Seacliff Beach Hotel — Restaurant in Adelaide

So I will start with what is good- the view upstairs was nice and sitting on a non windy day in the winter sun was good once the drama was over.

It was my only day off for a long time, and we decided last minute to go for lunch after a coastal walk because a family member wanted a steak. I called ahead to ask if they had a table with a view, and they said they reserved on. We got there and the table was stuck inside next to the TV and speaker, very loud to talk and little view. We asked to look upstairs and found several tables with a view and we picked one closer to the outdoor heater. It had some glasses on it which we moved to the table next which had also not yet been cleared. We sat down and were reading the menu when the waitress came and sprayed the cleaning chemicals all over my mothers and a kids face. When we said you can’t do that to people the waitress said “sorry I was trying to make the table sanitary”. The table wasn’t that dirty, and I said she could have sprayed the chemicals into the cloth first and not on us, and then she showed me the cloth which was white and brown under so didn’t look super clean. My mother kept saying you can’t do that and wondered how she got the job, because the waitress was apologising with excuses and it wasn’t a real apology. It felt like the waitress was not really in a good mood herself already. She seemed like she didn’t want to be there.

As this happened a drunk lady next to us got worked up assuming we were the ones being rude to the waitress. Drunk lady was screaming at us, red in the face, seem like she had one to many drinks and then manager came out. I had to tell the drunk lady she cannot talk to us this way and she had got the situation wrong here- we had been attacked. The chemicals hit my mothers mouth and also bounced all over kids face and clothes. We said we doubted she would have enjoyed that happening to her.

I went to wash up kid in the bathroom. We almost left but kid was hungry so we stayed. Drunk lady was spoken to by manager, quietened down and then thankfully left.

Food was ok and the rest of the experience was made sort of ok but the sea view and the sunshine- rest of the customers seemed family friendly. Kid felt sad that the drunk lady had actually escalated the problem and made it really much worse and awful for us - we just wanted a family meal out which is so rare for us these days.

Management should have thrown the drunk woman out for her aggressive behaviour. Other than this the Manager was nice enough and so were the staff at the bar, but I won’t be back.

From my initial experience booking. To having to find a better table. To family members being sprayed. To being attacked verbally by a drunk customer, to the food just being ok (I got a really old dodgy lemon slice with my calamari they did at least replace), and mum was given a free drink. Still the money we spent for the experience was well below average and our expectation. Never have I experienced this eating out in Adelaide before anywhere. I hope they train their staff better because spraying customers in the face is a kind of assault we didn’t deserve at all. Mum worked in service, I did as a uni student and if I had done that to a customer I would have been fired. However, we don’t want her to be fired rather it is a reflection on how staff are trained and how the owners of this business make sure their staff are treated well too so they seem to want...

There was a time when you couldn't falt the food, service & atmosphere of the Seacliff hotel & in the past I had reviewed it under 5 stars as my partner & I are locals & we come for a meal out here at least every other week! However, within the past year or so I'm sad to say the food, service & upkeep have severely fallen short! On 'several' of our last visits we've had to wait over an hour for our food (& it was nothing special) despite the venue not even being that busy. Last night took the cake! The venue was not at all full or appeared to be overly busy. They had lots of staff on, we ordered 2 wines, one entree & one main (Warm Chicken Caesar) to share at a cost of $80. On ordering staff informed us the food would be over an hours wait, we were hungry after a long working week & decided to stay. 30 minutes later a couple walked in & sat at the table next to ours, they took another 10 mins to order their food. That couple were served their food before we were & when ours arrived it was absolutely AWFUL!!! The etree chicken was hot but soggy & grisly & the Warm Chicken Caesar didn't even look like food! Everything on the plate tasted pre-cooked & came out cold, no doubt straight from the fridge, & the chicken tasted pre-boiled & off!!! (Yes! ...believe it or not that is actually chicken in the pic! 🤢) When we informed the waitress & asked for a refund on the food (it was completely inedible) she said 'Oh sure, I'll tell the chef'! ...& then she didn't come back! There is nothing more aggravating! I left a note on the plate for "Chef"!?🤔 ...& we left extremely disappointed! Seacliff Hotel (not that I think you'll care) but you've just lost loyal customers who have always supported you! My recommendation is, don't bother wasting yr hard earned money! There are plenty of other places along the water to eat with a great atmosphere & good bang for yr hard...

Was planning on going here until I saw that the owners have clearly paid for fake reviews.

They’ve had an abnormal number of reviews (a steady 5 or so per day), all from accounts that either post fake reviews elsewhere or is their first review, and they all mention Shan! Surprising to see there’s only one staff member mentioned in every single review, and the reviews are vague/general, no specifics, a tell tale sign of fake reviews.

At least if you’re going to deceive , don’t make it obvious. And don’t breach Australian Consumer Laws in the process (which is clearly done here) as it violates the Competition and Consumers act.

The management/owners of The Seacliff Beach Hotel should remove the fake reviews before they mislead more consumers or risk facing a substantial fine.

Edit: Seacliff Beach Hotel management has now doubled down on their reviews legitimacy. Let me break it down just how obvious their fake reviews are using a statistical analysis. In 2024 they had 172 reviews at an average of 2.8 stars with the median number of reviews per reviewer being 14. Shan was mentioned twice (1.2% of reviews).

In 2025, so far in just 6 months there have been 1,328 reviews with an average review of 4.8 stars, the median number of reviews per account is 1. Shan has been mentioned 1,074 times (80% of reviews). In no scenario can I see this place having 8-10 reviews every single day, another statistical anomaly, reviews every single day over a multiple month stretch. As well as 80% of reviews mentioning a single staff member.

To read the real reviews, it’s easy to sort them from the fake ones by using the ‘sort by lowest rating’ function. You’ll see those accounts have multiple reviews, real names, don’t mention Shan and don’t repeat the same key...