Dragon Bay Inn Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Barwon South West

PS. I mentioned about a photo of greasy calamari in the review below, but it simply won't show up in this review for some reason. You can check out the photo in tripadvisor if you are interested.

Extremely greasy fried food (check out the uploaded photo of the greasy fried calamari and my fingers), mediocre taste and poor service. When we came in, we were greeted by, "food will be cheaper by 25-30%, if you just do a take away". Me and company thought, that's ok, we'd pay more for the experience eating there.

After we were seated, we ordered some food, and then got reminded by the waitress, "you have to order at least $15 per head". There were 3 adults and a 4 year old. We thought we ordered enough to fulfill that criteria, so we politely asked that the waitress calculate our order and see if we met the criteria. She left and came back saying, "you just made it...". And we thought, "LUCKY US!!!".

To keep my son entertained, my wife, make him watch a video on her phone. Then the male owner came and asked us to use an earphone for him. Personally, I didn't even know my son was watching a video until the owner came. Probably because the volume was MUCH LOWER than a normal conversation.

At that point my wife decided that we've had enough, and asked the female owner near the receptionist whether we can just do a take away, we wouldn't want to cause any inconveniences by being too loud to the ears of the male owner. The female owner was nice enough to agree.

Just when we were about to leave and pay for the food. The male owner noticed, and became anxious insisting that we should pay the non-take away fee which is more expensive by 25-30%. We were sick of the place, so we agreed without much arguing, even though we checked that all the food items were available in the take away menu.

And the what seals the entire experience was, the food were bad, the fried food was EXTREMELY GREASY! See the uploaded pic of the calamari! And the noodle... there is something off about it, like it's pasty, just hard...

Firstly The waitress asked if we would like a drink I said what beer do you have she had no idea.. OK I though it’s a Chinese Restaurant I’ll order a Tsingtao beer. My wife ordered an ice tea. The waiter went away for 10 minutes came back with a warm bottle of Tsingtao and said do you want ice, my response was no; What do you have cold? She didn’t know I walked over to the bar and I could see VB stubbies and crownies only. So I said to her I’ll have a VB stubby. She had no idea what I was talking about. So I had to approach the fridge and point it out!! . She turned around and told my wife we haven’t got iced tea. We ordered an entrée and two mains. The quality of the food was good (fish was fresh) however the entrees came out pretty much straight away (Which was good) and the first main came out 30 minutes later then the second main came out another 30 minutes after that. Whilst waiting for our meals there were several customers that came and sat down and waited that long for their order to be taken that they left. Some other people dining had cold soup and entrée. They ended up leaving and didn’t wait for their main meals. Another family ordered... their entrée was stone cold when it arrived. We left at this stage so I don’t know the outcome but I think they were under staffed and they were handling a lot of take-aways so the table service in the Restuarant part suffered. I think the young lady that served us was actually completely run off her feet. Trying to organize phone orders and also sit down customers in two separate areas as well as handle the walk ins at...

Honestly I was worried, given the mixed reviews, but this is probably one of the better meals in Apollo Bay. We went with a number of entrees instead of a main.

Short Soup - quite good, though a tiny bit overcooked Spicy Thai Chicken Soup - went a little different here but it was a great choice for me... not that spicy but still really good flavour and balance. Mixed Entree - Honestly the best chinese dim sim I've ever had. Excellent flavour and nice and crisp batter. Spring roll was fresh and crunchy. Prawn toast was light and tasty. Spare Ribs - my wife's selection, of which I only stole a taste. The marinade was strong but a great portion for two to share. Fried Won Tons - bigger serving than I would expect but still really good. A touch too much pastry maybe? By the time you enjoy the pastry and the dipping sauce, the flavour of the won tons themselves got a bit lost. Roti bread - cooked well... not much else I can say. Flavour ok Satay Skewers - the BEST I've ever had. Honestly we might go back just for these. Other places have a tendency toward relying on the sauce and just getting some chicken skewers done in the fryer... and so do these guys, don't get me wrong. But the vast difference is the preparation... they clearly season them with a variety of spices BEFORE the sizzle. And it's not just good. It's REALLY good.

Customer service was fine, though they could have been a little more attentive on drinks. Nearly a perfect meal, to be honest. Prices were average for what we ate, so not unreasonable. Very friendly, very helpful... we're...