Amalfi Restaurant and Bar Ettalong Beach — Restaurant in Pearl Beach

-Great looking venue -Great location -Pretty good food (if you get it) -Customer service was terrible

We were at the beach, my girlfriend walked up to check out Amalfi and maybe sneak in a coffee (it was after 5pm to be fair, she was told there was no coffee but really liked the menu and venue, so we decided to go back for dinner).

We arrived around 7:30 Friday night and the place looked great! It was a bit packed and getting the attention of waitstaff wasn't the easiest, though we were seated and ordered relatively fuss free. When asking about the mains selection, we were told the ragu was "nothing special"... (though it was the best meal we ended up having, compliments to the chef!). We watched as a coffee get delivered to a patron, so who knows why we were told there'd be no more coffee earlier?

Our wine and beer came pretty fast, the arancini however? Well, it took forever and was wrong, and taken back. At around 8:20 we wondered if we'd been forgotten about as the correct one had not come, no waitstaff came over, nothing. The reason I know the time is I pulled it up and go look it's 8:20, if it's not here in 20min let's pay for the drinks and leave (we should have), the arancini we ordered arrived just after 8:50. It was a bit less busy at this stage, though we gave them the benefit of the doubt that the wheels had fallen off due to the dinner rush.

We moved inside where there were now free tables as outside is no good after dark, lighting is inadequate and you're getting smashed with insects.

After noticing tables that had arrived after us were eating, we wondered if we'd been forgotten, we continued to wonder as getting service was like getting blood from a stone... why were we left wondering, twice, whether our order had made it to the kitchen or not? Cmon. You guessed it, mains didn't get passed on to the kitchen.

Credit to kitchen staff, they looked visibly concerned and frustrated with how utterly bad front of house was, once the kitchen got the order they promptly prepared it, delivered it to the kitchen window, and repeatedly hit the bell looking around with an expression as if to say YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME, WHERE ARE MY SERVERS?!

Anyway mains arrived at 9:30, 2hrs after rolling in (it was really good, though). Once the place had emptied out to only a few tables, the service, which we'd assumed was due to being overwhelmed by a busy dinner, did not improve at all and I'd go as far as saying it got worse.

Thankfully dessert was still available just before 10pm, and after getting up and serving ourselves a menu, my girlfriend had to get up again to find waitstaff to order dessert. I was looking forward to a nice slice of cheesecake, so we chose "lemon cheesecake"..... which was a 4mm thick coating of "cheesecake" between the base and topping, aka, a tart.

We got up to pay, I mentioned the food was good but service let us down, I was responded to with the comment "that's fair", no apology, no care. If it'd crossed your.... (was it the manager? A waitress? ....We don't even know who was serving our table) mind that service was shocking, why was there zero attempt to at least make buying dessert easy for us?

The receipt says you're looking foreword to a review, your reviews over the past 12mo say your customer service is apocalyptic, your responses usually include "we're taking it on board", "we always want to improve" but there's nothing to show for it in 12mo.

Had there been one or two reviews here and there echoing our experience, I'd have put it down to bad luck, and just left it, though this is a bad management issue.

Anyway as you'll see from our receipt, we wanted your food and drinks, your waitstaff were active obstructions to the process.

*Since writing this and tossing around the idea of posting it or not over the weekend, the resturant has burnt down, the day after our visit. I feel a bit guilty posting the review, though it's accurate, and the owner/management seemingly needs the shove as the last 40 abysmal reviews have failed to...

I was unlucky enough to attend Valentine's Day dinner here with my partner.

I will start with the good - I regret not asking for the name of the young woman who welcomed us into the restaurant and helped with getting us our food when we became far too hungry from waiting to stay silent any longer, she was truly a gem and the only redeeming quality of my evening here.

Now the bad - our reservation was at 6:15pm, we received our amuse bouche of a single oyster each at approximately 6:45pm, quite tasty, very small. By 7:25pm, we had received our entree, mine, 2 battered and fried zucchini flowers, his, 2 king prawns butterflied. Our main finally arrived at around 8:15pm, a somewhat cooked 4 cheese ravioli swimming in toasted butter, not quite burnt, not quite simply melted butter - a dish I couldn't bare to finish. We skipped the "dessert" of a few scoops of gelato each, as I saw a few others had as well. All in all, this awful evening cost a total of $256 including 4 drinks that were only ordered to distract from the eternal wait. A set menu of $89 each for 1 oyster, 2 zucchini flowers, 7 pieces of oily ravioli, and what I assume was 2 scoops of gelato.

