Tacking Point Tavern — Restaurant in Port Macquarie

Been to the Tavern twice with friends who raved about the place. The food is ok, BUT the service is awful. On both occassions we had a meal item that didn't turn up with our order.

The first time, we literally had to prove we had ordered and paid for it before they would eventually cook and bring the meal to the table. In the meantime they treated us like liars and thieves trying to get a free meal. When it was proven we were in the right, there was no offer of any sort of compensation beyond a very insincere apology.

The second visit, they somehow forgot a drink, but at least remembered it had been ordered and eventually brought it over. However, they also managed to mess up the food order by missing a meal off the order altogether. The result was that when it didn't arrive they realised they hadn't charged or added that meal to the bill, despite recalling it had been ordered.

They eventually delivered the meal and made us all check our banks regarding payment amounts!!!!! It was THEIR error but again we had to prove we weren't criminals. In fairness to them, they didn't ask us to pay for the meal they had missed off the order but when I pointed out that this was my second visit to the Tavern and had had problems both times and suggested they have a systemic issue with their ordering or staff training, I got a resentful stare.

Sadly, this will be my last visit here. The food is not good enough to compensate for the embarrassment of being thought a thief and having all the conversation being about...

Remarks addressed only to other Americans. An incredible venue with many sections, from outdoor Biergarten (pet-friendly!) to balcony, to sports bar with 10 big screen TVs. 20+ beers on tap, with more IPAs and specialty brews. Wide variety of sports to view from Rugby to cricket (incomprehensible) to racing to gambling. Up-market pub menu that seems popular with the locals; nightly specials. Everyone from couples, “girls night out”, “mates”, pool players, young singles preening, differently abled folks, multi-generational families. The chicken Schnitzel was large, adequately moist: $8 extra for 4 shrimp on top w/ sauce in addition to the “chips” (fries). (I skipped the salad) Male customer “uniform” appears to be short pants & sandals. You order & pay after standing in line reviewing a menu: you get a number (think Culver’s on steroids) and they bring the meal to you. You need to ask is what the wait time is. Like some supper clubs at home, the longer the food wait, the more the patrons drink? After about 40 minutes, I asked the guy at the register about the wait: only then did he tell me to expect a 40-minute wait because of high volume; but when he went to ask the kitchen, my food had been sitting on the counter. You have to get your own ketchup over near the kitchen, and a variety of “to-go” boxes are in the cabinet under the ketchup & sauce bottles. Worth a visit just for the experience; take someone with you, preferably another American, or someone who...

dinner service on 24/01 …. We had a table of 8 booked which was fine .. I understand staffing and covid times however it was not busy and we could see plenty of staff in kitchen and also on the floor. 1stly 3 kids meals were totally forgotten !! Until the adults main meals came out and we asked where the kids meals were this was not realised … and when they did come out .. on the kids meals we had asked for 2 kids minute steaks with strictly NO SALAD .. and gravy .. both kids meals had salad and no gravy and one was to have a side of halloumi which didn’t come … One of the adults meals was asked with again a side of halloumi however the halloumi was cut up and put throughout the dish not on the side as asked. Another was steak sandwich and it was served with cold chips and if it was actually sirloin steak as per menu I will be shocked as it was identical to the minute steak that eventually was served to the kids Desert .. we ordered 2 waffles and a kids ice cream… 20 mins later after ordering told no waffles ..further 25 mins later finally desert arrives and the kids icecream is missing !! Staff didn’t seem to really care at all and we had visitors with us from Sydney who will happily not come back to this pub … extremely disappointed with the service and the food … It will be a while before I will be back and I live around the corner from...