TheCray Seafood & Grill Restaurant Fremantle — Restaurant in Fremantle

Edit: manager reached out to apologize and did refund of one dish, so changing to 3 stars.

Pretty poor experience overall given the price paid. Crayfish was cooked tasty enough, as were the chili mussels. Seafood chowder was a rip-off and tasted like it came from a can. A poorly cooked dish out of 5 ordered would normally still have warranted the restaurant a 4 stars but alas I received much warmer and better service at Nando’s yesterday despite the upscale prices paid at this restaurant. My unpleasant experience was with the female server wearing glasses that evening - she came with a black face when I politely beckoned her over to take my order as I was just left sitting there with the menu for at least 7-10mins after being seated, despite restaurant being quite empty. Then I was greeted with condescension for simple queries asked like “are all the seafood items fresh or frozen” which was a very valid question as squid can be frozen. Also could not answer me directly on some questions, said she would check if scallops could be cooked without butter for my husband who could not take dairy and apparently she went to place the order directly without confirming with me. Asked for chowder w GFO and it was served w bread so that had to be sent back to kitchen. When I tried to get her attention as I needed spoons for my kids, she was in the midst of going around each table to ask “is everything ok?” (Probably her only idea of good service) and seemed irritated to have her routine interrupted. Upon request for metal spoons she said there were none! I was puzzled and asked would they not have soup spoons then and she said- ok she would only give it to me when my soup was here! Again ridiculously bad service and I had to insist that she gave me the spoons so my kids could use them for the other dishes immediately. My first time having to justify a request for spoons in a restaurant! When she came around for her perfunctory “Is everything ok?” and I mentioned all dishes were fine but the chowder was really bad in my opinion she just went “oh ok” (confirming she really did it just to pretend she was actually soliciting real feedback). She only came later again to ask how the chowder could be done better after I tried to get her name from her colleague for my google review and who obviously alerted her (her name starts with letter M and was an indian name I struggled to remember just hearing it).

So a one star for spoiling my meal experience and wasting another 15mins of my life...

Overall, I gave them three stars for the food that we ordered and experienced.

The entrees were OK. We had the salt and pepper calamari and the Turkish bread with trio dip. The plates were massive. I am more of a quality than quantity person. The squids were delicious, but for the size of the serve, it would have been better to highlight the sauce. Something is lacking...extra citrus (instead of a tiny piece of lemon). Perhaps a little zing in the sauce. The Turkish bread was a lot. There were massive 6 slices of bread and 3 tiny tubs of dip. The ratio or proportion could have been balanced more.

I had the seafood spaghetti. It tasted OK, but it needed more herbs, perhaps a little of Italian parsley and a big wedge of lemon. After all, it is seafood. My partner has creamy seafood and salad. They were nice, very saucy...oozing with creaminess. It's almost like a chowder. It actually needed something to be dipped. We thought of the unfinished Turkish bread we didn't finish (since there was no more dip). Taste wise, all are not bad. It was just lacking something, or the proportion of serving to excel the quality, not the quantity.

The drinks are amazing, they have a variety of drinks to choose from.

The service was great. Very friendly staff, polite and helpful. Hence, I gave them 5 stars.

The atmosphere is also nice, from outside and inside looks very elegant. Perhaps we chose the wrong night to go and it is a very family oriented place. If you wanted to have romantic dinner and have that relaxing and quiet ambience, TheCray wasn't that for us that night. There were three tables of big family with screaming children (obviously exhausted and time for bed, and 8pm is quite late for young children). So if you are thinking of a quiet date night or a meeting dinner, check out this place first before booking).

There are amazing seafood and non seafood restaurants in Fremantle, and I think TheCray has a lot of potential to excel more.

Will I recommend this place? Maybe others first, and check this out later. Will I return? Not very soon.

Overall, it is...

My review is based on non- crayfish order. We didn’t order crayfish or seafood platters, since my brother doesn’t eat shellfish and theres only 3 people dining so, we just wanted tried a few main dishes : Oysters – Very fresh and sweet. Nicely presented and tasted great. A dozen costs $49. Herb Crusted Snapper – Well cooked and fresh. My mum really liked it. Personally, I thought it tasted good but the price ($49) felt a bit high. But the prawns were really fresh very chewy and sweet. Seafood Sensation – Honestly a bit disappointing. It sounded great but didn’t really meet my expectations. It came with prawns, squid, fish, scallops, potatoes, cherry tomatoes. So its like everything just tossed inside, all baked in a creamy fish velouté sauce. It had melted shredded cheese and herb crumbs on top. The seafood was fresh just that maybe the mixture with the cream sauce inside wasn't to our liking. The more you eat its very jelat. The Turkish bread served with it was the best part — crispy outside, soft inside. It cost $44. Beer Battered Steak Fries – So good! You can tell they used fresh potatoes. Crispy and full of flavour.

Service: It took a while to get the staff’s attention when we wanted to order. They seemed focused on serving a few large groups who were celebrating, so maybe that’s why. But once we ordered, they were quite prompt in clearing finished dishes from the table.

Parking Depends on availability. At night it's quite difficult to find, so it all depends on your luck. There is parking which is slightly further, so need to walk a distance.

Overall: It might be better to come with a group so you can try the crayfish and seafood platters. The menu seems better suited for sharing and trying...