Harrisons food & wine — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

This is the first negative review I have ever posted.

I had the misfortune of dining here and selecting the chefs banquet, and I can confidently say it was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had.

First off, we waited over an hour and a half for the main course. When it finally arrived, the steak was utterly disappointing. It was bland, completely unseasoned, and tasted like it had just been defrosted and visually it looked as if someone had thrown it at the plate from across the room. To top it off, it was cold. The “jus” was so bad, it was basically Gravox. It was a complete letdown.

The service was even worse. The staff seemed to be wandering around aimlessly, staring at our empty plates but never making an effort to check in with us. They kept glancing into the kitchen, waiting for the food to magically appear, while we sat there growing more frustrated.

The manager was no better. He spent the majority of our visit drinking three glasses of wine at the counter, taking personal phone calls—whilst being completely oblivious to the chaos in the kitchen. Meanwhile, his staff was struggling to keep up with basic tasks.

To make matters worse, we were seated in a corner with nothing to look at but a blank wall. The atmosphere was incredibly uncomfortable.

At one point, a staff member came over and asked if we were done with our food—yet we hadn’t even received it yet. It felt like no one had a clue what was going on. The staff were disorganised and chaotic, with multiple servers coming over at random times, which only added to the confusion. We eventually decided to leave halfway through the banquet, and the staff didn’t even seem to notice or care.

All in all, this place was a disaster. The food was subpar, the service was non-existent, and the whole experience left me incredibly...

We had group of nearly 20 people and made reservations for the banquet which was $75/person, a couple of people in our group did not turn up but we still had to pay for them! The food servings were way too small to call itself a banquet. It was more like a degustation of small tasting plates. We were very disappointed with the food quality. The mornay on scallops were grainy and salty! The wait between the super small dishes was ridiculously long. The staff kept on coming to our table every 10 minutes to make us order more drinks, at $20+ per cocktail! On top of the $75 a head and being charged an extra $150 for the 2 people that could not make it. At the end when paying for the bill, we noticed that on top we were hit a $13 surcharge each! The place is a collection of 2nd hand furniture and dinner sets. The unisex toilet didn't lock. Very disappointing, I do not recommend this way overpriced place, the food was not even yummy!

UPDATE after Response from the owner:

Wow, I was shocked by the reply you have posted. I did remain courteous in my review which you have failed to match. Unfortunately, I had a bad experience at your venue. It is not easy to please everyone and I offer my review as constructive criticism. Do what you want with it. Maybe next time don’t overcharge! Maybe next time, know the meaning of the word banquet. Maybe next time, wait to be called to the table before asking if customers would like another drink. The restaurant was not full, so I don’t think you took a financial hit because 2 people did not turn up. I did not bag your mid-century décor; I wrote about it because it is a feature of your business and I scored your atmosphere 3 out of 5. I had a bad experience at your restaurant and now I can add a bad...

3 of us went for dinner at Harrisons on a Saturday night. The venue and atmosphere were great. The staff were also friendly and knowledgeable. Unfortunately the dining experience was rather disappointing. We ordered 2 snacks , 2 small plates and 2 large plates plus 2 lots of bread and greens. All up over $200 in food alone plus extra for drinks.

The serving size for each dish was extremely small. I guess “small” dishes would be expected to be small however even the “large” dishes had only a tiny serving of food. For $200 in food alone we were left hungry! We went directly to Son of a Gun afterwards (just up the road) to order a second dinner for each of us as we were all still hungry!

None of the dishes we ordered at Harrisons were “tasty”. We were particularly disappointed by the octopus which were 2 skinny legs that were rubbery and lacked flavour. The gnocchi dish was also rather flavourless.

On asking for the bill one of the staff came with a tablet and read out our order and asked if it was correct. As it was a rather long list I asked if I could review the list on the tablet. The list included all the items we ordered however the Confit Duck Leg was charged as $45. Remembering the tiny single duck leg we were served I rechecked the printed menu and it showed $35 for the Confit Duck Leg! I pointed out the price error on the bill to the staff member who immediately apologised for the mistake and quickly fixed the error on the spot. How can such a fundamental pricing error occur? Why did the error increase the price by $10 instead of decreasing it by $10? I strongly recommend that customers of this establishment check their...