Cockatoo Overboard — Restaurant in Sydney

I need to express my disappointment about this place because I believe that they could have done so much better, by doing very little. The location is perfect: the island needs a place where to have a coffee, a beer, a bite, sitting in front of a great side of the Sydney's skyline, right next to the wharf. How can you possibly be not able to offer a good service when you have all the potential of a great business? The service is slow, the guys working there are fine but they look exhausted (probably they are, but it's so odd to have such a cold customer service in Australia), the food choice is not too bad, but the quality is awful. They manage to serve bad chips and dipping!! The hummus was bad. The flat bread was bad! How can you not do these things right? This is basic hospitality knowledge. Please do something about it. It's a shame. The "Mr and Ms plate" to share was big enough for 4 people, to have a snack while drinking a beer and chatting the evening away... A bit of meat and calamari for 50$. Good price, but the taste was absolutely not good. I heard people behind me complaining about the burgers! And I saw them, they were terrible. Please fix it!! I would like to come back again there and enjoy the island with all my senses. You can do it...

EXPENSIVE & RUDE SERVICE 🙄 We wanted to order Tempus Two wine but the oldish lady at the cashier said they have runout but wanted us to try their house wine. When I saw the half filled bottle, I asked when was it opened ? She said it was opened yesterday but its good to go for few days more. Since we dont like to drink wine from half opened bottles, we chose to go for 2 Coronas which are obviously bottled and fresh. But she didnt like it because we didnt go for her opened wine bottle, hence said thats a "poor choice" which I think was a kind of racist comment. When I asked if she would put lemon wedges into the Corona, she said only if customers ask. Finally after the pizza was delivered, it got blown away due to high winds since it was delivered atop a wine barrel. Unfortunately we could not enjoy our Pizza and had to throw away $18 which was too expensive for a small pizza. The lady at the counter looks like the owner and is supposed to be of Greek origin who was very racist because of our skin colour. NEVER EVER GO TO THIS PLACE. Rather go to the "Marina bar & cafe" on the other side. Also when we asked for a garden umbrella they refused saying due to high winds bit we could see how other 'white' customers...

Ownership change desperately needed here. This family-owned restaurant is failing its patrons, and an alert owner would be viewing something like Pasture of Balmoral as an aspiration. The idyllic location of this restaurant is in stark contrast to a cafe serving overpriced sub-par food in cardboard boxes. The lack of food options on Cockatoo island means that Societe Overboard can actually get away with a sub-par menu and high pricing (this wouldn’t be a factor if quality was good). The business model is clearly not working.

Some of the waitering staff are gems and so friendly. But our experience with one staff member in particular made me realize how far behind the curve this cafe is. Her comments when I questioned flexibility of breakfast roll options (for kids) were undeserved.

For an $18.50 serving of Chilli eggs, it’s actually served in a brown box with no cutlery, napkins etc and is something that can be easily whipped up at home (especially since they used the Masterfoods Chilli Sauce).

So when we come back to Cockatoo, my serious hope is to see a new operation and owner with a vision for what a grand island...