Nour - Surry Hills

Do not be too late for your reservation. As gracious and accommodating as they were, they were severely slit at the table over time. We had our reservation...

Great place for Date Night and a first night in Sydney. Excellent service, delicious aromas and romantic ambience. The hotel is located in the Hip Surry Hills...

You have to try! we were a group of 5, who booked here in the evening. the place has beautiful interiors and with glass panes that.

My experience is in stark contrast to many other reviews and I wish that I'd had their experience instead of mine, because I was really looking forward to the night after seeing The Chefs Line. Melbourne is foodie heaven but Sydney has incredible restaurants; not even going to compare the two cities. The Chefs Line episode had me believing that our dinner at Nour would be a highlight of my trip. After my experience, I would not recommend going as a large group, ordering the banquet or choosing a Saturday night. Unfortunately, any party of 8 or more has to order a banquet dinner. I phoned up Nour on Saturday afternoon to inform them that I am vegetarian and spoke to a young girl who admitted that she did not know anything about catering for vegetarians but arranged for someone better informed to call me back. It appears that the second girl was also not very well informed, either as my night could have been saved had she said that I could order straight from the a la carte menu. I found this fact out afterwards, when speaking to the manager who really should have comped my $69.00 share of the bill, as by the time the mains arrived, we had to leave. Actually, I was glad to leave as I was sick of the noise, the wait time, the chaos, and the unimpressive food, and really didn't think things would improve. An hour and thirty minutes after we sat down the main dishes arrived. Before that, small share plates came out with long intervals in between. They started with nuts and olives. Then some little plates of labna and flatbread, with only enough for each person to get about a wipe of labna. The place was noticeably packed, the loud doof-doof music did nothing to create ambiance but I think that this semi disco vibe is intentional on a Saturday night to attract a young crowd and to say "we are contemporary!" However, this type of playlist soon become lost in the clatter of a crowded restaurant and just becomes noise. Falafel mix wrapped around a prawn were presented with one per person each; interesting but needed something moist for accompaniment. At this point I asked where my vegetarian plates were, which appeared to cause some consternation. The waiter disappeared to inquire and returned with news that they were coming. What arrived some time later was a flowerette of deep fried cauliflower in a non-descript sauce. I lived in the Middle East for a few years and also traveled about in the region, so am quite familiar with the cuisine. Deep fried cauliflower is a common option in any falafel shop and can be delicious with a tart garlic sauce, chilli and flatbread. This was not even seasoned. Everyone at the table began to get concerned about the timing and the skimpy amounts of food on the plates.  Figs and haloumi were quite tasty but we literally got only a tablespoon of it each. Comments from our table were beginning to veer toward the negative, until the meat dishes arrived and the excitement returned. I, on the other hand received a plate of grilled finger eggplants. I have cooked a similar dish, and love eggplant but all I could manage from this plate of bland slime was a teaspoonful, before I the full weight of the disappointment that I had been trying to ignore, crushed my spirits completely. I was now sad. There was just no point in hoping for more or for things to improve. My friends said later, that the mains of dark meat were ok, but the chicken was dry. Not one of my well traveled, foodie meat eating pals expressed delight or surprise. In fact they felt that there should have been larger quantities of the entree dishes and a greater variety of textures and flavours, and smaller meat dishes. There were no dessert dishes for the $69.00 option either, not even one little baklava. $69.00 might seem quite cheap PP (add $30 for drinks for me, and my table's bill came to over $1,000 for food and wine) but I could barely count olives and nuts as a course, and each subsequent course was so tiny its hard to see the value. And only one dish delivered on flavour. Where was the smoky babaganoush, or pomegranate? The fatoush salad was just terrible. The kitchen were working their butts off, and doing their best, but what are you getting extra at Nour for your $69.00 that you can get at a genuine Lebanese mom and pop restaurant? You are getting an elegant, contemporary, fit-out, a lovely bar and loud disco party atmosphere. I'd rather get great food. But surely what I saw on SBS was not a lie? To give Nour the benefit of the doubt, I believe I might possibly get what I was expecting on a week night with a small group. Unfortunately, on this occasion the banquet did nothing to showcase the best of Middle Eastern food. It was in fact, a miserly, loveless insult.

My experience is in stark contrast to many other reviews and I wish that I'd had their experience instead of mine, because I was really looking forward to the night after seeing The Chefs Line. Melbourne is foodie heaven but Sydney has incredible restaurants; not even going to compare the two cities. The Chefs Line episode had me believing that our dinner at Nour would be a highlight of my trip. After my experience, I would not recommend going as a large group, ordering the banquet or choosing a Saturday night. Unfortunately, any party of 8 or more has to order a banquet dinner. I phoned up Nour on Saturday afternoon to inform them that I am vegetarian and spoke to a young girl who admitted that she did not know anything about catering for vegetarians but arranged for someone better informed to call me back. It appears that the second girl was also not very well informed, either as my night could have been saved had she said that I could order straight from the... read more