The Growers By Ponte (Previously The Growers Shoalhaven) — Restaurant in New South Wales

We went to this restaurant yesterday for Father's Day lunch as the venue was advertising a traditional Brazilian Churrasco BBQ. As we start with the entrees, none of them was part of a Churrasco. There was just a poor selection of platters with various veggies, that made absolutely no sense with the event, average low quality. What about frijoles negros, fried polenta, pao de queijo, the right kind of rice (not basmati- that's the wrong rice!), etc.? None of them were offered.

In regards to the meat, we got given 3 tiny stingy pieces of meat in one hour. A sausage that was embarassing, a dry piece of beef, and a chicken that was ok. Churrasco means mind-blowing BBQ meat, eat until you explode. This was nothing of the sort.

At some point, we grabbed a bowl of chips for our toddler son, and even though the event was advertised as FREE for kids up to 3 years old, we still got charged for it. Out of desperation, we tried to finish our lunch with the chips, but they were pretty much burnt oil. They did not taste like chips at all. We could not finish the bowl in 3 people.

Once we got up from our table, visibly disappointed, the waitress insisted in bringing us the dessert, even though I clearly stated we DID NOT want it. We got given a couple of tiny cardboard cups with some weird dessert stuff inside, that has obviously been left there.

We paid $150 in 2 people to get offered a minuscule dessert in a cardboard cup. We were still hungry when we left, because the meat wasn't really coming out as it should have. This price suggests either fine dining, or a VERY generous good lunch. But unfortunately, none of the above.

To us this is an absolute FRAUD, as nothing of what was advertised actually happened. We attended lunch here to eat a Brasilian Churrasco, and not below-average aussie food from a disorganised below-average pub.

Indeed we won't step foot here again, for when even the chips taste wrong there is not much left to do.

This fantastic "local business" will now lose way more than 2 customers. It is a really bad idea to trick customers in order to make the extra...

Let’s start with the positives… The location and setting - it’s an absolute beautiful space, very well designed with amazing views. Tables outside are where it’s at if the weather is nice. The children’s play area - a lovely fenced space including a grassed area with enough room for kids to run wild. So now onto the negatives, which really did ruin our whole experience. The door staff into the club were unfriendly and even rude. We were so put off as soon as we stepped in that we nearly walked away, but we thought we’d give them the benefit of the doubt and hoped the attitude would change once we made our way down to The Growers. Unfortunately it didn’t. Most staff were unfriendly and rude, even to the point of being condescending. All staff totally ignored us as we waited to be seated. We are a pretty patient bunch and understand it can get busy at times, but to be walked past by multiple staff without even a ‘we’ll be with you in a moment’ was not a great start. After eventually being seated outside we decided to head back inside to order at the bar, to be abruptly reminded ‘put your mask on’. It was simply a matter that we had forgot to place our masks back on after being outside, and a more friendly reminder with some manners would have been appreciated. The wait for food was 1hr and 20 mins. A long time when you have hungry kids and not a full restaurant. After following up on our meals we did have one of the staff come out and apologise and offer us complimentary desserts after our mains. The gesture was nice and appreciated, but by this stage I think we were just over it. Now the food. Everyone was happy with their meals once they arrived. They were tasty, but probably not enough to remove the sour taste from the awful service received. Long wait times and other small hiccups are easily forgivable if the staff seem like they are genuine, friendly and approachable. Unfortunately here the atmosphere, views and food could not save the lack of friendly, welcoming staff or lack of service. Not worth giving this place a...

My partner and I ate dinner here tonight, the server was horrific, we left before even eating half of our main meals after she completely ruined our dinner. For entree we ordered oysters, we tried two and they both tasted rotten, they also had a greenish colour to them so we asked if we could have them taken away and have a refund, that wasn’t an issue and they gave us a refund, we were happy until our mains arrived, we were sitting there trying to enjoy our dinner when our server (I think her name was Kathy) came up to us and asked what the problem was with the oysters, we then told her in a polite way that they had a rotten taste so we sent them back to the kitchen, she then replied oh well they obviously didn’t taste rotten because the chef tried them and he said they tasted fresh. She then continued to argue her point to my partner about the chef saying they tasted fresh, she also gave no personal space and stood right in his face, my partner asked her to leave us and let us enjoy our food and she rudely and smartly said “don’t serve it if you can’t take it”. This was extremely rude and unprofessional, I will not recommend this restaurant to anyone, the food was disgusting and the service was horrific, to speak to a paying customer the way she spoke to us is appalling. We were unhappy with the quality of the oysters so we sent them back and got a refund, it wasn’t an issue, we didn’t cause a scene about it, I am very confused at why she as the server would even try and argue with us saying that they were fresh when they in fact were not fresh. She did not taste them, she did not pay for the food, we did and we weren’t happy with the quality so who was she to argue with us after we sent them back and...