Bacco Wine Bar Pasticceria

Last time I came to Bacco it was much more of an Italian restaurant. This time it feels they have morphed more to a wine bar with some food. I remember having my favourite risotto of all time here, but that was years ago, and it wasnt on the menu last night. Tucked away behind escalators in chifley square the atmosphere they achieve in here is great. It seems the winelist is created with care because what we chose was not available, and for no extra gave us a better bottle of wine which really was delicious. Had some bruschetta which was fresh and full of flavour. It cleared out kinda early so we moved on for some food and drink elsewhere. Yum!

Hmmmm, so two stars and this is not going to be a great review… but I will start by saying not everything was bad.
My friend and I came for lunch, we both had a glass of wine (reasonable taste, but perhaps slightly pricey) and a pasta (ok, without blowing us away). For the food and wine I would rate three stars (as Unilocal says, A-​OK!)… but I have to dock a star for service.
We were seated on the side away from the bar, and after our mains were delivered we could not get service at all… we tried to order coffee after the meal, but eventually gave up waiting for service and had to go to the bar to place the order… and when we eventually got the coffee the order was wrong. I didn’t complain, and just went with it, and at this stage could probably forgive the service… but again, when we asked for the bill it was impossible to get service, and when we finally did get to ask for the bill we waited but it never arrived. Finally we gave up, and went to the bar to pay. I don’t mind the hassle, but I probably would not go back.
I get the feeling the may be coasting a bit on their location (top of the QVB), although to be fair to them perhaps it was an off day — everyone does go a bit nuts during the sales season!

Ok the coffee is pretty damn good, 5 stars even. The pastries are just as good and the cakes look too good to eat.
Why only 3 stars? I’ve been there lots of times and although the service has always been a bit sketchy it was passable. However my last visit made me a bit annoyed. The girl behind the counter was on her mobile sending a text message. I was standing right in front of her with a bemused look of my face. You could almost hear my foot tapping away.
After she finished and sent her text message she asked what I would like. In the space between her punching my order in and taking my money, she received a response and stopped serving me and started texting away again. What the?
The food/​coffee is good but the service not so. The staff are a bit too casual for my liking and not fitting of its location as well. Hmmm.