Angie
Google
We recently visited Sugarcane in Coogee as a group of four and had an overall enjoyable evening, but one unfortunate experience affected our impression.
Three of us were sharing a bottle of wine, which was being kept away from the table with the waitstaff topping us up. At one point, our glasses remained empty for over 20 minutes, so we reasonably assumed the bottle was finished. Based on that, two of us ordered an additional glass of wine each.
Shortly after those arrived, our server returned to inform us that our original bottle actually still had nearly half remaining. Frustrated, we let a waitress know that we wouldn’t have ordered extra glasses had we been aware of this. To her credit, she was very apologetic and said she would check with someone and likely have the extra glasses removed from the bill due to the mix-up.
To our surprise, she returned and informed us our options were to either pay for the additional glasses or have them taken away, despite the fact they had already been partially consumed. I don't fault the server at all, but the policy she had to enforce was baffling. To choose to throw away wine that had already been poured, rather than let guests enjoy it after a service oversight, felt not only wasteful but incredibly poor from a customer service perspective.
Sugarcane has a great atmosphere and friendly staff, but this experience highlighted a real gap in management’s approach to hospitality and goodwill. We expected better judgment from a restaurant of this standard.
