Ballina Fishermen's Co-Op — Restaurant in New South Wales

I remember this coop from childhood, we used to stop on the way up the coast at Christmas. It was always fresh and great. I've also visited in more recent years and its always been good.

We stopped in yesterday and it was tragic. Obviously ownership would have changed over the years, and you can tell. Fish was really expensive in the first place, then badly cut and filleted, thrown into a box with no cutlery, and not particularly tasty. Chips came without the salt and lemon requested, and missing the additional serve. I received a bizarrely shocked and helpless response when I requested salt and lemon (?!) and also cutlery to eat my food. I didn't bother asking for the missing serve. Needless to say everything was cold and slimy by the time I was able to eat it.

I will say that I was tired and starving, which added to my frustration, but I was polite and patient. There were only a few staff on, but the items requested were standard, paid for, and also in plain sight. The young guy who initially served me was helpful and handed me my lemon when I gave up waiting for his oblivious boss.

I hate giving bad reviews but I really loved this place and it makes me sad to see it reduced to what I saw yesterday. Maybe it was just a bad day but it was enough to put me...

Very bad experience. Came to visit Ballina from Sydney for a road trip. Drop by to this fish shop and ordered 2 fish and chips, 1 dozen oysters, perch and 6 crumb prawns. All worth $55. Received our order all packed and went home to our accommodation in Lismore. Opened the pack and no Prawns and no Perch. Received 1 fish and chips, calamari and chips and oysters only, that's worth only half of what we paid for. Called them straight away to complain. Rob answered my call and told me he will tell his manager for a refund and will call me the next day. Waited for the call while on our way home to Sydney but no one called. Called them again and a lady told me that Rob left a note for the manager to call me but she never. The lady told me that she will tell again the manager to call me the next day. But as usual no one called....

We've been twice to Ballina, first time we went to "Northern River Seafood" which was good, 2nd time, a couple of weeks ago we went to the Fisherman Co-op; which was recommended to us, however, it was disappointing, the calamaris were small and thins, the Seafood wasn't as good as I thought, the fish fillet was quite big and tasty, but overcooked, we had way much better at Hervey Bay, " Maddigan's Seafood, it was cooked to perfection, and the best of all "Selfish" in Tweed Heads, the Fisherman basket is huge, with so much variety and nicely cooked, is our favourite and every time we cross the border, on the way and back, we stop at Selfish, thumbs up and highly recommended👍...