Crustaceans on the Wharf — Restaurant in Darwin City

屋外席。おいしい貝類とステーキのグリル。夕日の港の景色を楽しむには、午後 6 時 30 分までに到着するのがベストです。合理的な価格。 Casual rather than fine dining. Unique location, reasonably good food, reasonable prices, cheerful yet at times uncoordinated service being our experience. We booked a table for 2 for 7:30pm on a Friday night. Upon arrival staff were somewhat flustered and not sure where to place us, eventually telling us “actually this table is all we have at the moment” and setting us away from the prime locations by the wharf’s edge. Having been seated I noted for any future visit, to book a table by the water and plan to arrive by 6:30pm to enjoy a sunset over the harbour. After being seated we were asked if we wished to order drinks but had to prompt the young waiter for drink choices, or a menu, which was then provided. Drink orders taken, we began to enjoy the outdoor atmosphere when a second waiter asked us if we wanted anything to drink? Informing him that we had ordered drinks we asked if we could have the food menu. This was fetched and revealed a good selection of local and imported seafood entrees, seafood mains, “surf and turf” style seafood/steaks/pasta mains most with chips and salad, and a good number of desserts. We ordered crocodile skewers and garlic bread as entrees, beef lasagna for her and bugs and 300g beef steak (medium) for him. Entree and mains arrived promptly. Serving sizes were generous, each dish cooked nicely and pleasingly presented and we enjoyed all. Waitstaff were cheerful but seemed distracted and/or tired at times, we had the sense that we had arrived at the end of a busy evening for them, however it did not distract too much from our enjoyment of the meal and the location. Coffee and sticky date pudding dessert rounded out an overall satisfying casual- rather than fine-dining experience. Again, recommend booking, specifying a table harbourside, and arriving to be seated by 6:30pm to enjoy what must be a magnificent sunset to be seen over...

The line was long to enter, despite having a reservation, not that it affected ourselves but the people in front who had a reservation on their phone were not on the list at the door causing issues for them.

Then we started with the initial ordering for drinks, it started off well we were seated and immediately asked for our drink selection. We ordered a bottle of non alcaholoc sparkling wine from their menu.

This took several minutes to come back nothing insane but not expedited service.

They crack the bottle start to pour and we can smell it right away, it's an alcoholic version. That was sent back and the drinks took a further 15 minutes to make their way back again.

We wait around after getting drinks to place orders for food while watching the entry line grow as it's understaffed.

Order our meals, they were abysmal. Couldn't even get the sauces right. The steaks rib eye seemed as though they were tenderised with a mallet and over cooked . Can't be the table that sends the drinks and food back though right. Don't want the food spit in to boot.

The desert we had sticky days pudding and the caramel sauce and for some reason strawberry sauce were both from bottles you would pour over your iced cream at home. A restaurant can at the least make caramel sauce but if that's coming from a bottle who knows what other shortcuts they're taking.

Lastly for atmosphere while eating dinner a cruise boat from Darwin sunset cruises comes past engines blaring people carrying on throwing food to the seagulls while you're trying to have a meal.

Then when going to pay they asked for a tip despite the atrocious service and living in Australia, along with a paying by card surcharge.

Would...

I recently visited this seafood restaurant, and unfortunately, my experience was far from satisfactory. To start with, upon arrival, we were not greeted by anyone from the front of house team, leaving us to wait for about 5 minutes before being acknowledged.

The menu primarily featured imported seafood, which was disappointing as we were hoping for a selection of local, fresh options. When we asked about it, the waiter could not answer our question and called the manager who confirmed, the seafood came from overseas... possibly Asia.

The oysters we ordered tasted off, indicating they were not fresh. The prawns were overcooked and difficult to peel, and the rice was mushy, resembling more of a mash than properly cooked rice. Even the garlic prawns, which should have been a highlight, were overcooked.

Throughout the meal, our waiter failed to check on us or inquire about our satisfaction with the food. Wine was poored initially in our glasses without letting us taste it first and no one poored us wine throughout the dinner. We ran out of wine halfway through our meal and were not offered a new bottle or any other drink option.

After we finished eating, it took an excessive 30 minutes for someone to clear our table and offer us a desser. When we requested to speak with the manager, the response was lackluster, with minimal apologies and no real effort to rectify the situation.

Overall, the experience was disappointing, and I would not recommend this restaurant based...