Ember Byron Bay — Restaurant in Byron Bay

Update: more than a month on and still no communication from you as your stated in your reply. I think it sums it up perfectly.

I hate leaving bad reviews but unfortunately this experience at Ember wasn’t what my husband and I were expecting. We chose ember to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary and wanted it to be a special evening. We arrived to our 7pm booking 10 minutes early and were seated. We ordered drinks which came out in a timely matter, however the drinks were only half full and when you’re paying $22 for a cocktail, I would expect it to be full. We then order our entree and mains… our bread came out within 15 minutes fine, but this is when things really started to take a turn. Not only did the waitress not ask how we wanted our steak cooked (we requested medium rare) it hit the 1 hour mark and still no food, no one checked on us, told us why we were waiting so long - the waitress took away our drink glasses and then didn’t ask us if we wanted another drink. Over and hour goes by and what looks like our food is set down on the table in front of us (who ordered well after us). The waiter walks away and then realised, picked it up off there table and then put it on ours… At this point it was 8:15pm and we just wanted to eat dinner. We cut into our $48 steak and it was tough!! We ignored it and kept eating to find our steaks were both raw throughout the middle. At this point we had, had enough and called over what looked to be the manager and explained the situation, when you wait over and hour for food, it’s over cooked but raw at the same time, paying $48 for a steak alone (you then have to by sides separately), no body has checked on you since you sat down, it was just disappointing and annoying at the same time. The manager was very professional (although stating it was busy - it’s a Saturday night in Byron?? Of course it’s busy?) and sorted us out but unfortunately it doesn’t fix our one year wedding anniversary dinner experience. I have seen reviews much similar to this and I hope that the restaurant can take the feedback on board and train their staff to a higher level of service if you want to charge the prices...

We had: Scallops confit garlic 42-day dry aged Tomohawke w/ fries The Ember wagyu 8+ scotch fillet w/ mashed potatoes drinks: wine + cocktail

Total spent: $336

The scallops were very tasty and had a nice sear on them.

The Tomohawke ("Tomahawk") was a big let down, sadly. It is their most premium steak and I was really looking forward to it. I asked for medium rare. Unfortunately, the steak was not evenly cooked and most of it was overdone. It had a very thick, grey band of well done beef, with only a small sliver of "medium rare" in the middle. Surely such a steakhouse should be able to evenly cook a steak to medium rare, especially at that price point. Most of my steak was cooked to well done. I pointed it out to the waitress. To her credit, she did offer to take it back, though she seemed reluctant to do so, which made the situation feel awkward. I regret not sticking to my guns and taking her up on her half-hearted offer. However, we were a little less than an hour away from closing at this point and we weren't able to stick around for a new steak to be prepared. The fries were good.

As for the wagyu steak, we also asked for it to be cooked to medium rare. It turned out better than the Tomohawke. It was more evenly cooked, but was more a medium than a medium rare to be honest. The mashed potatoes were good.

The wine and cocktail (can't remember which one) were good.

Wish I could give this place 5 stars like many of the other reviews. Unfortunately, however, it seems that we were the unlucky exception who received a meal that happened to miss the mark. And at $336 for just the two of us, it hurts that the steak didn't turn out as enjoyable as I know it...

We found the restaurant on Google from the good reviews and thought we’d give it a try.

We walked in on a Friday night with no reservation and was able to wait at the bar for 15-20mins with a drink/water until the table was ready. The staff were incredibly friendly despite the bar mix up/forgetting our drink - which was promptly sorted.

Good range of draft beer if a fan including Sapporo and local craft beers.

We ordered off their new special/signature menu, the 600g 8+ Wagyu rib eye on the bone with greens, chips and honeyed carrots.

The steak was perfectly cooked over the Spanish charcoal grill. The steak was tender and the crust from the steak was as good as any restaurant I’ve been to from San Sebastián to Sydney.

The surprise was the honeyed carrots (which was forgotten initially hence not pictured) which was the most delicious carrots I’d ever had. Admittedly I’m not the biggest fan of carrots - which perhaps speaks to why it was so good. Perfectly cooked - caramelised yet soft to have a bite and not be too crunchy. Not overly sweet and perfectly charred with subtle bitterness to complimented the natural sweetness of the carrot/honey.

Just fundamentals done right.

Overall, absolutely worth it and worth a visit.

PS: don’t worry the ketchup in the photo did not touch the beautiful steak and was for the...