The Clarendon Arms — Restaurant in Tasmania

UPDATE AFTER RESPONSE BY OWNER, Regardless of if sourced locally or not, for the price, the quantity was a complete joke, I'm sorry, but 2 slices of 1 pickled onion, thats 1/4 of 1 pickled onion, it is honestly pathetic, and the fact that you reeled of the list of ingredients, rather than address the MAIN COMPLAINT, ie, they abysmal amount of food for the money, speaks mountains. I stand by my review, if there were even 1 onion halved, a whole scotch egg (menu did not say 1/2 a scotch egg), at least double the cheese, enough butter for the bread supplied, and double the meat, even then, 35 would be pushing it, but would have been acceptable. I'm sorry, but for what you are charging, this was totally unacceptable! Again, 1/4 of a pickled onion, SERIOUSLY!!! Presentation was nice though, guess thats worth 20 bucks :/ Decided to have a snack and drink with wifey. Beer garden here with a live accoustic set drew us in. We ordered a cheese and meat board, $35. Rare beef, leg ham, pickled onions, stone baked bread, scotch egg, pickled veges, some special butter and hot english mustard. We also got an alcoholic ginger ale on tap and a mulled wine. The board looked great, until closer inspection, there were 2 X slices of deli beef, 2 small slices of cheap ham, 2 slices of a pickled onion, you read that correctly, 2 slices of an onion, so about ¼ of one pickled onion, 1 cherry tomato cut in chalf, literally less than a tablespoon of the pickles veg, 3 small slices of bread, not enough butter for 1 slice, let alone 3, and if you put the 3 together would make barely 1 slice of bread, about 20g of cheddar cheese and ½ a Scotch egg. I can, with 99.99% certainty, say that the bread and meats,are straight out of the Coles or woolies deli, without a doubt. For $35 this was absolutely pathetic. As for the drinks, theulled wine was delicious, but the wineglass served in was the smallest I have ever seen, wouldn't have been even 50ml in it and as for the alcoholic ginger ale, it was nice, my wife is 4 foot 7 and 40kg, she gets blind on one cruiser, this drink had zero effect on her, so I don't believe there is any alcohol content at all, but the reason for the review is, I just got home and checked the transaction, and it was nearly $70, so what was basically a shot of wine and a glass of ginger ale was almost $35, what the ad???!!!!!!! Was going to call but they are closed and not reopening until Wednesday. Great ambiance, but an...

Don't go to the Clarendon Arms if you believe that food should be well prepared, well presented and appropriately priced and that service should be prompt and respectful. About three-quarters of an hour after our order of salads, fish pies and a platter had not arrived, I left our table to raise the tardiness with the staff. I received a surly response in which I was told that the wait was 'standard' and that we would have been served more promptly had we booked. I suggested that because the place was only 2/3 full it was more likely that the kitchen wasn't coping. The food that eventually arrived was way below par. One of the copper ramekins containing a fish pie was far from full and my 'Christmas Salad' was a similar distance from festive. It consisted of industrial sliced turkey, that you'd find in a supermarket, mixed with some kind of filler with a few semi-dried cranberries scattered over the top and two snow peas/mange-touts at either end of the rectangular plate. Similarly, the 'green salad' on other plates may well have been a handful of leaves from the supermarket with halved cherry tomatoes through it and a commercial dressing dribbled over it. The platter looked cheap and ungenerous. The waitress apologised for our wait but walked away, seeming not to notice that two meals were missing. She had to be chased. A woman at a table near us had tried to get the same waitress's attention but gave up after the third failure. Her table of four left as soon as they had finished eating. That said, it is lovely to be under the shady trees in the garden at the back of the Clarendon Arms and I'd go back to have a drink there with friends, but eating is out of the question until standards return to the glory days of quite long ago at this establishment. We have been going to the Clarendon Arms for years, during annual visits to Tasmania, but we won't return until we hear reliable reports noting a big turnaround. There are so many good alternatives in beautiful Tasmania. The Tamar Valley and the Seaport in Launceston are good alternatives and they...

1 Star Review: Disappointing Experience

Our experience at the Clendon Arms was shockingly disappointing. We reserved a table in advance, but when we arrived, the staff couldn’t even locate our booking. It was chaos from the start.

When I went to the bar to order, a staff member stopped me and told us to order at the table instead. Yet when we did, they informed us that drinks couldn't be ordered that way. Why stop me at the bar if I couldn’t order from the table? It made no sense.

To top it off, they messed up our order. When the waiter brought out the wrong dishes, he insisted the food was for our table, almost as if he thought we didn’t understand what we ordered. We then had to wait for someone to come out, issue a cash refund, and redo our order.

We ordered the Spanish tapas for two at $65—what an absolute rip-off. The bread was stale and crumbled apart, making it nearly inedible. The octopus was missing pieces, and there was only a single slice of prosciutto we had to split, giving each of us half a bite. It was barely $15 worth of food, let alone $65.

To add to the insult, a schooner of James Boag cost $16! An outrageous price for what should have been a simple, enjoyable night out. We left feeling completely ripped off and unsatisfied. We won’t be coming back and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

That small bucket of chips is $12 and it was cold and way too salty. This place is ripping customer off. Oh t was an extra $2 for Sauce.

We were here several months ago and it was great. The same staff were there. What happened? Disappointing. Shame on you. Small families struggling come here after the markets and get ripped off. No thanks. Well being our...