2 other dishes ordered were never prepared or mentioned until conversations about the bill arrived.

Honestly if you look through my review history, I pretty much only exclusively write positive reviews. Take this to show just how AWFUL this experience was, I certainly won't be returning and I'm sure 90% of the other patrons who had similar experiences to us would say the same.

I would give the service 5 stars if my experience at leaving early with the manager (maybe? he did behave quite self-important) wasn't met with a huge lack of accountability.

As a response to Emma from Amalfi:

I'm not really sure who you were if you did check on our table, but we certainly were trying to make the best of a poor situation. Additionally, no male member of staff checked up on us or advised us of any delay or offered an apology, this would have been appreciated if this had in fact happened.

I'm sure many issues can happen when running a business like this, but when there's a compulsory set menu, I don't imagine it should take 30 minutes for the initial item that everyone must receive to arrive at a table.

I'm sorry you had such a tough time running an event that I'm certain your patrons were relying on for a beautiful and annual evening with their partner. Perhaps it would be helpful to check the weather in advance to prepare for situations like this, as well as making plans for potential issues like the ones you experienced. Surely you must also understand that when making a restaurant reservation, the expectation is food within a reasonable time frame and in portions that don't leave your patrons hungry for most of the booking. Perhaps providing an easy table snack like bread, or informing of delays, or at the very least an apology taking responsibility for the poor experience would go far in mitigating an experience like this for your customers in future, I would suggest going so far to do this before you receive complaints. Because after all, no matter how poorly a restaurant is performing, I don't know many people who would want to have to complain and take time away from their dining partner just to receive the standard expectation of their booking.

When I did mention that I was unable to finish my final dish, the response I received was "I'm sorry I don't know what's going on tonight." You don't need to tell me what everyone else thought of your dish because simply, if a patron has an issue like this with your food, it should be rectified if you're expecting to maintain a price-point like the one you offer.

I wish you luck and hope you're able to improve your approach in addressing circumstances like this for...

Some standout moments, but not yet worth the hype.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

We recently had dinner at Amalfi in Ettalong, and while parts of the evening showed real promise, the experience didn’t quite come together. The ambition is clear — stylish presentation, a well-crafted drinks list, and some thoughtful dishes — but the execution was inconsistent and let down by key details.

The room was loud. Not just busy-restaurant loud — chaotic, echoey loud. Music, voices, plates — it all bounced around in a way that made conversation difficult. A bit of acoustic treatment (from a local provider like Central Coast Acoustic Panels or Sydney Acoustics) would make a massive difference and shouldn’t be difficult to implement.

Service was generally warm and capable, though a few staff seemed disengaged. Our main server — a lovely English woman — was attentive and gracious, and another woman from India stood out for her genuine warmth.

Drinks were a highlight. Elyse’s wine was beautifully paired by the bartender, and the spicy pineapple margarita I had was perfectly balanced. The virgin piña colada was surprisingly good, and I ended with a Glenmorangie and an affogato with amaretto, served with a moka pot — theatrical and delicious. The drinks list is excellent, though a slightly broader whisky range would round it out nicely.

The food had moments of brilliance. The tuna tartare was clean and elegant. The oysters looked gorgeous, but the pickled ginger was too sweet and overwhelmed the delicate flavour of the caviar and seaweed. The wagyu steak tartare, mixed tableside, was textbook — a standout. The linguini was also lovely. Even the risotto had potential (a bit gluey, but flavourful).

But then came the lobster. I ordered the lobster risotto special, and while it was beautifully plated, the meat around the neck was grey, metallic, and rubbery — classic signs of poor handling or freezer damage. It was inedible. The rest of the lobster wasn’t much better.

To their credit, the staff apologised, removed the dish from the menu, and offered a replacement. The tartare I received instead was excellent, and a complimentary limoncello at the end helped ease the sting.

Other details detracted from the experience. The bathroom felt like an afterthought — not dirty, but cluttered and unfinished, with random storage inside. At this level, it matters.

Would I recommend it right now? Not yet. There’s potential here — a talented kitchen, a strong drinks program, and flashes of excellent service. But unless the seafood is truly fresh and the environment is tuned for comfort, the price point doesn’t feel justified. Local seafood like what’s available at Skinner’s Fresh Seafood (just down the road) should be the foundation, not an exception.

Fix the acoustics, fine-tune the menu, elevate the small details — and this could become a top-tier coastal spot. Until then, it’s more “promising” than...