8 at Trinity — Restaurant in Morisset Park

This will be a bit long.. Went there Thursday night 24th Oct 7pm reservation, for my 40th bday with my parents (who are in their 70s) and myself (3 pax). After waiting at the front for a few mins, I was asked for the name of the reservation, then pointed to a staff member and told to “follow her” to one of the large tables outside with couches (good for 6-8 pax) however the couches were so ridiculously low to the ground that the table height was was level with our necks lol… anyway was all good, they moved us inside when we asked to swap tables.. The service from our waiter Thomas was excellent.. he was polite, knowledgeable, funny yet still professional, and somehow he was always right there when needed, and invisible if not (non intrusive). The wine list has good range between higher and lower end labels of most varieties. We had a 2016 Pol Roger vintage, 2022 Marc Bredif Vouvray, 2010 St Hugo Shiraz Cab, 2020 Noble One Botrytis Semillon, all reasonably priced for a licensed venue. Unfortunately I do have to fault the food. Most of the meals we ordered did not live up to our expectations (from friend’s recommendations and online reviews). Considering the food quality, the portion size, the presentation (especially compared to the online pics to what you are actually served) imho the meals are overpriced… Anyway here’s what we had: Started on the wood fired bread w/ olive oil & aged balsamic plus a serving of the marinated olives. Both absolutely beautiful, couldn’t fault it.. Entrees: Kingfish ceviche (large serve) which was beautiful in both presentation and flavour. Highly recommend trying this if it’s on the menu when you’re there. Stuffed zucchini flowers were so disappointing (especially at almost $10 each).. the tomato confit just smothered and overpowered all the taste of the zucchini and cheese filling, and the batter was only crispy on the parts that weren’t touching the confit. Do Not recommend! Sea Scallops were floating in the mash type sauce underneath them on the plate.. the garnish and parsley oil went well together with the scallops, but that greyish purée/mash (celeriac?) was tasted in every bite, even if you tried to scrape it off, and it just overpowered the flavour of the scallops unfortunately. Do NOT recommend! Mains: 270g Rump Cap w/ potato maxim (lovely flavour of meat/jus, slow cooked perfectly and a good portion size for the $) would recommend if you like brisket. 200g Wagyu Eye Fillet w/ potato maxim & beurre blanc sauce. If my steak weighed 200g it must have had at least 50g of fat that melted off whilst cooking as what I was served was tiny.. it literally could have fitted in the little pourer for the butter sauce it was so small. Also ONLY came cooked medium or well done lol. Would NOT recommend! Salmon en Croute This was the worst meal of the night.. what Mum was served looked horrible.. and didn’t taste much better.. the salmon was overcooked (possibly left under a heat lamp too long) but even worse was the fact it was served in a shallow bowl surrounded by sauce (like a moat), basically swimming in sauce, and to top that off they threw on what can only be described as a basic “mixed leaf salad” from Coles or Woolworths, (none of the nice little flowers or sliced fenne like the pics in their reviews, just mixed leaf crap) just threw it in the bowl next to the salmon, IN THE WARM SAUCE! I’ve seen pics of this meal online and what we got didn’t even look similar.. it honestly felt like a big “f u” from the kitchen, so we weren’t brave enough to send it back for fear what we might have got instead. Definitely WOULD NOT recommend! We also shared a side serving of Vegetables with the herb and lemon dressing, which were quite nice so $16 for some veggies with your meal was a great accompaniment (for me anyway) Also - 2 pics of the salmon en croute, can you tell which...

Such a beautiful venue needs a better level of service & better tasting food. Everything was OK, but not amazing, which is should be at this price point.

We booked online & received a pop up message saying the table was held, but when we arrived we were told there was no booking in the system & that if we didn't get an email confirmation we should not assume the booking went through (fine if you are a returning customer, but this was our first visit so we were not aware that the pop up was not sufficient). They did eventually find us a table, however while we waited we were stood in a corner like naughty children & the table they found us was in a walkway & so close to the table next to us that I could easily have eaten off his plate.

