Wharf St. Distillery Restaurant — Restaurant in Forster

Had the pleasure of having my Mothers 90th Birthday Celebration here at the aptly named Wharf St Distillery, from when I first walked in day after they opened for Business, Tim & Peta the Owners, sat down with me and were a great help, with suggestions of what we could do, Menu’s and allowing our Family to Book out the establishment well before the event. Fast forward to Mums Day, all our guests arrived before I rolled in with Mum. You could already see everyone with drink in hand and smiles all round, with many a comment of how Wharf St Distillery had made it their own with the way it is set out and built. Personally have not seen that quality here before now. Entrees were served and were plentiful on all tables and were absolutely delicious, between the Entree’s and before Mains were served, gave us all enough time to sit down and have a chat with family and a drink or two, try the Ginger Beer Incredible! Mains were served and again, everyone who attended commented on how quick the Meals were tabled and how what they chose was like nothing they had tasted before, all very happy that’s for sure, After Plates were cleared it was time to recognise Mums day, a few words from myself and one of my favourite relatives, Happy Birthday was sung etc and cake was served. All in all, it’s easy to see why Wharf St Distillery is so popular and always busy, the food is next level and they cater for any and everyone, GF wise etc. The Crew were nothing short of amazing, from serving the food and cake, to making sure you were always asked if you would like another drink when your glass was getting low, with our 50 odd people, they kept on top of it, the Chefs were absolutely spot on with our food, and Tim, he had the place humming and is full testament to Tim and his awesome crew, not only gave us a great Day for Mum, but a day that will be remembered for all of our Family, and a huge Thankyou on behalf of our Family and myself for making Mums 90th a very special day! See...

Rude staff, food ok if you like butter!

We booked a table on OpenTable about 1.5hrs beforehand, unfortunately the earliest we could get in was 8.15. When we arrived at 8.23 we were effectively abused by the female member of staff that seemed to be managing the place that night. She said she’d been “trying to call all afternoon” and I needed to check my number because it had too many digits. Clearly the fact she’d been trying to call all afternoon was a lie, to the extend I said I thought she had us confused with another table, when we finally established it was the correct table she then went on to berate us for being late. Yes we were a little late but the customary assumed leeway on tables is 15mins, so I hadn’t thought to ring given we were only a few mins late, we were informed the kitchen was waiting for us so they could shut, clearly everyone was hoping for an early night. When we were finally seated I open the OpenTable app to check my number, it was correct, a UK number with the required country code, so I can only assume this restaurant never gets visitors? Had she tried to call it would have worked, but I didn’t have any missed calls…

Once we’d got over the initial abuse we ordered food, which for the most part was fine. Portions a little small, and everything had mountains of butter so incredibly rich. We were served by a combination of the same lady that greeted us, who continued to be pretty brusque in her manner, which certainly took away from our evening, as well as a slighter older lady with dark hair who provided much more friendly customer service - if only she’d been the person we dealt with the whole evening it might have been enjoyable!

We actually considered walking out after the greeting we got on arrival, if the restaurant doesn’t want to stay open late they shouldn’t advertise tables as available on OpenTable, and they most certainly shouldn’t abuse...

We went here around the same time last year, on a number of occasions and enjoyed the food, drinks and service. Booked online this year and it asks if it is a special occasion. Mentioned it was for a birthday, however no acknowledgment of it during the evening. We had the steak and lamb. The steak, chips and salad actually didn’t look that good, however looks were deceiving and it was delicious. The lamb was also delicious. Good variety of beers, gin and cocktails. We went back again the next evening arriving at 5:40. The young girl advised they were fully booked upstairs and downstairs. I said we were here last night and thought we would come back. She then said there is a table over there but it’s booked for 6:30 so I’ll give you 10 minutes notice before you need to leave. We ordered dinner hoping it would be out in time and it was. We had the steak which again was delicious. Rhiannon who was there the night before, greeted us with a smile and said it was nice to see us again. I said I believe you are booked out and we need to leave at 6:30. Rhiannon said we’ll find you something on the high tables, against the window or at the bar. The first girl did not even give us this option. Once happy hour finished at 6:00pm quite a number of seats and tall tables became available, however we sat at the bar. We mentioned, to one of the guys who works there, that we didn’t feel welcomed when we arrived and that the girl had said they were fully booked. He advised they weren’t fully booked and kindly took the...