Bambini Trust Cafe & Wine Room

Really nice place tO have breakfast meeting.
Ordered the crab omelette. It was yummy. They are also very good with their coffee!

I was here today on a business lunch, seven of us on a bit of a schedule.
Lovely place, the décor is a warm, brasserie-​like place.
I ordered the steak-​frites and replaced the frites with truffled mash for main (O’Connor Angus Fillet with café de Paris Butter). It was a nice steak alright. Honestly i dont think it was worth 40 dollars but it was nice.
To be completely honest, i am biased because our waiter gave us some really bad attitude and i hate that. When i told him we were ready to order, he simply replied in front of all my colleagues that he only had two hands and that he was still serving the drinks. My colleague asked for bread, and same reply. It’s just not nice, not in front of your boss, not never. Especially because i really don’t think i was in any way aggressive or impolite or anything.
I had the flourless chocolate cake for dessert, and it was nice too yes, but not the best i’ve ever had.
I am sure this is a nice place and the food is good, but the service experience we had just ruined it for me, what a shame. I dont think i will be back, not outside of work anyway.

I’m here from out of town and took a few friends here for a drink and some bites last night. We sat outside and ordered a bottle of red. Malbec. It was absolutely divine. We also ordered a few food iteams – meatballs, shoestring fries and burger sliders. All were fantastic. Being the American that I am, I asked for Tomato sauce and had to ask for it quite a few times before it was actually delivered. Other than that we had a wonderful time and I’d certainly return again. Great intimate spot in the middle of bustling Sydney!

Bambini wouldn’t be out of place in the Melbourne restaurant scene — food and ambiance wise.
We had a table of six and the service started well with a delicious arancini ball as a chefs raster.
My octopus was tender and went well with the tomato concentrate. This was followed with a spatchcock that was tender and moist.
Looking at the others meals the steak looked particularly juicy and the ruby snapper and scampi was a good combination
Although we didn’t do desserts, I could have been tempted by the lemon curd combination.

Forged in Trust: Italian in heritage, with a French kiss and a spritzing of modern Australian.
Can a restaurant really be faulted for trying to please everyone, if it does a decent job of it? I’d say no. The indoor dining space evokes a Parisian bistro, with narrow corridors, leather banquettes and the slightly out-​of-​place central chandelier. But you’re immediately brought back to the Mediterranean with the handwritten specials on the mirrors and Italian marble tabletops. If the weather suits, and you instead choose to sit outside, you’ll get the view of Hyde Park and the entire Sydney café experience at your feet.
The Continental back-​and-​forth, with a stop in Oz, is a theme that carries through to the food, where you can start with a distinctly French chicken pâté and continue on with the curated selection of Italian pastas or partake in simply prepared fish caught off the coasts of Australia. No matter — it’s generally all well done, irrespective of what country suits your fancy.
I started with a soy & linseed roll from Sonoma Bakery ($ 1), which was fine but not noteworthy. Why a place of this price point sees a need to charge $ 1 (!) for bread is beyond me. Either make the bread in-​house and charge accordingly or get rid of the $ 1 fee, which just seems like the restaurant is nickel-​and-​diming its customers, who are already paying quite a bit for the food and alcohol. My entrée was the New Zealand grilled scampi with truffle oil and butter ($ 29). An exceedingly delicate dish, the 5 scampi were grilled perfectly and had an out-​of-​this-​world sweet flavor, which was complemented beautifully by an accent of truffle oil, butter and parsley. A minor quibble: the menu said truffle, but the dish came only with the far-​less-​expensive, far-​less-​elegant oil. For my main, I ordered the Fish of the Day — John Dory — whole roasted and topped with zucchini, radish and salsa verde ($ 39). The fish was fresh and tasted clean, but was honestly underseasoned and a bit bland, even when paired with the salsa verde (which itself needed a flavor boost). Not offensive, but far from impressive. I had hoped for crisp skin, as well, but alas, flabbiness was also the Presentation of the Day. The sides that came to the table (green beans with almonds and lemon, dutch crème potatoes sauteed in duck fat (yum!) and green salad with tomato and avocado, each $ 9.50) were tasty and well-​seasoned. My only complaint was with the potatoes, which, while creamy and flavorful from the duck fat, weren’t crispy as expected. Textural fail.
Overall, not a bad meal at all, but one star deducted for a few misses in execution. Service was attentive, without being overbearing.
If your wallet can’t quite handle the France-​Italy-​Oz itinerary, then perhaps make a stop here, where it’ll take a (slightly reduced) blow.

