Elementa — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

I was looking forward to a nice upscale restaurant with modern food style and decent atmosphere. But I experienced none of that, first of all the price was astronomical compared to the portion sizes, one singular beef rib was almost $50, and half a chicken breast with a drumette and a slice of chorizo was $42, and you can even justify spending this much, when the chicken was dry and tacky and flooded with olive oil, if I wanted chicken of this quality, I could head down to Coles and get 4 whole chickens for the same price. They even managed to mess up a can of Pepsi max, the drink was completely frozen solid. My bad experience doesn't end there, the exuberance and ignorance of a particular waiter was not well received, with the waiter moving on to other members at our table before they had the chance to state all items they wanted to order, they also ignored our calls over to our table, multiple times, as well as dropping glasses and drinking on the job. The experience doesn't end there, now this has to a violation of a health and safety violation, inside a toilet cubicle, and I mean within your individual toilet stall, there is a food and equipment storage room, so while you are sitting on the toilet, you can open the door to the food storage room and grab yourself out a can of coke whilst you do your business and spread all you germs all over the food they serve to the tables. Absolutely unsanitary for a restaurant and no where need the standards of the so called "best restaurant in Newcastle", the local chip shop probably has better food and hygiene standards. Overall, this was a complete was of money, food was bad, even if it was free, a Coles roasted chicken is better any day of the week. Look to whoever is reading this, don't go it was absolutely terrible, your better of making your self a microwave dinner at home, and save the cost of fuel and time you'll be wasting here, because you'll be waiting a hell of a lot of it, we arrived at the restaurant shortly after 7pm, order our food at 7:30pm yet, our mains didn't arrive till around 9:30pm, in fact 9;34pm to be more precise. Overall, my experience was terrible, anyone who asks about this restaurant I will tell them how terrible my experience was and I hope Elementa brings up there standards, they should be ashamed. And just to cap off at the end, I would give zero stars if I could, and I might even complain to the NSW food health and safety...

Interesting dining experience with some outstanding moments but some suprising 'elementas' of disappointment too. Friday lunch @ 1pm. The restaurant was not busy with just a few tables occupied. We sat outside on the patio. The view & atmosphere was lovely. We selected 3 small plates, a main share & the green beans as the vegetable share. The menu selection is not extensive but, certainly, looked great (eg: Just 3 Vegetable Sides on the menu with a choice of carrots, beans or salad but each of the 3 choices sounded interesting as described on the menu). We were looking forward to tasting what we'd selected having read how impressive the Elementa fine dining experience is. At the point of ordering our lunch & wine we soon were informed that our vegetable share plate selection was unavailable (1 of the 3 choices in that menu category unavailable). We chose a glass of Merlot to accompany our meal & were, again, informed that Elementa was out of that too. The wait staff member suggested another wine as an alternative (which we appreciated). As the suggestion was not listed as 'sold by the glass' and there is a range of finer wines on the Elementa winelist , my husband asked of the cost of the suggested glass of wine. The response was, "Cheaper than the wine you chose" and that was it. Not a fine dining or helpful response by any standards... unusual service. But, when the suggested wine arrived it was perfect for our chosen Beef Short Ribs so we concerned ourselves with the positive. On the most part, our lunch was very tasty, particularly the kingfish sashimi, the kangaroo & short ribs. The fried mushrooms were dry & a disappointment but we did love the rest, including the carrots which we had in lieu of the unavailable beans. The Elementa course portions are small but of excellent quality. Ordering 3 small share plates, one main plate & a vegetable share was perfect lunch. To accompany our lunch, we enjoyed 4 drinks (1 beer & 3 glasses of wine) between the two of us. At 2.20pm, we decided we'd finish lunch with coffee. Our request was met with the now familiar response of, "unavailable". Unbelievably, coffee, like the wine & vegetable choice, was not possible at Elementa for our lunch experience. We paid our account ($220) and headed to the nearby Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club to finish lunch...

Righto everyone sit up and listen I’ve got a story. Some of the best experiences in life come out of the most unsuspecting places. It was a rainy Monday working on a construction site when I Met a gentleman who was helping on site with excavation work… Friendly banter and one thing led to another this man let me know. He had just purchased a restaurant in Newcastle but couldn’t tell me where until the sale went through.

Not thinking much of it the next week I happen across this gentleman again to which he told me he had purchased “Elementa” As it has been a long-term goal of his to own his own restaurant. I told him I would take my wife to enjoy a meal at some stage as a show of support.

A few weeks had passed and I decided it was finally time. I booked on a Friday night to go and check it all out, not knowing really what to expect.

First thing I noticed was how easy I found a park. It was like it was meant to be. Upon entering the restaurant we were immediately shocked at how beautifully presented it was, Seemed like not A single detail was missed.. We ordered our drinks after being sat at the table via super friendly waitress, Presented our drinks by the gentleman I met on a construction site and had a friendly chat.

When the meals arrived, The night Suddenly turned into a meal that I didn’t want to end, Every chomp was a reminder of how bloody delicious the food was but a swift slap a reality that it was soon gonna be over. Everything was cooked for perfection and presented in a way the left you wanting more, like the first night of your honeymoon.

This is your reminder that sometimes good things come from the most unsuspecting places. Don’t be afraid to ask people what their goals are because you might be pleasantly surprised.

Omg this venue was fantastic, so stop reading this review now and just book the damn...