Tides Waterfront Dining — Restaurant in Sunshine Coast Regional

Just recently my husband and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. Our son and daughters decided to surprise us with a 4 night accommodation in a beautiful airbnb in Bulcock Beach. To make the surprise even more special they booked and paid online a very generous $250 dining voucher for a sunset dinner for a us on the balcony of Tides Restaurant at 6.30pm 1/3/23. All three courses we chose from the Menu led us to believe we had a good idea of what to expect. There should have been no surprises, just some great fresh seafood and for dessert, an old favourite, Pavlova. Couldn't go wrong, could it...

ENTREE: Pancetta wrapped Mooloolaba prawns, avocado, lemon, chilli oil. $25 per serve Two prawns, ridiculously overcooked to a point where I couldn't cut through the pancetta with the knife. I broke the charred prawn head off and bit through the pancetta to eat the dry prawn meat to the tail. The avocado mix underneath was horribly bitter with lemon juice and raw chopped onion, I assumed the chilli oil was also added to the avocado. Judging by the photos I saw on the website later, there should have been a swirl of chilli oil around the plate. It wasn't there, probably better it wasn't as it was dreadful enough without it. Couldn't help noticing that no one else looks to have ever been served blackened prawns.

MAINS: Tides fresh grilled Australian seafood, NT Barramundi, Mooloolaba prawns (3), Moreton Bay bug half (1), ½ shell Tasmanian scallops (3) $70 per serve. And again... a huge disappointment. I enjoyed the three $1 coin size scallops with a dollop of some sort of foam on top. Tiny scallops .. As for the rest of the seafood.. it was absolutely CREMATED, all we could taste was charcoal. The prawns were small and burnt, the black charred heads just dropped off, the barramundi tasted of charcoal. Half bug, one forkful of meat that was tasteless. What kind of chef does that to seafood?? Later I saw numerous photos of this main on your website, all had grilled but pink prawns, not one charred plate like ours.

DESSERT: Passionfruit and raspberry Pavlova $18 per serve This would have to be ok for sure.... BUT what we were served in a shallow bowl was a puddle of what looked like half whipped RUNNY meringue mix topped with a sickly sweet yellow blob of lemon curd decorated with a quarter of a fresh passionfruit, 2 raspberries, 3 mint leaves and for "piece de resistance" 3 tiny thimble sized meringue swirls. NOT PAVLOVA !!

3 courses, a garden salad and 2 beverages later we paid the bill... $253 We told the guy behind the till we were not happy with the food ( also to two waitresses during the service) and he was very apologetic. We are not only disappointed for ourselves but gutted for our kids who paid for this fiasco. We did not want to tell them how bad it was, but they guessed something was wrong when we didn't get in touch with them after the dinner. Very disappointing... never coming back if we happen to visit...

Found this gem tucked away on the waterfront in Caloundra which thankfully could seat us for a last minute reservation on a public holiday. Not only did they save us from an evening of Uber Eats (mostly due to a lack of planning and foresight on our part) but they blew us away with what is unequivocally the best meal I have had in a full calendar year... not to mention the spectacular view you get free of charge there at sunset.

Alright. So. You're going to want to get a frozen mango daiquiri to start. Maybe get two because you're not going to want want to share. Thank me later.

And do yourself a favour, get the entree tasting share plate. Best of luck trying to pick which of those is your favourite. Scallops were buttery and melt-in-your-mouth tender, pork belly was my partner's favourite (despite him having three and a half decades of anecdotal rancour for the dish prior to this experience), S+P squid with lime aioli always a fan favourite, beetroot arancini balls go down a treat and idk what kind of wizardry they've got going on in the kitchen but the olives are also the best I've ever had. Bar none.

Our mains were the roasted lamb rump (tender, flavourful, touch of pink) with gorgeous chargrilled pumpkin, goats cheese, pesto, sage, pistachio and balsamic. We also had the chicken, which was cooked to perfection and served with charred leek, hazelnut, garlic puree, zucchini, chicken crisp and jus. Both exceptional. Both plates wiped clean.

Dessert. Listen to the staff.

Upon their recommendation, we had a dark chocolate mousse with honeycomb, peanut butter mousse (which was delightfully flavourful and yet light), chocolate crumb and strawberry gel. An excellent dessert in its own right.

If you're after the "wow factor" though, get the smoked chocolate & hazelnut layer cake with raspberry gel, candied hazelnut and a caramel chocolate ganache that is already smoked with apple wood chips and then served in a glass cloche filled with more of that beautiful swirling smoke for added flavour and dramatic effect (that you'll definitely want to whip out your phone for and record for an enviable Insta post). It is absolutely worth the calories and I will cheerfully defend it as the supreme dessert choice 'til kingdom come, no matter how much it divides my relationship with my significant other.

Staff were beautifully accommodating, attentive and genuinely passionate and every ingredient that graced our palates that evening was of outstanding taste and incomparable quality. For some context, we are notoriously difficult people to please.. I'm not sure what else I can add to further illustrate my glowing adulation.. but if you really need further convincing to make the trip, we were so pleased with our experience that once we'd settled the bill, we put a deposit down then and there to secure a table for Valentine's Day.

Thank you, Tides Waterfront Dining. See...

I would like to post a review of this restaurant on behalf of my 69 year old parents who dined here recently for their 50th wedding anniversary. I was extremely disappointed to hear that it was the worst meal they had ever had in their 69 years of life. There was no offer to resolve their disappointment throughout the evening or even at the end of the night when they provided their final feedback. My siblings and I purchased the dining voucher for my parents, to go with 4 nights accommodation for a special getaway with a fine dining experience. We hoped a special meal would be the highlight of the trip. Sadly, it was an absolute disaster. I rang to speak to the manager the following day and spoke to a female supervisor who assured me she would have the manager call me. He did not call me. I left a message on the answering machine and he still failed to call me. I called again and was finally able to speak to him only because he answered the phone. Andrew made no apologies about the disastrous night. I asked if there was any explanation as to what went wrong on the night and was offered no explanation, and further, that the head chef was working that night, it was a busy night and there were no other complaints on the night. He also went on to say that they ate all the food therefore he would need to investigate the situation further and get back to me. I told him that I would have my mum write down her complaint and I would email it to him so he could see what she had to say in her words. I wanted to give him the opportunity to make right of the situation and to improve the standard of the food his restaurant was putting out. Andrew failed to respond to the email therefore I pursued a complaint through Fair Trading. The result of the complaint through Fair Trading was that Andrew believes his staff were not given the opportunity to rectify the issue on the night and that no refund would be offered. I am absolutely disgusted at the cowardly and unprofessional stance of this man. I wish we had taken the time to read the negative reviews of this restaurant and I would urge anyone reading this review to do so. This restaurant serves very poorly cooked food in enfuriatingly small portions. They will take hundreds of dollars from you and give you a completely miserable meal in return. The owner could care less about the standard of his food and the satisfaction of his customers. Do yourself a favor and avoid this restaurant at all cost. You will be mad at yourself when the same happens to you too. My mum will post her review seperately due to exceeding...