Sittella Winery And Cafe

Food and service was excellent — until I found a piece of plastic in my dinner! Not happy — told the waitress who apologized — then the manager came and offered us free coffee. Not impressed considering I could have swallowed other bits — feel they should have offered the meal for free — this just should not happen ever!!!

Beautiful views and always a fantastic menu. Friendly but unobtrusive service from the waiters. Great place to catch up with friends for a lovely lunch in the valley. A must try! Serving sitella wines, you can have tastings before you dine so you can make the right choice!

Oysters fresh. Tasting plate moorish. Pork belly filling. Wine enjoyable. Beautiful weather and great company (my wife so I have to say that!)

Sittella’s is a favourite winery of mine. The wine is great, the food is great and the location is the best. My partner and his family are from The Swan Valley and we’ve heard stories from my father in law about him picking watermelons on the land where the Winery now stands, it makes it feel more familiar.
We went on Sunday for my mother in law’s 60^th birthday lunch. The place was heaving with people. We had 10 people for lunch including our 2 year old and the service was great (although I am an old family friend of Evelyn who runs the show so she may have given us a little extra attention). Although it’s not a place really for kids, Evelyn had pre ordered the little guy some chicken strips and chippies so that he could eat his lunch while we all had starters and tasting plates. The wine was flowing and as always was great, we had two bottles of the SSB and two of the Silk, great easy drinking whites. A couple of the boys were put of by the fact they couldn’t have a beer but they were quick to get over that.
Sittellas is one of those places, if you like it you’ll keep going back, if not just for the beautiful setting.

Great Service, Food and Atmosphere.
We were making our way around the Swan Valley and found ourselves here at 11.30. We have been here before and know that bookings are essential on weekends\public holidays, but there is no harm in asking if a table is available.
Heading in, the waitress advised that they were booked out. I said I was happy to have a table that was booked later. She was more than accommodating and had a table that was booked again at 1.15.
I had the oysters with Japanese Ponzu to start. These were full of flavour and fresh. Next was the rabbit pasta. Again, the flavour was delicious.
By now it was 12.45, enough time for coffee.
At no time did I feel rushed. The staff were very friendly and helpful. As soon as they saw a glass empty, they came over to see if we wanted anything else.
The view over the gazebo and dam makes it a great setting for lunch.
The menu is full of dishes I want to try so I will be going back.

This was certainly not my first visit to Sittellas however it may indeed be the last. Sittela’s complete lack of customer service has been something I have been familiar with for years. However I have always been willing to overlook it to some degree due to the wonderful vineyard views and the delicious food.
Today the service lived up to my low expectations — the waiters were doing everything they could to avoid eye contact or even worse pretended they could see us when you make eye contact.
The end result of this — predictably slow order taking and even slower meals arriving. The food however no longer shone above this expected and presumed glitch in the glorious day in the valley.
For entrée I had natural oysters — the only way to eat them in my humble opinion. Unfortunately by eating them natural there is no way to mask lack of freshness through layers of flavouring, they were fishy and strong tasting rather than salty freshness.
For main I had fish of the day — a pink snapper on a bed of potato mash and vegetables. The fish was generous in serving size but overcooked and dry. The mash serve was so small it was barely visible and was under seasoned and bland. The accompanying veggies consisted of one over boiled piece of broccoli and one piece of cauliflower with two carrot sticks. Again totally tasteless.
Service 4/​10, food 5/​10, venue ⁷⁄₁₀