Bistro By The Food Business - Adelaide

We arrived about 50 minutes prior to our show and ordered a bottle of wine and a tasting platter after being reassured by the server that we'd have plenty of time to enjoy it before the show. Half an hour later we gave up waiting on the food, cancelled the platter, finished off our wine and went into the show hungry.Add to that, being told to 'grab a bucket of cutlery for yourself' by bar staff dressed, speaking, and behaving like they work in the front bar of a suburban pub, and this dive badly lets down the Festival Centre. Unfortunately it seems the Centre has contracted out running the bistro; to the lowest bidder it seems. What an irony that this mob has the Festival Centre and a well-known restauranteur has the new Adelaide Oval contract.This is the second time we've been disappointed here, and it will be our last. Last time we had a $60 bottle of wine slopped over our glasses and the table by a waiter that clearly hadn't poured much wine in his career!Avoid the Bistro and go to nearby Parlamento.

Ridiculous prices eg $50 for an average bottle of champagne. Limited items on the menu. The staff ignored my request for a window table. Anyway, the windows overlooking the River Torrens were dirty. Plastic yellow chairs and noise offered no sense of occasion for my birthday. Luckily my oysters were delicious and fresh, but the steak, pork and chicken dishes my friends had were not as good as most pub food. $37-$42 for a steak and you had to order side dishes at $10 each to make a complete meal. Our main courses and two glasses of wine each averaged at $60 per head. No entree, no dessert, no coffee. Look for an alternate restaurant if you're attending the Festival Theatre. I wish we had.

Opening night of new Satate Theatre production - 8 guests in restaurant for dinner sent us warning bells!Located in arguably the creative hub of Adelaide's Festival Centre precinct this restaurant lacks creativity and thought in preparation of its menu and what it delivers.The menu is exceptionally boring and limited especially the mains, very limited choice.We orderd a chicken main dish and a steak main dish - booring, but very little choice. The chicken whilst apparently tasty was very unappealing to the eye, and the steak whilst cooked to my request in rareness, was not seasoned at all. The mustards ordered with the steak were discoloured on the surface and tasteless, obviously these had been left out in the servery for some considerable time. These dishes were both in excess of $30 per dish. The only enjoyable part of the meal was a side dish of desiree potatoes with a paprika salt.From the menu and the pricing its my view this restaurant management The Food Business doesn't care. From the lack of guests on an opening night it suggests many others before us have already voted with not visiting this restaurant. The AFC management should look closely at this disappointing restaurant and seek to enhance the Centres reputation by providing a good quality restaurant in their venue.

We had a lunch before the footy. It was a freezing, miserable day so to be able to relax enjoy the views and the great food and wine for a few hours was great for all of us. The staff are exceptional to our needs, particulary Adam. This is part of the Festival Theatre complex but operates as a seperate business. I highly recommend you come and experience the service, quality food and wine and you will keep coming back as we do.

We went there before a show for the Festival in the Festival Centre. We hadn't eaten there for a while, so were curious what had changed. Had been spruced up to some extent, and was pretty good. With all the hard surfaces in the place it is a pretty noisy place to eat, especially, as we were, if you are sitting near a table of people in a high old mood and laughing and talking loudly. Service was fairly quick, but definitely on the casual side. It is a long time since we had an order taken while the waiter kept leaning against a pillar, and glasses were filled and removed by leaning across the table while were eating. Food was pretty good and in very ample serves. I had an excellent lemon chicken and my wife had a vegetable curry. Wine menu was fair, and had some choice. We weren't going to get an opinion on the wines from the waiting staff. Some people at a neighbouring table had the pavlova with rhubarb sauce. Spectacular and large wold be the least you would say about it. We weren't up for dessert, but we were kindly brought a bowl of ice cream with a couple of spoons to tame my wife's curry aftermath (nothing to fear there, she just isn't much up to spicy foods these days!!). Perhaps not a place up to silver service standards, but good enough for a pleasant start to a nights' entertainment.