Michele has been waitressing for Angela and Michael (Bambini’s owners) and bringing a cup of coffee for me for 20 + years. Bambini has moved at least 5 times but I think it has finally found its’ forever home.
It belongs here.
This is a beautiful café, think wooden coat hangers, dark wood walls, cosy corners.
Ever been to Cáfe Sacher in Vienna? This place is like that, moody, newspapers, quiet, elegant. The café senses all finely enlivened, sound, smell ambience. Autumn trees outside and Hyde Park over the road. An stunning old sandstone Trust building.
There are a few places I have been going to for 20+ years but this is the one I couldn’t be without. Long may it reign

I love this place —- dinner in the fashionably dim restaurant or cocktails in the Parisian bar … superb. Michael and Angela will look after you [and pour you into your car!]. Great food, great people. 5 stars. Thankyou.

I have created a separate listing for this venue as it is a separate venue to the café next door, which btw is sublime.
This is one of our favourite Friday night drinking spots — although getting a table can be tricky.
Inside this wonderful bar is all Italian marble, dark wood and leather, with a lovely nook each side of the bar, some tables in front and a few outside.
The wine list is, as you would imagine, Italian, and the clientele is pretty varied but being on the ‘flash’ part of Elizabeth St, with Versace and co just up the road, tends to gather a few of the notable and noters. Generally speaking a haunt for well dressed and well heeled business folk, dripping in Armani and Rolexes, but don’t let that put you off.
As soon as you are seated some grissini, olives and water are presented, and the bar menu has some old favourites to take the edge off the day.
Sitting outside on a nice evening watching the world rush by overlooking Hyde Park with a glass of red — aaaaahhhhhh!
Enjoy.

I love this «Melbourne-​looking» place a lot. It’s got high ceilings, old mirrors, strategically dusted wine bottles on the shelves… It’s been my favorite neighborhood wine bar everytime I am in town.
They serve you bar food (chips, dips, calamari, etc) + whatever you would like to order from the main restaurant next-​door. Gosh, I had no ideas how often I ordered Szechuan salt and pepper calamari or prawn spaghettini while enjoying a glass of wine or three… :)
I have eaten at the restaurant side, but prefer the bar side better. The people are friendly and remember you. It can be very busy/​packed between 5 and 7pm with coming-​straight-​from-​office customers, so it’s more relaxing if you get there around 8…

*WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS NAME-​DROPPING*
Elizabeth St is not exactly the most ambient spot for outdoor seating, but Bambini somehow manages to make the traffic noise bearable with it’s crisp white tablecloths, top-​notch waitstaff and fabulous wine list. Not so much for people watching as there is not much passing foot traffic on this side of Elizabeth, but they have standing heaters in Winter and watching drivers get the shits in a Friday afternoon traffic jam can be good for a laugh– if you can get a seat.
Inside is much more cool calm and collected with marble opulence and a relaxed tone making this a most pleasant place to have a leisurely meal. Would be a great spot to take someone for a special intimate meal, and although my party (consisting of Merv Hughes and Ian Healy as well as a friend and I) was more boisterous than most, no-​one gave us stinkeye. Great food.

The Bambini Trust Café is refinery at its best clothed in marble and wood and the service is impeccable, during the lunch hour I have enjoyed an antipasti plate with a good Italian white.
The most recent visit was to meet a girlfriend as we shared a dozen Sydney Rock Oysters and a French Kiss a (martini with blackberry purée and Chambord)
It’s the perfect haven to be away from the mad city crowd but it can get a little packed on Friday nights as all city venues do.
Verdict: Sophisticated space to enjoy the cocktails and and food before you go home to domesticity.

Bambini Wine Room
This Mad Men-​like wine bar is cannily able to determine a certain type of clientele (classy women and then the males — medium build, mainly 35 – 65 age range, suit, tie, relaxed pose, stressed interior, fat wallet, shiny shoes) coming in to their establishment without resorting to putting any security measures in place to measure suitability. How do they do it? Location and very, very subtle intimidation techniques. You’ll find some stiff (to be fair, some if only for the drinks they’re ordering) and mostly white collared suits already nestled snugly at tables with women long before you get there so you either stand and be ready to get gawked at intermittently or you find a seat at one of the 3 seats in the bar section and put on a fake upper-​crust French accent (only try after much practice) and say, ‘I’ll have whatever you give me on the rocks, please”. This wasn’t my experience but I got to witness the gawking-​at being done to one sorry guy so just giving advance warning. Don’t show up to this place slightly drunk or, for that matter, looking at all disheveled. For the love of God. Luckily, the staff are actually really quite nice and you also get bread sticks and nuts upon arrival if you so care for it. Location is also key here: finding any kind of parking is difficult — Bambini Wine Room is directly opposite Hyde Park on Elizabeth St where cars aren’t known to stop unless they’re behind a red light — so unless you’re taking the right-​before-​rush-​hour-​train, lawyers and corporate types around the area get first dibs on the place. But this is a good place to be if you can get it together. There is also a Bambini restaurant next door; I have never been there personally but the menu looks sensational.