Norma's Bistro at Alder Park Sports Club, New Lambton — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

Oh Kenny Kenny Kenny, a simple steak, chips and salad couldn't be that hard could it??

So I ordered a steak, chips and salad. Requested the steak medium and what I got was a hard piece of well done steak, salad with minimal to no dressing, chips that were mushy Inside and some green Peppercorn sauce thrown over half the steak.

As we where leaving my family and I come to the counter, you come flying out of kitchen with your chest out and was like so what's wrong?? I explained the situation and which you interrupted and you proceeded to go on your rant oh I beg to differ that steak was probed ( your an experienced chef yeah, why do you need a probe can't you tell when a steak is cooked ) so it couldnt be well done and that you took photos this n that. You also said if you show your chef friends they would agree or some garbage like that. If you required more dressing on your salad you should've come up and asked. I shouldn't have to come up to ask for extra if a sufficient amount was there. If it was probed as you say there shouldn't have been an issue Simple steak, chips and salad yeah.

You then proceed to be rude and say to me why didn't I bring it up earlier?? What would you have done chef Kenny get all defensive and go on with the same rant as above. Oh Let me guess 100 people have had the steaks there and have never complained.

No offer of a refund because chef Kenny doesn't make mistakes and we as the customer don't know what where talking about. I'll not be going back there to waste my money on simple food cooked poorly.

It's a shame as I'm Ceoliac and there isn't alot of safe places for me to eat.

Slight pink inside isn't medium it's medium well done, what photo? after the steak was taken back hmmm you said to me you took a photo of it before hand strange. there was no one in the restaurant when you were cooking this steak. I had somewhere to be and didn't have enough time to ask for it to be re cooked hense the refund. Which is asked for when a dish is incorrectly cooked. Didn't demand it at all, we asked the waitresses very nicely as they where...

Constructive feedback for the owner (as the staff are amazing there, well done)...

We waited 45 minutes for chips, calamari and salad and asked for the chips and calamari to be "well done" like it has been in the past (I know you can do it) that's why I ask for them "Well Done".

When I finally received the food, the chips weren't brown and hot and deliciously crunchy like that have been the past few months when each time I've asked for them "Well Done", they were warm and limp and the calamari white and definitely not crunchy and some of the salad had wilted edges and didn't appear fresh.

I went and politely asked if you could crunch them up for me, as I do like your restaurant... But the chef said abruptly "NO THEY WON"T GET ANY CRUNCHIER THAN THAT, THEY WERE IN FOR 6 MINUTES" ... I thought more of you Kenny as the owner and being a loyal supporter of your restaurant for a good while now was quite taken back.

I should have asked for my money back, my mother definitely wanted to, but I politely took it and ate it.

Not sure if you'll take this feedback constructively as I certainly hope you do, maybe you were having a bad day (everyone does), but really, the way you handled my simple request...

Let's talk about Norma's Bistro at Alder Park Bowlo!

Now besides the fact that I literally took one bite and inhaled it and that it hardly touched the sides of my throat.. the flavour of the satay burger was Moriesh - the pickels added a little bit of zest to break up the sweet coleslaw flavours and chippies were seriously crispy and delicious - cooked to perfection.

Totally recommend!

The chef even came out and checked in with us and it felt really nice that he took the time to come and greet the people he was serving, asked questions about the food and just generally a lovely human. I love that extra bit of love it shows they want feedback and also helps to shape the business into what they really want it to be. Love That!

Highly recommend....