, they seemed frozen because they were sweaty and the cheese inside? Eww, my friend left his to the side. The only standouts were the lamb back straps and enchilladas, but not mind blowing. Go to Fratelli for zucchini flowers, these were so deeply fried and stodgy. We up and left after 20 mins and went to Billy Kwongs for something better. Will not be back. a shame really because the restaurant is stunning.

I’m still in a little bit of shock about how awesome my meal here was. I was expecting it to be good, but this place totally blew away my expectations.
SERVICE
We arrived at around 6:30 PM on a Friday night. Our booking was initially at 6 PM, but we were running late. Fortunately, we were able to move our booking to 30 minutes later — the place wasn’t busy then, but it started getting really busy around the 7:30 PM mark, and it became downright full.
The only thing I’d comment is that it’d be best to make a preference for a table. When we got there, we were showed a table in the middle of the restaurant, but there were other really nice tables nearby. Since the place was still empty we asked if we could be moved, but the staff told us that those tables had been booked for a later time.
The staff was super friendly, recommending food and topping up water and drinks quite efficiently.
AMBIENCE
A little bit dark, but not in a bad way. A great place to spend hours chatting over food and wine (which we did!)
FOOD
We ordered:
1. Pan Con Tomate — Toasted ciabatta rubbed with garlic, tomato & sea salt. Drizzled with basil infused Spanish Olive oil — good.
2. Sardines — this was a special (so couldn’t find the actual name and description on the online menu) — This was nice and garlicky. We matched it with the pan con tomate. :P
3. Paella — Traditional rice dish containing seafood, chicken & traces of chorizo — good! Sadly we’d ordered this last, so it came when we were already pretty full and couldn’t finish it. We got a single serve to share since we’d ordered a lot of other dishes, and I was impressed by the amount of stuff on it. Some places that sell paella have tons of rice and just a few pieces of meat or seafood. This was the opposite. Best paella I’ve had in Sydney so far.
4. Patatas El Bulli — Deep fried chat potatoes served with emulsion of fritas & bravas dressing — yum! We wanted a spicier patatas bravas, and the waiter recommended this
5. Gnocci con Picos Azul — Homemade crispy gnocci in a serrano ham, blue vein cheese & white wine cream sauce — this was the runaway winner of the night! We ended up ordering two plates of this. Even if you don’t like gnocci, order this. It’s a bit rich though, and after the second plate I think my tastebuds were wee bit too saturated, but it was really good.
— Chorizo a la Cidra — Crispy panfried chorizo & Spanish onion in a cider glaze — good. I was initially wary about the «a la cidra» bit. For some reason I thought that would make the chorizo sweet? But these didn’t come out sweet at all, they tasted pretty much like good ol’ chorizo.
— Churros — Donut fingers rolled in cinnamon sugar, with dulce de leche (caramel), whipped cream & fresh strawberries — this was good, though a little unusual. Unlike typical churros which are quite skinny and served with chocolate, these were a bit fatter and served with dulce de leche. According to the waiter, it was because the owner was Argentinian and this was his twist to the dish. The churros being thicker, they were a bit doughy inside, and this texture might be a turn off for some people. The combination of the dulce de leche with the whipped cream was awesome, though.
I’d rate the food from a 4.5 to a 5. Great service, great ambience. A little pricier than some of the restaurants along the Spanish Quarter but well worth the price point and trek out to Surry Hills.

We came here on a Sunday night and were suprised to see the place quite busy. The food was good but nothing special.
The highlight was the patatas el bulli which was covered in a delicious tomato, chilli and garlic sauce. The white wine sangria was also a highlight.

Wanted to treat the Australian hosts to a nice dinner. El Bulli delivered.
We had the following:
1. Aceitunas Mezcladas;
2. Boquerones;
3. Patatas El Bulli;
4. Gambas a la Sevillana;
5. Paella (para 2);
6. Ensalada Iberica;
7. Churros; and
8. White Sangria.
All of it was excellent. I’ve never had a white sangria but it was definitely a good take on the classic red sangria. The portions are big and the above was for 4 adults and 2 kids.
If you’re American, the waiters might not understand what you are saying. Maybe it was a combination of our waitress not able to speak good English or maybe she wasn’t used to how Americans talk. However, the service was excellent.
Parking might be a little hard but since we were visiting, we took the metro to Central and walked a couple of blocks.
Overall a little pricey, but highly recommended while visiting Sydney.

This place is fantastic and The portions are pretty large for the price it’s charged at. At first I was concerned by the price of the Paella ($ 30 per head) so my husband and i bought two serves thinking it would be little but when the Paella came out for two, I swear five people could help us to finish. Sangria wasn’t too bad but the bar and wait staff were friendly as ever! I recommend this place to everyone!

This place has really great food, live music and great Sangria but the two things that really stood out to me were the massive portions and the great service!
I did my normal thing and ordered way too much but in this case our waitress did try and warn us that we were probably getting a bit too excited. Each dish was absolutely massive, i’d say suitable for 3 – 4 people, and since there was just the two of us we ended up with quite a bit of take away at the end of the night.
Onto the service, our waitress was awesome, very friendly and attentive plus the food took absolutely no time at all to arrive which is always a good thing when you’re starving!
Of note, we didn’t make a booking and managed to get a table easy enough, however, we did show up prior to 6 on the Friday. After 7 the place packed out pretty quickly so make sure to make a reservation if you plan on dining at a reasonable hour.

