Dunes by Dish — Restaurant in New South Wales

What a heavenly location for a restaurant, I was hoping the food was just as good as the views…. and it was.

The bare minimalist white washed decor was well suited to a full floor to ceiling glass backdrop with magnificent 180 degrees views of the coastline.

I was greeted very pleasantly and shown to my table, before sitting I got told that if the reserved seat chosen for me wasn’t to my liking that I could choose another, ( that wasn’t reserved) which I did, the one with the best view of course.

I’m always a bit sceptical of restaurants with overly large alcohol menus in comparison to the food menu especially one with an unusual menu mix of tapas, mains and classics, it was hard to choose from or know where to start as I felt the menu didn’t flow well. After much umming and arghhing while watching the sunset I decided on 1 tapas and 1 main.

Both dishes arrived at the same time approximately 20 -25 minutes later and both were excellent.

The Szechuan squid with gochujang was extremely tender, the coating ( very much like a well known American fried chicken restaurant, you all know the one I’m talking about) but way better .. I couldn’t fault it, it was fantastic but the sauce although delicious was squirted in line patterns all over it which was annoying because I couldn’t control how much sauce I got with each bite. It would have been so much better served on the side. Underneath the large portion of yummy squid the was a nice serving of mixed lettuce leaves which the dish needed to break the monotony of mild peppery heat but unfortunately it was near completely wilted having the hot fried squid placed on top of it. Again on the side would have been more preferable, but overall it was a very good tender morish tapas dish and I certainly would return to have it again.

The generously portioned pot pie, was wafting with rich wonderful flavours before I even cracked into the perfectly cooked sesame crusted pastry, which was served /cooked in a cast iron dish. The pie filling was delicious morsels of beef, some chunky, some shredded with onions and the most mouth watering pie gravy I’ve had for a very long time. The pie was accompanied by 2 thick slices of potato pavè, which although crispy, unfortunately seemed old and overcooked, and I was very disappointed to see that both the potato slices had been sprinkled very heavily with table salt and that made it extremely unpleasant, it also came served with a small side pot of homemade ketchup which was very tasty and I liked it but it was very overly sweet ketchup for such a rich savoury pie.

Both dishes were served on lovey bowls and plates.

There was only 1 dessert choice on the evening I attended, Tiramisu but I was too full to order anything else.

Would I recommend this restaurant.. yes.

Will I be returning..yes definitely.

I can’t wait until summer arrives so I can return and dine out on the balcony and enjoy prolonged views. ( although I will be returning before that I’m sure. )

Suitable for 1 all the way through to a party or a full function.

Child friendly with children’s menu

Generous portion sizes

Moderately priced

Non table service Order and...

A mixed bag. The location is amazing, however worth parking up in the main carpark as it gets impossibly busy near the surf club and people lose rational ability in busy car parks. The view in the restaurant is awesome, however the acoustics in the restaurant were awful, making it hard to have a decent conversation. Food, again was a mixed experience. Of 9 meals, 7 did ok. The portion of fish on the kids fish and chips was on the efficient side. I ordered the Portuguese chicken burger and was thoroughly underwhelmed by a very nugget sized chicken portion (see photo). Seeing other burgers were more realistically portioned, I asked the staff to explain why I got the "fun size". After some spirited debate (which the insinuation of my unreasonableness was clear), it went back to the kitchen. Meanwhile, the rest of the party ate their food, and I sat there wondering if I might eventually be fed (as no one had been bothered to communicate if another was coming or if I'd reached a Seinfeld soup kitchen stalemate), or if I was in for a "chef's special". Eventually the food came back out, the portion slightly less underwhelming but the bad taste was in situ before I took a bite. Now I get customers can be painful, but I'm a pretty fair person and just didn't want to spend $27 on a bunned nugget, but fair to say the mantra of the customer is always right was foreign to the delightful wait staffer. I didn't need to be right, just not made to feel like I was being unreasonable. Anyway, most of the table had good meals, price overall was fair and bar the one "opposer" the wait staff were friendly. That said, I'll not be back. Could have been easily managed with some perspective,...

Can’t express how disappointed we were with our experience here. After driving for an hour, we were looking forward to enjoying a wonderful meal, a glass or two of quality wine and relaxing whilst taking in the beautiful view.

We had the choice of sitting inside or on the balcony, but as it was windy and on & off with rain, we obviously decided to sit inside.

Little did we know that every time a customer decided to step out onto the balcony, we would scramble to hold onto everything from blowing off the table, not to mention napkins and empty sachets of salt & pepper landing into our food & our hair whipping into our faces.

We ordered the Lobster Pasta for myself and the Fish & Chips for my friend. My meal was ok but I’ve certainly had better. It was quite minimal and I ultimately left hungry. My friends meal was average.

Before eating we went to the bar. Experience has taught me to taste test before I buy and I’m glad I did, as both the French Rose & Pinot Grio had a vinegary after taste. We scrapped that idea and went with 2 glasses of their best bubbles because we thought, surely they couldn’t go wrong with that…. but we were very, very wrong, they too were awful & there was no way I could drink it.

By this stage we were both pretty eager to leave. I think we lasted a whole half an hour…. but before we did, my friend brought something to my attention happening at the ordering/payment desk. There were lots of dessert plates covering the counter and a young lady was scooping ice cream from a large plastic container into the plates. Why on earth wasn’t this done in the kitchen out of sight. Oh dear…

Bottom line… Save your money &...