The Pines Cronulla — Restaurant in Sydney

This was the first time we ate here after reading great reviews so we gave it a go on Saturday 27th January. First impressions were great - beautiful, clean restaurant right on Cronulla beach and it looked gorgeous. The white interior was spotless and The Pines was certainly well-presented! Top marks… Smiling, attentive staff immediately greeted us on arrival, checked our booking and lead us to our seats looking down the beach. A well-presented table, clean and ready-to-go… Everything great thus far! 👍 The service was quick and attentive (although more smiles and maybe some conversation would have gone down well - the restaurant was only 20% or so full when we got there) and the entrees came lightning fast! My wife had the scollop ceviche and I had the pork jowls. Well, top marks on the pork - well-presented, well cooked, generous and very tasty - top marks. Wowsers. My wife felt the scallop dish was a bit bitter in some way so I finished it off and yes, it was a bit bitter but I still enjoyed it - obviously just a personal thing. The scallops were fresh and very juicy though. Thumbs-up! We also had some warm sourdough and whipped butter which was wonderful. Onto the mains and I chose the Riverina Black Onyx 350g premium steak and my wife had the fillet steak with mash and crispy onions. I chose fries. Both were medium rare. This is where we hit the first issue. My wife’s dish came out fit for royalty, but mine looked like a pub lunch - an $80 pub meal at that. Look at the photo I provided. It was a steak, with chips on the plate and a jus in a small pouring bottle. 🤨 It did raise an eyebrow of disappointment I’ll be honest and low marks there. For the premium dish on the menu it felt lacklustre. Maybe some crispy onion? Fries Jenga-stacked or in a bowl? A jus swirl? ☹️ Nope. It looked like it had just all been thrown on the plate- so different to the other dishes. Very bizarre. Anyhow, the steak was absolutely amazing and cooked perfectly - a true 10/10 on the meat, it just looked like a Hog’s Breath steak lunch. Pretty disappointing - my wife even laughed as her’s was presented beautifully. Her steak was also amazing - well done chefs on the cooking and choice of meats. We had a couple of affagato coffees to finish off the meal (excellent) and I had a couple of beers and the wife had two large glasses of Grant Burge Cab Merlot. All-in-all we were full to the brim and enjoyed the food. Unfortunately the bill was extremely high ($340) and I must admit this wasn’t a shock (we could see the prices after all on the menu) but it felt that for what we had it was a real stretch. Two large glasses of Cab Merlot were just under $50. Ouch. Now in defence of the restaurant, we know the rent is absolutely astronomical for the strip of eateries in this location of Cronulla, and ALL prices have been on the rise as of late, so pub prices are obviously out (!) but for that kind of money it felt the experience was off the mark - and that inexpensive, extra touches NEED to be there - like out-of-the-park customer service and food presentation being just two suggestions. Maybe some other, small touches too? A free chocolate on a plate to round off the meal? A nice note on the side? Anyhow there’s the feedback! I hope it is useful to all who read it, and I welcome...

We were very excited to try The Pines upon opening. Located strolling distance to Cronulla Beach, serving mostly modern Australian dishes and pizzas. The resturant has a clean white Hamptons facade.

Booking ahead was quite essential for a desirable dinner time and was honestly a bit of a lengthy process to what I'm used to. Online bookings required you to sign up as a member and supply bank card details, as you will be charged a fee for last minute cancellations. You are then sent a confirmation text, a text asking you to confirm your booking 48 hours out and a third reminder text 30 minutes prior to your dining time. The pressure is real lol.

Upon arrival we were checked in immediately, seated swiftly and offered table water. The restaurant was packed and super loud to the point it was hard to hear the wait staff at all, there was a bit of a delay in ordering at first but this didn't ruin the atmosphere and we spent almost 2 hours here overall. We were seated in a booth with really comfy seats and views of outside.The resturant lighting was dimmed as the night went on. The staff were very well trained, attentive and lovely considering the rush. Our glasses were constantly filled with table water for us, drinks were checked on for us regularly without having to ask. We ordered the fried squid ($26) to share for entree- the mint and zucchini were a nice add to the dish and we found it big enough for two. We had a main of Lamb Shoulder ($45) and Potato Gnocchi ($35). The mains were again both filling and decent portions. The food was well cooked and fresh.

Our cocktails were very well made and yummy, most priced at $20ea, this didn't deter us from ordering multiple. There is quite an extensive wine list available with the most expensive bottle on the menu a whopping 3k. Red wines were served in a decanter and all bottles were displayed in a lovely glass wine cellar on the resturant floor.

Our waiter recommended the Chocolate Mousse ($18) for dessert as we were pretty full. We did not regret it! It was next level amazing. He definitely contributed to us having an enjoyable night, I wish we had caught his name. I look forward to dining here again and...

Overall, food was nice but not worth the price given what you get at other restraunts close by in both quality and serving size. Locatation is super nice and the atmosphere isn't too bad. My husband and I and our 14 month old arrived on new year's eve at 6:40pm without a reservation and asked if they had a spare table. The guy who served us, who seemed like the manager, was super nice and said he could seat us, and politely said that the table is booked for 9pm but that we have plenty of time. That was completely fine and no issue. Our daughter was a bit restless so it took 3 to 4 minutes to get her settled at the table before we could look at the menus. We just started looking at the menus maybe 4 minutes after we sat down when one of the waitresses came by and asked if we were ready to order. We didn't catch her name but she was a young lady with a nose ring. We politely said that we might need another minute. She responded with "ok, I will come back in a minute, but I need to put in your order asap as we have a lot of people coming tonight". We just smiled and said no worries, but it made us feel unwelcome and like we were peasants or a nuisance for being there. She came back 1 minute later as promised and we put in our order. The food came out within 20mins and was pretty tasty, but we felt the quality and serving sizes weren't worth the high price tag. After the mains, we flagged down the same waitress at around 7:20pm and asked if we could see the dessert menu. She handed us the menus and said "just remember what I said earlier". We ordered dessert, they came out quickly, and were super nice. Had we had a different server, the experience would have been acceptable, but our waitress definitely needs some customer service training and seemed to have a bit of a superior, snobby and condescending attitude the whole time we were there. We left at 7:45pm after paying $140, both still hungry, disappointed with the whole experience, and vowing never to go back. Avoid if you're looking for good service and...