After all the reviews I’d read on this place I decided to take my cousin there for dinner one night.
FOOD
We ordered the Croquettes ($ 15.50), Chilli Mussels ($ 18.50) and Chat Potatoes with Allioli Mayonnaise ($ 10.50). I found the Croquettes too salty, mussels were spicy but the chilli over powered the garlic and salsa flavours and the chat potatoes just too plain in comparison.
My consolation was that I really enjoyed the complimentary bread with garlic allioli.
SERVICE
We had to ask for them to bring another bowl for us to put our mussels in. I thought that would’ve been a standard thing.
So initially I thought we had ordered the three dishes we decided on but my cousin was worried we couldn’t finish it all so only ordered too. I told her we should just try three things and so she flagged down the waiter and said she wanted the potatoes. He said which one as there was one with chilli sauce and one with allioli mayonnaise so in that split second we just said the mayonnaise one given we already had chilli mussels. Later I re-​read a review and we were supposed to have ordered the potatoes with the creamy garlic and tomato sauce which according to their menu is a «house favourite». Wish he had told us that option instead.
On a better note when the waitress came to clear our table as she reached for the garlic sauce my cousin said we weren’t done and then she offered to refill the garlic sauce for us. Slight redemption.
OVERALL
Maybe it’s because we ordered the wrong tapas. Maybe it’s because we maybe rookie mistake number 1 and had tapas for 2. No room for maybes though in this review. Just a bit of disappointment.
My expectations had been set high. I really wish this could have been a 5 star post. I am however open to the idea of someone inviting me back to El Bulli to show me that 5 star post experience others seem to have had.

I’m not sure, but I think El Bulli has moved because the place we ate dinner in wasn’t small at all! They don’t take bookings for two here, so when we rocked up we expected there would be a waiting time, which was all fine because they seat you in the cocktail bar (where you can get a nibble menu). We had a very nice, super strong Mojito while we waited, which was less than half an hour– the expected waiting time.
We got seated in the main restaurant but up at the bar, which at first I thought I wouldn’t like because we had our backs to the band, but it worked out very nice for us as we managed to make nice with the generous barmen and score some free drinks!
But first the food, the Paella Balls were Amaze-​balls! Spanish meatballs, and some tasty king prawns done in a tomato and olive salsa (Also some really generous serves for Tapas– there must have been about 14 huge prawns). Then the churros… oh god the churros… so good.
Man did we let the drinks come, this is probably why you don’t sit at the bar, Sangria, Tequila, random cocktail creations concocted by the barmen, more tequila and some why-​the-​hell-​not top shelf rum.
It wasn’t a cheap one, but it was a super fun, tasty one!

Though small in size El Bulli is big on taste. By far some of the best Spanish cuisine I have ever had ever (even better than a lot of places I visited while in Spain).
We started our meal with pan con tomate and the ensalada Iberica and then basically made our way through at least half the menu by the end of our night.
My absolute faves were the patatas El Bulli, which are a perfect balance of salty, spicy and rich and the mushrooms which were absolutely divine. Of course no meal at El Bulli is complete without the White Sangria, so make sure you leave enough room for a glass or five.

The place is small but comfortable with a nice atmosphere.
They have recently opened another larger resturaunt a few doors up as they are very popular.
I’ve been a few times, but last time we ordered the garlic chicken wings, salt and pepper squid, garlic prawns, the giant pot of chilli mussels (they are great!) and my favourite — the patatas El Bulli (chat potatoes).
The white wine strawberry sangria is great.
The food here is excellent and not too expensive for the quality of the food.

Went there a few times and will certainly go again.
The food is just great as is the sangria :)
It’s a bit pricey but definitely worth it

I’m pretty sure everyone loves tapas and I’m also pretty sure that everyone who does (and maybe even doesn’t) love tapas would love El Bulli in Surry Hills to which there are two of, pretty much across the road from each other which caused a bit of confusion amongst me and my friends!
We ended up at the newer one and from the first bit of sangria that touched my lips to the last plate of tapas that left our table it was all good. Actually after a couple of sangrias the last plate leaving was a bit of a blur!
There was a group of us so we tried a bit of the usual suspects like the peppers, the whitebait, the meatballs, prawns and so on and it was a fun night and good place well worth visiting. Just make sure you clarify which one you intend to go to!

El Bulli is one hot ticket.
At the time I went you couldn’t book and if you didn’t arrive at the dot of 6 then you would have to wait at least an hour or two before a table was ready (they took your number and called you, so it was possible to spend that time at a nearby pub). But El Bulli now has a bigger premises a few doors up meaning it should be easier to snag a table.
Once you get inside, orange-​red hues, brick walls and big paintings will surround you. The service is fine, not overly friendly, but we could see how busy our waiter was so we let it slide.
We ordered a range of tapas including Pimientos Rellenos with goats cheese ($ 13.50), Empanadillas ($ 15.50), Chorizo ($ 16.50), Garlic Prawns ($ 19.50), Baby Sardines ($ 15.50) and Lamb Backstrap ($ 24.50). Everything was tasty and delightful. We finished with the dessert special of Tiramisu but it wasn’t very nice and not something I would recommend to others.
Now that there is more room, I will definitely visit El Bulli again.