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If I were just reviewing the food then it would be five stars all the way. Service is very fast and friendly but all the staff do is take your order and cash (no eftpos here) and bring the food to your table. As far as venues are concerned, this place is a dump! Not a real issue if you're ducking in for the $8.50 lunch special but if you're after a romantic night out or a place to catch up with friends then this place is NOT for you. Attached to the Court Tavern, it reeks of cigarette though it's been well over a decade since you could smoke in here. The buttons are popping off the booth seats, the remnant decor is left over from some previous incarnation of this venue (nothing to do with China) and the scattered beer coasters on the tables and laminated menus will not let you forget you're metres away from a seedy pub with a reputation.

All that aside, I had read so many great reviews about this place that I have been dying to go here for ages. It was so good on my first visit, about two wees ago, that I've been back again. The lunch special is fantastic value and the food is incredibly good. It also gets served steaming hot within five minutes of ordering. $8.50 gets you either a bowl of beef or duck soup or one of several stir-fried dishes alongside a serve of fried rice. So far we've tried the chilli chicken, honey chicken, black bean beef (all fantastic) and the roast duck and wonton noodle soup (good, but not as good or as big).

I will absolutely be returning for this lunch special again and again. I just hope the food and prices last as eateries seem to come and go in this location.

A rained-out event last night led to our search for a Chinese restaurant in the area. There is a ridiculous amount of Chinese Restaurants in the region and we have never dined at any of them. What led to us wandering into this one was that the Chinese around the corner was packed and didn't have a sensible spot to park our stroller. Lewis' wasn't packed when we arrived but got busier as it got later and had a steady stream of people picking up takeaway. It is more your noisy-family venue rather than a cosy romantic restaurant. It is also possibly the least aesthetically pleasing Chinese restaurant we've ever walked into and we have spent considerable time in China!
Between Mummy, Daddy and toddler (who had insisted on Chinese food!), we had plenty to share. The short and long soups were small but tasty (I hope these are larger serves in the takeaway container, I'm not sure I'd bother with these again if dining in). The barbecue pork chow mein was nice and very big while the salt and pepper squid was also very good and a fair size. The large fried rice was bigger than we thought it would be and also nice. The prices were pretty average though the serves were probably bigger than in most Chinese restaurants.
Though Chinese isn't the most exciting cuisine to our family, we will certainly return to Lewis' and recommend it to local families.

Probably the most boring of all the botanic gardens we've visited coast to coast but rather than going for the pretty landscaped look, they're sticking to the native theme and doing important work with the seed bank etc.
we booked a picnic area for a function here in 2011 and were happy enough with it though we could have saved $330 by getting in and setting up early before anyone else nabbed the spot (assuming no other booking had been taken). It certainly isn't worth the price for small groups but is a viable option for large gatherings (no money is refunded in bad weather).
A nice place for a picnic or some exercise if you're a local. I wouldn't go out of my way to visit and certainly would not recommend it to a tourist with limited time to spend in Syndey. The botanic gardens in the capital cities have more than enough to offer them.

I've eaten here three tines and haven't bothered returning in some time. The food wasn't impressive, it's not particularly good value and they were out of both a main ingredient and a drink we ordered on our last visit. I'd give them another go if they dropped their prices (or heard good things about them) but even their lunch special prices are off-putting (remembering there are almost a dozen restaurants/eateries in this precinct).

As a hardware store, Masters is fine though we have found the staff at Bunnings are far more knowledgeable and when building a new house, that knowledge is invaluable.

As a store to place a custom order, they are useless and we've found it to be pointless anyway since thet are just a "go-between"; they introduce you to the real company doing the work so they can take their "cut". Meanwhile, if you want to follow up the progress of your quote or order, you find yourself popping into the store several times a week in the hopes of finding someone familiar with you file. If you can ever find someone around the custom orders desk, it will very rarely be anyone who works in that department and while they may be very friendly, you really just want some answers.

In the end, after ages following up problems with quotes and poor customer service, we dropped the middle man. And after all that, it wad cheaper going direct to the actual installer, though Masters claimed they get a discounted price due to the volume of business they introduce

We returned to Panarotti's for the first time in ages this week. I've always avoided Panarotti's after some very ho-hum meals there over the years. Last time we visited we ordered three lunch specials between three of us; the two adults gazing longingly at the child's meal (the only selection that would go anywhere near satisfying an adult hunger). The meals were small.
This time we opted for two $9.95 pizza & sodas and a $7.95 sub & soda between the three of us. We weren't expecting much of a feed since we were ordering from the lunch menu again but at least the price was reasonable.
When the waitress brought the meals out, I could see my husband's eyes mirroring my own expression. The "lunch size" pizza was big! Not to mention the soft drink (though a little heavy on the ice).
Although not the absolute greatest tasting pizzas we've ever had, both the vegetarian and the San Marco were pretty good and the bbq chicken sub was very tasty, too.
We were really quite pleased with our decision to have lunch at Panarotti's and I'm sure we'll return for lunch again. We'll stick to the pizzas/subs though.

Not a fan of fast food, and definitely a Hungry Jack's girl over Maccas, I've only eaten here three times. The food is pretty much the same from one Maccas to the next so of course the staff and the way the place is managed makes all the difference. And these are the reasons why I don't think I'll bother with this particular restaurant again.

The second time I visited, we were lured in to attend a fun day for the family because it was the anniversary of the restaurant's opening. There were all but zilch activities on offer and we somehow managed to spend a small fortune on two small-sized meals. We had been conned.

On our most recent visit, we ordered through drive-thru and as we ordered, the prices came up on a monitor. I commented to the person at the window that according to the drive-thru menu, they were overcharging us for the items we had ordered. She just shrugged me off, though surely it is illegal to do such a thing and McDonald's should know better. She still charged us the higher amount then proceeded to guilt us into donating our change to Ronald McDonald Charities. I don't think it is appropriate for somebody to hold your money in their hand and ask you to donate it. This has put me off so much, I don't think I will willingly donate my change next time I am standing in front of the charity box with money in my hand.

Maccas Gregory Hills has left a bad taste in my mouth.

We had NBA custom make and install all our flyscreens and security doors. Their service is very good and helpful - they are patient with preparing a number of quotes until you make your final decision about what to install! We are happy with the quality of their work with one notable exception - the mesh in our window fly screens is not "square". That is to say that the rows of holes do not run in straight, level vertical and horizontal lines. They are crooked! Visitors to a home may not notice this but occupants might.

NBA gave us the best local quote on screens and security doors however their blind quotes were not competitive against Spotlight's seasonal sale of 25-30% off at the time so we went with Spotlight.