Mooloolaba Fish Market — Restaurant in Sunshine Coast Regional

OK, I can only agree with previous reviews with respect to the quality of the fish, prawns, etc. There is NO fish shop that is better than this place. We had lunch on a Friday a couple of weeks ago on "The Deck". Quality of seafood, both cooked and fresh was still excellent. However, I think a larger portion of snapper is in order at $30 a plate with chips and salad. The money must be going somewhere, but I don't think it's going into staffing. There would have been 100 people on "The Deck" at lunch time and the (apparently incompetent) management had ONE cook and ONE person serving. The lady taking the orders, serving and doing the dishes was doing a superb job. Sometimes the queue was 5 long but then she would have to deliver plates to tables, collect used plates, etc., and put them near the dishwasher. Clearly, this was a superhuman task and she was losing the battle in spite of being terrific at her job. It was just beyond one person to handle it all. Which brings me back to the incompetent management. Hello Management People! YOU KNOW lunch time will always be BUSY. You SHOULD know what your attendance is going to be at any given day of the year (taking weather conditions in to account and so on, the day of the week, etc.). SO, management wunderkinder, WHY did you not have at least 3 serving staff and two cooks on at lunch for (say) a casual 3 hours? Too cheap to pay good staff? Get your act together management, your excellent service staff can only carry you so far. Pay good wages and you should be able to get good people. You have a head start with the outstandingly fresh product you have, don't spoil it with excursions into management hell like this day.

Sat 12 May, 2018. Bought 2 kg prawns at shop - excellent. We had lunch on The Deck (for the last time). The "value" at this place is non-existent. So, I assume that it's just a "place to be seen". Let's look at the Avocado Prawn Salad we had this trip. 5 large prawns (worth $3-50 RETAIL), Less than 1/2 an avocado ($1-00 RETAIL), mixed salad of no great distinction, but adequate ($1-50 RETAIL from Coles). Nothing special. So, we have $6-00 worth of ingredients on the plate, which cost $21-90. That leaves $15-90 for margin and labour costs. Average restaurant gross margins (Aus Tax Office says) run about 30% (say $-700 in this lot). Leaves us $8-90 to pay the cook/waiting staff. All cold food, so prep time of 10 mins (which it took, OK), 1/6th of an hour. The cooking and waiting staff here are being paid $54-00 an hour at that rate !! YES!! I think not. The place is over-priced and a fair price for this Avocado salad would be $15-00, UNLESS the management is going to pay the above rate to its staff per hour (I think not). Please yourself, but, I would buy the (excellent) prawns and take my own green salad and eat in the park to get the same nice view. The Deck - just lost another star...dear oh...

Have been coming to this place for both fresh seafood and takeaway for years, however, a recent experience means I will never get takeaway from here again for hygiene reasons. When waiting for a recent fish and chips order to be filled, was able to observe food being packed through the takeaway window. Somewhat concerned to see the guy collecting the cooked fish out of the basket to put in the tray with his bare hands. Also observed him to guide chips into the tray with his bare hands. However, of greater concern was he then handed the packed takeaway to the customers while collecting their "electronic food buzzer" from them. He then went back to handling the next customers food without washing his hands. To top it off, while the chips were OK, the fish was overcooked and quite "rubbery". Hoping this was a one-off related to that particular person, went back a week later only to see a women doing exactly the same thing. Took my business to the competitor around the corner where the fish and chips were properly cooked and the cooking staff were wearing disposable gloves while not handling anything else that could contaminate the food. If you decide to buy from this place, I suggest you stand near the takeaway collection window first and see how the food is being handled...

The fish and prawns were fresh but there are hardly any gluten free choices. They batter the chips so the only choices for coeliacs are grilled fish and salad. Fine if you’re a health nut but not much fun for a kid with coeliac disease. They also didn’t mention when ordering that the chips were not gluten free (even though we had enquired about several other items re gluten, so it was pretty obvious we had a dietary requirement). As a result my son ate the chips before we realised they were battered, and got gluten poisoning. Not very impressed with the lack of care around that. The cashier definitely needs training on allergens and food safety.

They were also supposed to ask when we ordered if we wanted chicken salt on the chips. The cashier also didn’t do this, so we didn’t get the chips the way we like them. The tartare and Marie Rose sauces were both sickeningly sweet. And finally they charged us almost $4 for a single juice popper - which we didn’t notice until we checked the bill. That is an INSANE price for a small juice box - which I guess is why they don’t label it in the drinks fridge, because most parents just assume no one would have the gall to charge that.

All in all we...