While the venue is gorgeous, they pack too many people in which makes it cramped & noisy & not very enjoyable. The hard flooring & high ceilings add to the terrible acoustics making conversation difficult unless you are right next to or directly opposite the person you are trying to talk to.

The cocktails we ordered to enjoy while we waited for our food were enjoyable, but not worth the price given that they are just very basic cocktails. French Martini & Mojitos.

The menu is very heavy on seafood, which is what my dining companions enjoy, so I had a very small selection to choose from. I settled on the lamb pizza, which was, again, just OK. The crust was not cooked all the way through so was quite doughy in the centre & the toppings were scant & pretty bland. For $36 for a pizza, I was expecting to be wowed, I was not wowed.

The woman who served our table was lovely & deserves all the stars. She delivered our food with a smile & periodically asked if we needed anything else, which was a nice touch, but the man I stopped to quiz about the cocktail he was carrying (which looked great & I wanted one) gave me the wrong answer because what he told me was what I ordered & what I ordered was absolutely nothing like what I was served. The cocktail was in a hurricane glass & looked like a sweet & fruity frozen drink. He said it was a daiquiri so I ordered that. What arrived was in a martini glass & it was not sweet, or fruity or frozen & definitely not nice.

My dining companions ordered seafood dishes & said they were pleasant but nothing to write home about. One did order a pasta dish with seafood & said it was divine so there's a win I guess.

The desserts though, they were the stars of the show. The table had a mousse dome, a couple of affogatos & I had the Bombe Alaska. Now these were worth writing home about & combined with out lovely waitress, the only reason I gave three stars instead of one. The BA was incredible. The Italian Meringue was perfectly done & the flavours were sensational. She also looked absolutely gorgeous. It was a crime to ruin her by eating her!!

All in all, I don't think our experience was worth the price tag & I doubt we will bother again. If everything was as good as dessert there would be no question that we...

8 at Trinity is a teaser: an $8 million waterfront ‘pop up’ restaurant that will eventually be dismantled. It’s set to be relocated under a 5-star hotel that’s yet to be built, as part of a $588 million Trinity Point development by Johnson Property Group. It’s a lot to imagine in a sleepy place like Morisset, on the quiet western bank of Lake Macquarie. Yet, when we walk into the 350-seat restaurant for a late lunch, the place is heaving. Some have traveled by car; others by boat parking in the marina; both proving this lure has done its job popularising the site ahead of the impending hotel.

For a pop-up it looks pretty grand too, with soaring 6.5 meter ceilings in the airy, all-weather marquee, and a battalion of staff. Our waitress, who could swim to work if she had to, is one of more than a hundred staff employed by the restaurant, that also has its own bottle shop (just for the boat people, the mark-ups are extreme). The menu prices hurt too, at least until you flick the page and see dishes that extend beyond the $128 Singapore chilli prawns and a $368 A5 Kagoshima Wagyu scotch fillet.

We chose er… carefully, starting with an airy round of woodfired bread ($17) with olive oil and lovely aged balsamic. The cold seafood sharing plate ($118) is centred around a pretty bowl of kingfish ceviche where yuzu, green apple, avocado mousse, finger-lime, and avruga caviar dance with six slices of firm-fleshed fish. There’s also five huge king prawns, two split Moreton Bay bugs, and half a dozen Sydney rock oysters dressed with pickled cucumber, salmon roe and Chardonnay vinegar. It’s expensive but good quality seafood that I enjoyed eating. The standout however is the roasted watermelon salad ($29) where charred textural slices of watermelon tango with creamy burrata, aged balsamic, olive oil, river mint and ice plants for contrast. Watching what’s coming out it’s easy to see that presentation across the board is wonderful. With it so easy to run up a big bill here, you can keep a cap on your drinking with a shared white sangria jug ($39), which comes in below the price of...