Lambton Park Hotel — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

It’s a shame that I have to write this review as this is my local. But it’s let us down yet again. Me and my girlfriends go here for dinner and trivia about every six weeks for the past 6 months or so. We had a voucher for $30 we won in trivia. I was put in charge of the voucher and it ended up on my car floor. Someone stepped on it and the attached receipt detached. I turned up with the cardboard voucher and no receipt to buy us a bottle of wine. Was told the receipt was required and that I was potentially scamming them to get extra $30 because I could have already used the receipt voucher. I assured her I wouldn’t do that, but the employee was not flexible at all made me feel like I was doing a dodgy. I had to pay for the wine myself and the $30 win will go unclaimed with the receipt in the bin somewhere. We then wanted to order the share platter but swap out the pork belly for a different item as we have had bad experiences with this restaurants pork belly before. It’s just bad pork belly guys. But we’re told this wasn’t possible as different items cost different. The pork belly serving on its own on the menu was basically the same price as about three other menu items that we would have been happy with. But we were told it wasn’t possible. Then the kitchen advised us the arancini wasn’t available right before the platter came out and we were to be given cauliflower. We asked to swap to chicken popcorn but were told this was a no go again as it cost different prices. We could have double squid which we accepted. As we paid for dinner with another trivia win voucher which successfully held onto its receipt, I wanted to use my service nsw dine voucher for dessert. Last day today to use this before expiry. At 8:33 I was told the kitchen was completely closed. Even though people were still eating their dinner and we were in the middle of trivia still. Multiple other patrons around also wanted to order dessert and were told the same thing. This is the second time in a row we have missed out on dessert because they closed the kitchen very early! The trivia is good and the pub setting homely. But there’s a lot to be desired when it comes to food quality...

Unfortunately, my group and I had a very bad experience here on a Tuesday night. We were a large group of 20 people for a farewell but we did book 2 weeks in advanced which should be enough time to roster more staff on. Our food was very slow to come out, it took around 20-30min after we ordered our food. But what made it worse was that there was ONE HOUR between the first person's main and the last person's main being served which is unacceptable! Not only did the food take a long time to come out but the food was not cooked consistently. The sweet potato chips from one dish were borderline burnt compared to another person's serving which was cooked well. None of the steaks were cooked to the desired level and the requested sides were incorrect with some dishes e.g. given chips instead of mash. After the first few mains came out, I asked the waitress how long the rest would take and she said there's only 2 cooks and they are working as fast as they can. Considering we made the reservation 2 weeks prior maybe they could've looked at putting on more cooks. I hate leaving bad reviews but I had heard good things about this place and wanted to try it out, hopefully they are able to rectify...

What a flop. If you enjoy your steak cold, your vegetables limp and fridge-chilled, and your chips tasting like they’ve been air-dried since last week, then boy, do I have the restaurant for you.

My partner’s steak arrived looking promising, but quickly revealed itself as a cruel culinary joke. It was inedible—so much so that even the restaurant agreed and refunded part of it. Not the whole meal, mind you—just the portion they apparently acknowledged was offensive. The sauce he ordered never showed up, but the charge for it certainly did. How generous.

My steak was also served cold, but I was too hungry to send it back and risk dying of starvation before a replacement arrived. I spat out more than one bite—and I’m not even fussy. The green vegetables were the saddest part of the meal: soggy, lifeless, and weirdly cold, as if they’d been reheated in the Arctic.

And it wasn’t just us. A chorus of lukewarm misery echoed around our table. Chips? Stale. Sad. A betrayal to potatoes everywhere.

In short: a disappointing, half-refunded disaster. Highly do not recommend—unless you’re conducting a study on how not to run...