Cheeky Dog — Restaurant in New South Wales

Part of the Bannisters complex, we were looking for somewhere different to our usual venue. Cheeky Dog did not disappoint. Despite a last minute call, we got a reservation (don’t rely on the online bookings - ring them - and they do take walk ins even if they cannot give you a reservation). The food was delicious and plentiful.

Unfortunately, service is all behind the scenes. You look at a menu online and order from the site. They text you when the meal is ready and you go and pick it up from the counter. The system is cheeky enough to ask you for a tip!! (Maybe goes with the name!)

Despite the online menu and ordering site saying it was 30 to 40 minutes before we would get our food, our food was actually prepared a lot faster than that - we were pleasantly surprised (and would have tipped if we paid at the end).

There is piped music in the restaurant area and live music in the bar area. There are also a few paid games in the bar area - this can be disruptive for the kids and expensive for parents. There doesn’t appear to be other forms of distraction for the kids.

Note there is no 4G service (even with Telstra) in the restaurant area and I’m not sure whether there is anywhere within the Bannisters complex. The restaurant does offer wifi service. We didn’t use it, so not sure...

Our family have had a holiday place down the road for 40 years and we were delighted to see what had been done the this place. However, we feel that they’ve really come off the boil recently. We were seated in the bar area, which, with six kids wasn’t ideal as there were tables of blokes drinking right beside us. We pre-booked so I didn’t expect this. The food was ok, pretty overpriced - for example, I had the burger and there was hardly any difference between it and the kids burger, which was half the price?! Just some extra filling which would’ve cost a couple of $$ at most?? My son (7) got more chips with his nuggets than I got with my adult burger… having to pay $4 for Parmesan for the pasta was, we considered, a total rip off - who charges for Parmesan on an Italian meal? We paid 10% Sunday surcharge (fine) but then we had to go collect our own food etc - ok, we get it. There’s nowhere else to go really, but we all felt that ‘Rick Stein’ was taking the mickey a bit… Note: we spent $600+ at Rick Stein’s upstairs the night before - lovely. We feel that you guys can do better given the premium that is...

First time here. We live in the Hunter Valley, an hour away. Went on the New Year’s Day public holiday and wondered if the 10% was on the bar also, because our Coronas were $11 each! $$$ Pretty pricey for a pub. Ordered the chicken tenders and the cheese burger. I wish we had taken photos because we paid $44 for two meals that essentially belonged on the kids menu. Extremely poor presentation, poor quantity, poor quality. Not sure if they were understaffed, but staff were taking breaks while multiple tables were a mess. I get that staff need their breaks, but maybe don’t just push the dirty glasses and plates aside while you sit at said table, and maybe just take 5 minutes to clear the tables before sitting amongst it for your break? Just a thought. We probably won’t be back as the quality for the $$$ just didn’t add up. They get two stars for the fact we could take our pooches there. Sorry - we really were expecting more from this place as it’s connected to Bannisters, but we came away disappointed and extremely...