Altitude Restaurant + Lounge Bar — Restaurant in Tasmania

Kitchen and service are not on restaurant level

S41°34.404' E145°56.073' The author of Lonely Planet was very clear about the on-site Altitude restaurant of the Cradle Mountain hotel: it serves lacklustre food with Fawlty Towers–style levels of service. Our conclusion: avoid it, but the Tavern Bar & Bistro and Highland restaurant at Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge were closed due to renovation and the Hellyers restaurant at the Cradle Mountain Wilderness Village only accepted bookings from its own guests. Too late to go to the store, so we had to find out if the kitchen and waiters had received the message from Lonely Planet.

The Altitude restaurant is split into a buffet and à la carte section. When we arrived on time for our 8pm à la carte reservation, a group of Chinese tourists left the buffet restaurant. The à la carte section has more the interior quality of a restaurant, but the choice of music suits a bar rather than a restaurant. A recurring problem in Australia. We were offered a table in front of a blind wall, while there was enough room for this table in front of a window.

In February of 2020, we ordered house made vegan curry with local vegetables, Tasmanian apple chutney and rice (€32) and 200gr Mt Roland eye fillet, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower purée and red wine jus ($46). We were expecting more than three pieces vegetables and the broccoli was not well cooked. The cauliflower purée tasted excellent. Well done. Not sure about size of the plates. Too big according in our opinion, making the food look small and unimportant.

We received good beer advice to match the dishes, but during the main course, the good service collapsed: we were rushed to order the dessert, like the other six tables, because the kitchen was closing. Please, do take 8pm reservations if you cannot give your guests the time to enjoy their main courses. Most guests left without dessert, but we ordered a cheese platter ($21) to evaluate Lonely Planet’s opinion that the Altitude restaurant serves lacklustre food with Fawlty Towers–style levels of service.

In our opinion, the quality of the food has improved beyond lacklustre but the service was still Fawlty Towers–style. This restaurant does not operate on the altitude level of proper...

Service and atmosphere are completely fine.

But sadly the Dinner Buffet was average and I think $58 is a lot for the very average quality.

We are vegetarian so the price further added insult to injury! We chose from pumpkin soup, a side of vegetables in a tasteless sauce cooked to the end of its life, super unhealthy gnocchi in heavy cream, and baked whole sweet potatoes in sesame (which was the best part). The salad bar consisted of bowl of rocket, a bowl of spinach and a bowl of cos lettuce with some pickled veg, tomatoes and olives to throw on top. The prepared salad dish was chopped tomato and thawed out grated mozzarella. (No, it was NOT a caprese salad!) Also a (tinned) potato salad.

For meat eaters, you might be happy with the 3 types of meat and wallaby ham. Perhaps that is worth the $58?

Dessert was dry thawed out Sara Lee slices and an apple crumble which was awfully bland! I can’t believe I have to say I think it needed some sugar..? All the fresh cut fruit was gone and not replenished by the time we got to dessert at 7.30pm - sadly that was all I was waiting for!

Normally there is a vegetarian price and this time we really hoped there was, but very surprisingly not! We mentioned to the staff on the night and the manager the next day that we struggled to find $119 of value between us and didn’t think the food was very good. Unfortunately they didn’t agree and were quite defensive. Must hear it a lot, yet nothing is done about it, I guess that’s why there weren’t many people dining.

It’s not all doom and gloom, Breakfast this morning was quite good! Lots of...

We stayed at Peppers next door for two nights and booked a dinner at Altitude on the 29 of December 2016 for a change of scenery. For my main course I chose Local Blue-eye Trevalla on a bed of a prawn risotto. When the dish arrived, the first thing I’ve noticed was a size that was rather small for $34.50 price tag but the worst was yet to come: not only was the fish terribly overcooked, it was so salty that it made me sick. We called the waiter and explained the problem; he apologised and took the plate back to the kitchen. It took the chef another 10 minuted to come up with a fresh dish by which time my husband’s food became cold. Unfortunately, the second dish was not much better then the first, still tough overcooked fish but this time it was not seasoned at all. It was pointless to complain again as it became crystal clear that the chef who cooked the fish didn’t know how to cooked properly. Both my husband and I were so upset about the whole experience that all we wanted at that point was pay to the bill and get out.

When we complained to the supervisor, she mentioned that according to the head chef who was on leave that day that the Blue Trevalla was not available and was substituted with another fish that should’ve been mentioned on the menu but it wasn’t. Furthermore, I strongly believe that knowing how to cook a perfect fish is one of the fundamental skills of being a chef and the chef who does not have such a skill should not be in the kitchen.

I would rate the service 4 stars and...