Campbelltown Catholic Club — Restaurant in Sydney

Well, this afternoon marked my 3rd visit here. And my feelings for this place are no more positive than my initial visit. I begin writing a review after my first visit and i was four paragraphs deep before realizing it was more of a rant so i didnt post. But now ive given it a fair go and each subsequent visit theres something new to actively dislike so i think i can now give an informed rant, if not a review! Today really topped it off. Positives: Food is enjoyable and good sized meals.Bar staff friendly. Negatives: Stinking hot afternoon and the raffles were on at 3.30pm so we decided to go enjoy some air con and r&r (NOT RSG - theres only a bare minimum of that to go around). Walked to the bar for a cold beer and purchased raffle tix and went to find a cooler spot to have a press and wait for some lucky numbers. Well that proved impossible as there was NO AIR CON! Strange though, that it worked perfectly fine in the lobby upon signing in or i would have walked straight out and wouldnt be the only one im sure. The heat off all those machines and all those bods was almost unbearable and my beer was warm after 5mins. Then the draw as supposed to be at 5pm. It was at least 15-20 mins after which seems like forever and a fortune. The staff are usually lovely and there was a drinks trolley being wheeled around with softdrinks. This place is the typical pokie den with a well appointed lobby and flash furnishings that one has come to expect. However this place grinds my gears more than others for various reasons not one of them involves athieism. It seems as though the place uses underhanded tactics to skim the last $10 from a pensioner things like like the ticket to cash machines near smokers area out of order. BOTH. ALL NIGHT. So to cash a tenner ive gotta drum up the will of a priest and the energy of a triathalete to Leavey machine unattended and find a working one hidden across the other side of the club and no signage to point me there either.. And dont expect hydration in a hurry. Its not often ive got drinks service to my machine. Theres never any bar snacks and thats dissapointing given the $$$ flying into the collection pl..- pokies. I arrived well after the resteraunt closed for the night on my way home from work and theres not a complimentary party pie or a cup of peanuts anywhere to be found, yet they remain open for people to drink all hours of the night and into the early morning, youd think a few pretzels wouldnt be a hard ask?. There seems little regard for patrons and the emphasis is on filling the pockets of the 'big man/men' in the big chairs upstairs - and im not talking about God. The atmosphere is dull but its ok if youve got money to burn and want a good range...

I try to visit here every week or 2, the kids love the play area and the kids meal with ice cream is great value especially on Sundays when kids eat free.

The staff are always super friendly and always keen to assist you.

That said, there is so many mixed emotions about this place. It is so good but it also has its down sides. Main meals at Ember and Dove & Shears are standard and can be dissapointing, they are good but always either lacking in quality or quantity.

The bistro is good value but food tends to faulter alot unless you go for the higher priced menu items. The specials are not worth it, the schnitzel is very plain and small that seems to be thrown onto a plate, its like "really?". The family special on Wednesday feels like its left over peas & meat from the roast pork special the day before, the carbonara pasta is just covered in peas and square pieces of ham, its nowhere near what a carbonara should be like.

I cant fault the cafe, sometimes service is slow but the coffee and cakes are always good :)

Kyūbi is another level of dining, it is absolutely the best Campbelltown has to offer and probably in the South West of Sydney along with Otis which is always a delight to eat at.

The prizes epecially during Christmas are great and the club is very rewarding with its events.

Then comes the poker machines/gaming room, having played alot at other clubs/venues and the casino, I can tell you this is the biggest disapointment at the club, the machines here rob you with very little returns, unless you play smaller amounts you may find yourself up 1 or 2 hundred but if you are a heavy hitter or like to spend a night on the pokies expect to get robbed. 2 recent occassions I found myself $2000 down and had to spend another $1000 to get back even, that took about 3/4 hours another night 4-5 hours to get back $500 after spending $1000, I dont experience this anywhere else and it genuinely feels the machines are programmed to return on the most minimum setting they are allowed, clearly if you want to game you need to go elsewhere having a quick slap during lunch/dinner is ok but if your going for a jackpot prize, forget it.

The club is a great venue and offers great value with lots of community grants but there is plenty of room for...

Absolutely gobsmacked and very dissapointed.Have given only 2 stars, 1 star for service , 1 star for food in which we dined in the embers restaurant. I attended with Fellow workmates for a Christmas diner friday evening. Our theme was tropical so we dressed the part. 2 of my colleagues shared a bottle of wine, no big deal..we all enjoyed our food, the service from staff was great as the conversation we had with staff members that served us throughout the evening. Diner over we adjourned to another part of the club. A staff member in higher authority addressed us stating 1 lady in our group in particular saying she had too much to drink and we needed to leave the club even though we were going to have coffee and dessert they advised we could get takeaway. We were gobsmacked. We werent rowdy or causing disturbance and werent even laughing out loud. The lady with us they had a problem with was absolutely distraught over this well into the next day and really didnt know what she had done wrong. The club was not packed with a lot of people and the atmosphere was quiet and so were we. I wasted paying for a 3 yr membership upon entry earlier that night an now regret that as wont be back. I feel this could of been handled better and i really think a huge over reaction on the clubs part. Our experience very...