On The Rocks — Restaurant in Charleville

The reviews for this place are outdated and don't match the experience I had there so here I am.

The short version is: I had a fantastic meal and could not fault the restaurant or its staff at all. 10 out of 10.

The menu was small, which is a sign that the chef focuses on perfecting the dishes available. This is a good thing. It shows that the venue focusses on the quality of the food, rather than trying to have a bunch of choices and failing to deliver, which a blunder that many restaurants fall victim to.

There are some classic Australian options available, but there are also some Vietnamese options. I chose to have the Vietnamese style slow braised beef (photo attached).

The young waiter was very polite and dutifully attentive. The ambient music in the restaurant was not intrusive and the venue itself was well presented, clean and spacious.

The meal then. It was presented well, smelled beautiful, well portioned, full of flavour as well as being perfectly seasoned and spiced. It had a perfect level of spice that was warm and lingering. The kind of heat that clears your nose without being painful or unpleasant. Even the little bread rolls that came with it were top notch. They were soft on the inside with a firm, thin crust. They paired very nicely with the lovely broth. The beef was perfectly braised to the point were it was tender, but still wonderfully toothesome. They even included some tendon or collagen in there that was nice and fatty in the best way possible. The carrots were brilliantly done as well and added just the right level of starch to compliment the broth they were submerged in.

In summary, I'm very happy that I chose to ignore the older, outdated reviews for this place. I did see one recent review on the Facebook page that was poor. However, it seemed to me to be written by a disgruntled ex-employee of the motel posing as a customer (I've worked in the hospitality industry for years, I've seen it all). The food was fantastic, the restaurant was flawless and the service was top tier. I could not be more pleased.

If the staff read this: thank you so very much for a wonderful meal and I wish you...

The menu is very extensive with lots to choose from. After reading previous reviews and noting the comments regarding the lamb rack I decided to risk it. The chef needs to understand that lamb rack should not be cooked well done. There was no pink blush and therefore it wasn’t as juicy as it should have been. It wasn’t tough though and the flavour was good. The vegetables that came with it were fresh but there was no finesse - half a carrot cut lengthwise and half a zucchini also cut lengthwise. The carrot was very hard - hardly cooked at all. My husband had the rib eye steak and whilst it was cooked to order (medium rare) it was quite chewy, certainly not what you would call tender. Our salt and pepper calamari for entree was fantastic. Very tender. The table beside us ordered a pizza and it was enormous! Probably at least 18 inches in diameter. Not sure if it was good but it was enough for 3 people. Overall the service was prompt and the decor is nice. There is not a lot of options for dining out in Charleville and at least this restaurant is something other than a pub and their...

I want to love this restaurant, the food was really good (the signature rack is to die for!) along with serving size but their service needs some work. Three times I was asked what drink did I order and I still ended up with the wrong order and Our kids meal came out as an adult size although we said twice we wanted a kids size. I had to get up to get the waiter attention to order for dessert and also to advise him that another table with an elderly couple had been waiting to get their order taken. Ordered kids dessert as part of the menu deal only to be told 10mins later once order was taken that they were out of ice cream (I get it, supply is an issue) but waiter needs to know that before order is taken. Kids at a table with the promise of ice cream is not going to end well. I do really appreciate that the waiter offered to get ice creams from service station but dietary requirements was a problem. Overall, this restaurant has the ability to be a truly great addition to the towns offering, with great location and good menu, but the service...