The Wharf Restaurant — Restaurant in Nelson Bay

First time visitors to Nelson Bay. I searched the local restaurants online prior to booking as I wanted to take my wife for a nice romantic dinner. The Wharf Bar & Grill looked good as it had nice views and and an extensive menu which looked appealing as we both enjoy seafood. We were seated at a nice table by the window, then left unattended for at least 20-25 minutes. Unfortunately the restaurant was lacking any real ambiance as they had "Jimmy Barnes's working class man" blaring over the speakers instead of some nice relaxing dinner music. Each table had a small tea light candle but unfortunately the staff had failed to light any of them. The supermarket salt & pepper grinders on the tables also detracted from the table décor. The restaurant was only at about 30% capacity with three waitresses working. I finally managed to attract the attention of one of the waitresses and ordered a bottle of wine. I thought I would order our meals at the same time as I wasn't sure how long it would take her to return to take our food order. I noticed a table of 4 seated beside us who had not yet been served and they were already seated before we arrived. After another 15 minutes I noticed the gentleman get up and walk to the bar to order the drinks himself as he had still not been attended to by a waitress. I ordered the mussels and my wife ordered the scallops. I requested the garlic bread come with the mussels to soak up the sauce. After a lengthy wait the garlic bread arrives on its own. When I questioned the waitress she advised the dishes would only be 3 minutes. After 10 minutes we decided to eat the garlic bread as we were hungry and the bread was getting cold. When the first two dishes finally arrived my wife was very disappointed with here scallops as they appeared to be the frozen variety and not fresh. They were very bland and watery. The small salad that accompanied the scallops included tin mandarin segments which was also very unappealing. On the other hand my serving of mussels was quite enjoyable, pity it didn't come with any bread as this dish usually does. I had to order a second lot of bread as they failed to bring the first lot out with the dish as requested. When the second order of bread finally arrived the mussel sauce was unfortunately already cold. Whilst waiting for our next course the table beside us again had to approach the wait staff on the floor as they were still waiting for their food. They subsequently cancelled their food order and walked out of the restaurant without partaking in a meal. Whilst the waitresses were clearing a nearby table they could be overheard complaining about the guests that had cancelled and disputing the length of time they had to wait. Then further commenting on how they were going to get to eat their garlic prawns. This was very unprofessional. Shortly thereafter our second course arrived. I had the twice cooked pork belly which was quite a generous serving but not very tender. My wife ordered the Potato Gnocchi with sauted porchini mushrooms. This dish was also very disappointing. The Gnocchi appeared to be supermarket variety and not home made. The mushrooms were not Porchini but rather chunks of field mushrooms all drowning in a thick dark brown salty Gravox sauce. My wife was unable to eat it. To their credit they didn't charge for that dish. Overall the whole dining experience was very disappointing. The party that cancelled their order and walked out of the restaurant were locals and they told us they knew the owner and had dined at the restaurant on previous occasions and never had any...

Disappointing would be the word I would described last nights experience. My cousin called the Wharf in Nelson’s Bay requesting a table for 11 for her parents 46th wedding anniversary. The lady who responded was lovely however in the background we heard a man who was constantly undermining her and not allowing her to speak to us without constant interruptions and even swearing. He kept asking how many kids is it for New Years. My cousin then said if he doesn’t want us there we won’t come. She proceeded to tell my cousin sorry he is always like that. We have heard great things so we decided to take a chance.

When we got to the restaurant we were kindly greeted by three ladies, one however then put the menus on the table without a care in the world and left. While waiting for our other guests to arrive we were never asked if we wanted and drinks while we waited. Finally family arrived and we ordered. Everything was fine however while waiting we noticed the owner Rob go to every table and say hi, pouring wine and talking to his guests. We did not receive this luxury. However when he did approach our table to take a wine glass, we could smell the alcohol reeking from his breath which is extremely unprofessional.

The night continued and for the most part it was okay. The mains were lovely (so thank you to the chefs) however our dessert was disgraceful. Firstly telling us the freezer was broken hence it was melted was a poor excuse for the dessert. If the freezer was broken you need to inform your customers before serving or other an alternative. The ice cream was so melted the waitress spilt it on the back of my dad's shirt! The presentation of each dessert was not consistent, with come plates receiving one, two or three macaroons (we ordered 4 of the same dessert. When we asked they were inconsistent, we were ignored. We asked a second time and the waitress came back with one macaroon in her hand and placed it on our plate using her hands!! Absolutely disgusting. Lastly we saw the owner speak to the waitress about picking it up with her hand but we got no apology or replacement.

We were absolutely appalled by the service we received from this restaurant, particularly from the owner Rob. Don't bother visiting this restaurant - especially if you have kids apparently. You'll only leave...

Not a good experience.

• PLEASE READ MY HONEST REVIEW

I don't normally give people 1 start but this place deserved it. We rang and booked for 10 people, apon arrival, when we arrived and seated we waited 35 minuted for the last 2 to arrive. The owner came to us and spoke to us to hurry up he said they were under staffed and had a table for 20 and needed us to order then (in and out in an hour he said) it was not as if there were more people booked in later and needed our table. Just rude and rushed when the menu is over priced so we might as well enjoy the view. When the food came it was 5 minute intervals in-between reviewing meals. They forgot my meal (fish of the day) and all up it took 1hr 45min to recieve my meal from ordering, when people who arrived after we ordered got served before us

The seafood pasta was tasteless and not worth $45. The salmon was burnt not worth $41 It had mango slices which made no sense. The crowder was sour and salty, came with no bread, ordered garlic bread and came 1 hour later, chowder was then cold. Fish of the day was the cheapest on the main menu $31, there were 4 sticks of fish & was oily came with salad (I called it an onion salad, had spring onion, red onion, brown onion, capsicum & carrot). Ordered prawns from the entre menu came without sauce (for the price we would expect sauce) out of 10 people at our table only 1 finished there meal

When the food came it was 5 minute intervals in-between reviewing meals. They forgot my meal (fish of the day) and all up it took 1hr 45min to recieve my meal...