Thievery - GLEBE

Visited this darkly lit restaurant for dinner on a saturday night with overseas visitors in a group of 6 adults and 5 children.This restaurant is more suited to adult dinners and the music is quite loud and hard to have conversation.I wouldn't recommend this for children, we could only be seated upstairs which was accessed by quite steep stairs and downstairs was very crowded.The food is based on small/ medium and larger tapas type dishes designed we were told to be shared.The difference between medium and large dishes can be hard to fathom.The striking feature of this place is the 'decor', the words theme park meets retro shabby chic come to mind; for example one can see the roof through planned irregular holes in the ceiling! There is peeling and fadd wallpaper! There are cheerful young staff and the restaurant's kitchen smells amazing.It is a bit pricey and yet I'd recommend this restaurant to my younger adult dinners who enjoy a boisterous atmosphere.

We arrived a little early and so had a couple of drinks at the balcony on the second floor. The cold drip martini is ace if you like your espressos, we also had the hummus whilst we waited for or table.We had a few small bites and shared the lamb cutlets for the large dish which I was a little disappointed with as at least 40% of it was just fat. Otherwise, the venue had great service and atmosphere, would recommend a visit.

We were taken to Thievery by Sydney-based friends who've eaten there before but it didn't live up to their enthusiastic billing. The rooms are dark (rather oppressive on a warm day) and the food is ok but not that exciting. Their much-lauded baba ganoush is no better than my home made version, for example and their fattoush isn't up to much. Thievery is aiming to be chic but tends to put style over substance. Lebanese food can be so good but perhaps it is at its best when cooks don't strain too hard to be hip and let the traditional flavours speak for themselves.

We visited Thievery last Saturday as a group of 4 with a booking. After some problems with the tenants of our booked table not vacating, we were thoroughly looked after by Shannon and her team. They went out of there way to ensure we had a great night due to the uncontrollable nature of the previous booking. I will most definitely be returning soon as the food is incredible and the atmosphere is perfect. 100% recommend!

Thievery is a small friendly place serving extraordinary contemporary middle eastern food. With each dish, unexpected tastes hit us that were just so 'right', the meal turning into an unexpected culinary adventure. I've not had a comparable experience since Heston's Fat Duck - and at a fraction of the cost. Engaging