Russo Estate - Hillside

Went to Russo Winery for dinner with my sisters family back in June. We had a lovely dinner, although very noisy as there was a function in the room next door. Our food was really lovely as was the wine and service, it is a very open restaurant with only glass doors separating the function room, I would go again but would ask if a function was booked to avoid it.

My food was lovely but it wasnt the case for all at my table. Some food was still cold and one even frozen in the middle. I believe they had their usual chef away sick and this contributed. I have been reluctant to revisit due to the issues with food. Staff were wonderful. Wine was lovely.

Went to lunch for a friends birthday. It was a group of about 30 people and not one of us were impressed. The meals were below average. The chicken confit was dry and the potatoes were cold/still frozen. Not all the meals were served at the same time. Myself and 2 others had to wait for our meal to be served and everyone else had finished their meal by the time our meal came. We were all very disappointed in not just the quality of the food but the service as well. Will not be recommending it or returning.

We've been here a few times since it opened with groups of 4-12 people and had great experiences, so booking as a couple for our anniversary seemed like a good idea. We arrived around 7:30 pm and waited for about 5 mins near the bar for a waitress to saunter over and check our name off the list. I did mark the reason for the visit when booking as Anniversary, not expecting anything special but a mention would have been nice, the waitress however just crossed our name off the list and told us to sit where ever we liked. Seated and waiting we were asked for our drinks order, we asked if we could have menu's first and got a lovely eye roll in response. The menu's came, along with another request for a drinks order, still hadn't seen a menu/wine list. Opened the menu, had another waitress stop by asking if we'd ordered drinks, not yet we just got the menu. Quickly choose food and drinks... then waited 15 mins trying to get noticed so we could order our meals and drinks.Based on both previous visits we decided to stick to bread and mains as the portions on previous visits had been very generous. So we ordered Garlic Bread, the seafood pasta and gnocchi and a bottle of wine. The Garlic bread came out first, well three small pieces of bread on a side plate came out... really who serves 3 nugget size pieces of bread to two people? never mind we asked about the wine but the waitress must not heard as she rushed off to the large table nearby.Mains came out pretty quick so we made a point of asking about the wine, the waitress said she'd check on it. I then noticed that the gnocchi placed before me looked like a plate of melted cheese. it was so flat at first I thought they had served a plate of sauce. Sifting through the cheese/sauce i did find 14 pieces of glue like blobs about the same time the waitress appeared with the bottle of wine. You remember the wine that was apparently written down by the waitress who asked us three times to order, but then she never told the bar-staff when we did. Well back, to the gnocchi I asked the waitress about the minimalist serving and was told that "too many people were complaining about big portions so they are smaller now" as she rushed off to the large table nearby.Some time later she passes by again and I call her over to talk about the uneaten plate of glue in front of me and she says she'll tell the kitchen, takes my plate and rushed off. Later the other waitress arrives to tell me that there was something wrong with the gnocchi, I should have gotten twenty pieces not fourteen and that I wouldn't be charged for the dish, she rushes off to the large table nearby.My wife and I shared her seafood pasta which was just average, about twenty-five minutes later we manage to flag down the waitress to order a desert dish, mentioning that I'm very hungry, she rushed off to the large table nearby. We waited another twenty-five minutes finally noticing that the large nearby table seemed to be made up of family members of the waitress here for a birthday. The some time later we were served our deserts which I devoured and we then made a bee-line for the the exit so as to get back home for something to eat.The manager processed our payment, when I mentioned still being famished he twisted the conversation around declaring it was our fault for not getting the attention of the waitresses and that we should have ordered another main (to be eaten 40 mins after my wife's). he then went on to tell us that the chef usually makes the best gnocchi and that they restaurant has rave reviews on Facebook.As I said at the beginning we loved this place, even recommended it widely for events and a friend for her wedding. Sadly we won't be back, nor recommending Russo Estate to others ever again.

We were recommended to this place and boy were we disappointed. The food was very ordinary. Twice cooked pork with a rubber sole crackle. Should not have even been sent out. The service was amateurish at best. This is a great looking place and hopefully they will sort out things and get a winning formula. I will watch and listen to see if they improve.