Catho Pub ("Catherine Hill Bay Hotel") — Restaurant in New South Wales

The only thing saltier than the $2 cup of peanuts is the taste in your mouth the staff leave after any interaction you engage with them in.

Just finished a beautiful swim with my family at Mooney Beach, wanted to grab some lunch at the local pub. The line for the bistro was long and stationary which is at no fault of the pub's but the early signs weren't welcoming.

Ordering drinks seemed like an inconvenience for the staff. The woman gave us a look of fustration as she asked if we wanted ice in our ciders - a question that had already been asked previously from another bartender. All throughout this we remained happy and smily which was of course not reciprocated from the staff.

After ordering drinks I went to grab some peanuts. What kind of pub charges $2 for a cup of peanuts? The idea is that they're free so that customers eat them and become more thirsty through their salty flavour and buy more drinks. The pathway that the coin should've slid down was salted over and required a lot of awkward force to push down. After I sadly clunked the coin through, no peanuts fell down the hatch. I began shaking the giant peanut machine slightly to try and rattle some peanuts out. The hospitable help I received from the lady behind the bar was a fustrated "you have to pull it forward!" Once the nuts began to flow, it was clear that one cup would not be enough and nuts spilled out onto the floor. Once again the lady did not offer a hand and instead yelled "I think you might need another cup!" I remained smily and positive throughout the whole encounter.

We finished our drinks 30 minutes after we arrived and weren't defeated yet by the staff's efforts to make our experience as miserable as possible. On the way out past the bistro line which was still just as long as when we had arrived, we took our cups from our table and politely sat them at the bar to save them the trouble. The staff genuinely seemed bewildered and neither of the two bartenders smiled or even offered a disingenuous "thanks."

As I left I turned around and yelled a "thank you very much, we had a lovely time" in a genuine voice with a grin on my face and the bartenders were still silent. Generally when a customer thanks you for your service you smile or offer some type of "your welcome."

I can't speak for the establishment as a whole, but whatever was going on that day was a terrible display of hospitality and friendly service.

Overall, a terrible experience and it's genuinely hilarious thinking about how over-the-top sad the staff were. You work in hospitality, it's your job to...

The Catho Pub is a quaint little pub located in a really great small town location. It was a really nice drive in to Catherine Hill Bay with many renovated historical little houses lining the streets in the way to the pub. The Pub itself was nicely decorated and had a nice feel of a "small local pub". Plenty of COVID-safe markings and signage, and checking in was as easy as most places. The staff were friendly, and helpful and they had what seemed like a nice range of wines, and also some good beers on tap. The main reason I've only given it 3 stars was because of the food. I was with a friend, who ordered the steak, veggies and mash. They were out of mash so she ordered chips instead. That wasn't a huge deal, but when the meal was served, the "veggies" were about a cup's worth of frozen diced carrot, peas and corn. It was quite an underwhelming dish for the $32 she paid. I had a forkful of the veggies and they treated exactly like what they were. On the upside, the medium rare cooking of the steak was nicely done. The works burger I ordered was quite nice and the chips were cooked well. It was certainly a nice place to visit, just the 'restaurant order regret' was sitting quite high after getting the steak. I'll most likely to back. It's a beautiful place to visit, but I'll be looking quite closely at the menu next time, and maybe taking note of some other dishes that end up on...

You don’t go to the Catho for the food. There are plenty of pubs, cafes and restaurants where that is the attraction.

You go to the Catho to experience a pub built in 1875 for the coal ship loading industry at the time, still surrounded by all the workers cottages, that probably hasn’t changed much since that time.

Sit on the front verandah for a glimpse of the ocean a block away, out the back in the garden bar surrounded by bush land, or inside for an authentic 150 year old Australian pub experience.

The food is pretty standard - burgers, schnitzels, steak sandwich, etc. - with interesting specials like hammerhead shark burger. The prices are up there with gourmet pubs - $21-24 for a burger, $34 for steak, $26 for salt and pepper squid. The burgers and the chips that came with them were one of the smaller servings we’ve ever experienced, not good value for the price. The squid though was one of the best we’ve ever had, again not what we would call a “main” sized serving.

One person behind the bar on a Sunday afternoon lunch which would be their busiest time meant that you end up doing your own payments of the Eftpos. Lines of motorcycles up and down the street of every type and some great vintage cars and hot rods make for good street watching.

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