XO

Great place and setting, only to overcharge you with the prices to be called fine dining.
Service is perfect, except when the chef swore at a waitress (i asked if there were any sauce options with my t-bone and he yelled at her and said to use the lemon as the sauce), she still came back to me with a smile.
Will not go there again, but it is worth going at least once.

Heard a lot of this venue--enjoyed all aspects until I looked at the bill ( which was pricey enough for the very small Tapas serves we selected) and saw we were charged $9 for two glasses of still water.

I know we are in a drought but this was ridiculous and enough to sour the night

Totally disappointed I attend many restaurants in Adelaide and hadn't been to XO however the publicity was OK so I sent my wife there with her 5 best friends from interstate. The food was supposedly appalling the duck was inedible and the lamb yirros for $26 was better at a road side diner. Then the service well there wasn't any!

I came here with mixed expectations, on one hand I had read and heard good reviews about XO from many sources, however was concerned it was another of the new breed of 'trendy' restaurant -we all know the type; those restaurants with swanky new decor, serving sangrias and passionfruit infused cocktails, but absolutely average food at fine dining prices.

Unfortunately, in my humble opinion the latter was true. Without doubt the ambience and setting is one of the nicest in Adelaide, however the food and service left a lot to be desired. For starters, the tapas were at best average and uninspiring - Popcorn chicken for godsake! I'd take the KFC variety anyday.

The mains showed some improvement; serving sizes were good, and the chicken breast was nice however without any fanfare. In otherwords simple, lacking the exquisite interlacing of flavours found in dishes from many other restaurants of similar price.

Finally, what really soured our night (there were 10 of us), was overhearing a prominent staff comment "The lemon is the F****n sauce" in response to an honest albeit naive question from an inexperienced fine-diner about whether his steak came accompanied with any sauce. Absolutely disgraceful.

There are good points to XO don't get me wrong, and I hate to judge a restaurant based on one sitting, but in honesty I just dont see how XO (and similar places) can compete with some of the more well established restaurants around Hutt St and the Unley Hyde Park area at the prices they are charging.

We tried to book XO for valentines day, they would not take a booking over the phone (must be the only restaurant in Aust). They said i had to book via email, but when there email arrived with the attachments for booking, they didnt work at all. I emailed to tell them and they didnt do a thing to help, just told us that our we cant make a booking any other way or even walk in off the street!.

So we arew going to the new chinese restaurant accross the road and down 50m.

What happens if you dont have email, are you not good enough for XO?

My advice is dont waste your time, there are many good restaurants on hutt st, so walk straight past XO and go somewhere the service is old fashioned and not computerised.

Ohh and they raised the price of the Valentines dinner from 90 to 135 dollars, with no extras added.

Now that XO is owned by a big company they have lost there personal touch.....money is more important than customer satisfaction it seems.

Carlo