Parkside Bar And Kitchen — Restaurant in Tasmania

Worst experience of our 3 week trip around Tasmania. Terrible service, terrible food and terrible atmosphere.

Arrived on a beautiful sunny day and asked to sit alfresco to enjoy the sunshine and look out across the view this restaurant has. Was told they don't let people sit on alfresco because they'd have to move inside tables and open doors. Very unusual considering there is a large alfresco area, but ok, we were still happy to sit inside and enjoy a nice meal.

Unfortunately, the nice meal never came. We got food, but there was nothing nice about it. Started with entrees and then was planning to have mains and dessert. The calamari was the worst we've ever had in our lives. Not edible at all. Super tough. Clearly overcooked to the point I could of broken a window with it (maybe that would open up alfresco).

Felt terrible telling the waitress but we knew we wouldn't be eating it and didn't want to waste our money. Waitress got the manager. Now, I'm not sure how this person got the managers position as she was so condescending, rude and passive aggressive towards us. She clearly lacks experience in hospitality and her customer service skills are seriously lacklustre.

She claimed the calamari was fine (did you taste test it prior to it coming to our table?). We are honestly the people that don't complain unless something is very very bad. And this was.

She reluctantly took the calamari back to the kitchen where the chef admitted it was overcooked and offered to replace it. I was hesitant to get another one just because the previous one really put me off and honestly I wish we had of just requested a refund but we got the replacement and although it was better than the first, it still wasn't cooked right and certainly wasn't enjoyable. For "local" calamari, they aren't doing it justice. None of the other entree items ordered were nice either.

We tried being polite & understanding about the situation but her attitude and bad demeanor made us finish up our drinks and then skip mains and dessert altogether. We went elsewhere to finish our evening.

So don't bother going here! Plenty of other places that will do better and you won't have to suffer like we did at the hands of a manager who clearly shouldn't be in a customer...

Terrible experience. Topped off with rudeness when providing gentle genuine feedback on the night & then one of our party received a response by the restaurant on google lying about receiving private feedback from others at our table that the food was fine. 😡🤬

I can tell you - I WAS at that table of 4 & no one enjoyed their meal. Don’t lie; don’t be rude.

Feedback was given to help you improve but when you respond with “that’s your issue” “it’s just not to your taste” or “have you ever run a restaurant” (like I’ve seen is others google reviews)you are going to get loads of people speaking out. It is NOT Okay!

Here is what we jointly wrote about our experience:

Scallops for entree were tiny, flavourless & had a foul smell - we wouldn’t even finish this entree. Arancini balls were also bland. We explained that we couldn't finish the scallops and the feedback back to us from the chef was that "it is how it is served and it must just be your taste".

The $50 rib fillet steak was actually an eye fillet + and extra half an eye fillet cut in half popped on the plate to beef up the size - sauce all over the bottoms of the plate with soggy chips - not even close to worth $50 spend.

Pork belly seemed to be dressed in fish sauce and was extremely dry.

Luckily there was plenty of local wine to choose from which was a saving grace.

Overall, I don't mind if food is not fantastic from time to time (and particularly being midweek), but I never fathomed that nicely provided feedback would be met with, "well that must be your taste" - so rude! I definitely won't be back and would never recommend this restaurant.

We had so many wonderful meals around Tassie… but...

I really like the atmosphere of the Parkside Bar and Kitchen and it is in a beautiful setting and has been fitted out very well. The first time I went there was for a coffee with a friend and although it was not busy it took half an hour for us to be served our 2 coffees. The second time we went for dinner with family and friends. There were 3 families and we were not advised until we were being served that the bill would not be split. The meals were lovely and the service was reasonable..a little slow and one dessert was not served but we were not charged for it so not a real problem. I just think that in this day and age that not to be able to split a bill is unreasonable. I mentioned this to a staff member and was told that their system just does not allow that unless we just split the bill 3 ways. We had already worked out what each family had to pay but instead of each family being able to pay separately each with a credit card we had to have one family pay the lot with their credit card and the other 2 families had to scratch around to find enough cash to give the couple that paid with their credit card cash. Not good enough in these days where we are nearly a cashless society. Also be aware that there is a 10% surcharge on Sundays as well as Public Holidays. Other establishments that we frequent do not have a problem splitting bills and their systems allow it so again why does a new establishment's system not allow it. I would like this review to be taken as constructive criticism as it is a lovey venue but just disappointing for us to experience...