PepperBerry — Restaurant in Northern Territory

We were expecting more considering they had won the Golden Plate Award for Restaurant of the year in Darwin. We arrived Tuesday night 4 guests booked for 7.30pm and were seated by 7.35pm it took almost an hour before staff arrived to enquire about taking our order. We had questions about the menu and unfortunately the staff member had to keep going back to the kitchen to find answers to our questions. I exspect staff to be knowledgeable about detail on the menu and be able to describe or explain the ingredients or where ingredients are sourced, it did win the Golden Plate Award proudly displayed by the entry. We ordered garlic bread to start with. And then the staff bought out complementary bread and ducca with olive oil. Mmmm not really happy that we were not informed about the complementary bread, if we knew we would never have ordered the other bread. Not well trained staff considering this is a Hilton Hotel. Then as we were still eating the complementary bread staff came and removed the dishes with the ducca and olive oil as they started bringing out the meals. Not happy about that. Surely they could see we were not finished. 😕 One of our party advised his meal was not very hot. Another party member advised the mash was grainy and too salty and the beef cheeks were very stringy. Another guest ordered the pork belly they advised it was so salty and the cracking was soft and chewy not nice at all. I ordered Rump steak it advised of having vegetables but no mention of potatoes, so I ordered french fries to go with the dish. However when my dish arrived it had potatoes.(😠 Not happy Jan) now I had fries and potatoes, just a waste. What happened to staff that know their job and are knowledgeable on what diners are ordering and assisting them with making decisions from the menu. I really expect that level of service again considering this is a Hilton Hotel. My steak had so much hard fat on it that by the time I cut it all out as it was inedible I only had just over half my steak left. Again not happy, but I will say that it was cooked correctly being medium rare. End of night bill placed on the table, we as a group decided to split the bill and round up a few dollars each couple to leave a tip out of courtesy. But.. the staff at the counter when we came to pay then added an extra almost $9 to the bill for each couple on top of our tip no explanation given. We were so amused by the Circus unfolding around the bill we just paid and left. Laughing at how incompetent the staff were right up to paying the bill. So this Hilton Darwin Hotel premier restaurant won the Golden Plate Award best Restaurant, we are scratching our heads wondering how they won that award... 🤔 Mmm maybe it was...

I think this restaurant can be hit or miss dependant on what you order.

Food - We loved the starter bread but my husband said his scallops were a bit mediocre, quite small presumably shipped up frozen. This has been mentioned in a past review so I wish we had read that before, as we could’ve avoided ordering it. I had the mushroom scallops which were nice enough but for $20 I probably wouldn’t order again. My husband ordered a steak main which he said was excellent. Past reviews also rave about the steaks so it’s definitely a safe bet. The fries with truffle aioli are also very good. For my main I ordered the fettuccine and it was a big flop. It was just very basic, store bought pasta with punnet cherry tomatoes & spinach. For $38 you at least expect handmade pasta. For $10 less you can get handmade Parpadelle pasta mains from Alfonsinos, the Funghi with double cream is so delicious we have to order it as an extra main as my husband & I fight over it. So please don’t make the same mistake I did & avoid the pasta, it’s a rip off.

Atmosphere - It’s a gorgeous setting & the atmosphere is almost perfect. There is a function room upstairs with a bit of noise bleed & the night we went, there was lots of intermittent cheers & screams coming from upstairs as there was a junior dancing competition, so that was...

Evening meal friday 21/jul '23 7pm booking, for 5 people A trip to Darwin. Local friends wanted to try out PepperBerry. Checked out reviews and felt it was an 'ok' place for a group dinner. Not exactly a pleasant experience. restaurant appeared half full (?). Movement of waiting staff seemed 'random'. Waited a while to check in ++, a member from hotel check desk in wandered over to see what the delay was. Finally escorted to table.

30 minutes till waiting staff approached table and asked about drinks.

Meals finally delivered to table byt 8:15pm (?) Food average, but tasty, and warm.

Observation (1) friends in Darwin tell me that populations in darwin are transient, Keeping and finding staff a real challenge for restaurants. (2) It does sound awful to say, but the service was abysmally awful. It seemed to be poorly coordinated. It was really difficult to see who was supervising, who was coordinating. Who was doing 'what' . It just seemed really random. It was slow. The restaurant was not full, by any means, Nor tables asking for 'extra' demanding things. (3) the staff here were young 20-25 y/olds, no one older or of mature age to see, (4) staff were 'pleasant'. But that's really it.

If you were really pushed, sure, try PepperBerry, but to be aware there maybe other places which are a little more...