Rhonda's Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Terrigal

Rhonda's bar and restaurant is back open! It is a newly revamped venue in the heart of the Central Coast, close to the Crowne Plaza hotel, Terrigal. It is a top destination to visit for a weekend or easy enough to head up for the day.

The restaurant itself is a large fresh bright open space, beautifully styled in a Hampton’s style decking and furniture and the decor is apt for the area. Rhondas also has a rooftop bar with ocean views. This makes Rhonda's the perfect spot for a bite and some beverages whilst enjoying the sea breeze and stunning view.

Rhonda’s has extremely personable staff, good vibes and a great playlist. You would find this a great venue for afternoon drinks, dinner or even a party with friends.

The bar is well stocked, so take your pick of a craft beer, wine or a cocktail. With a cocktail menu designed by Quynh Nguyen one of Sydney's finest cocktail curators, you will find many a great drink and in particular, they have some original cocktails that are a must.

The ‘Garibaldi Punch’ made using four pillars gin, campari orange, marmalade and rosemary bitters was a great gin based cocktail.

The ‘Rosetta’ was savoury tasting cocktail of campo de encanto pisco, fino sherry, strawberry cherry tomato, rose and basil and was beautiful mix of flavours.

We also enjoyed Rhonda's take on an old fashioned, called the ‘Sicilian Godfather’, this choc orange cocktail consisted of monkey shoulders whisky, drambuie, solerno, blood orange, balsamic, choc bitters and it was a quality version of the old fashioned food.

We thoroughly recommend visiting and catching up with friends for a drink or two here.

Food wise, you’ll find authentic Italian, served is made using premium quality local ingredients and the menu offering antipasto, wood fired pizza and pasta made from scratch.

The Antipasto share board will get you in the mood for your dining experience. The array of delights includes a mix of quality cured meats including; salami casalingo, brescaola and Parma ham. There is also light a creamy buratta, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, zucchini and fresh grissini bread. Other entrees include foccaia, olives, king prawns or bruschetta. Perfect to accompany your cocktail or glass of wine.

Rhonda's have a range of tomato and white base woodfired thin crust pizza, made using wholemeal flour, a great option to share or enjoy your own. The ‘La Diavola’ is always a go to and did not disappoint, topped with buffalo mozzarella, pepperoni, Sopressa, chilli and rocket. There are plenty of options to choose from, whether you prefer chicken, mushroom or the classic margherita. Cooked in the authentic Italian way in the wood fired rotary oven.

The pastas are made from scratch, using Stagioni flour and these are produced into classic combinations with phenomenal flavour. We loved the squid ink fettuccine, served on a vibrant blue glazed plate and was one that pleased all diners. The dish was very inviting with a delicious tomato based sauce, cherry tomatoes, a generous serving of sweet spanner crab meat and topped with fresh basil.

Gnocchi is another go to, this dish was comforting with its pillow like dumplings, served with cubes of tender porkbelly and porcini, in a rich well balanced parma ham broth with truffle oil. Writing this post has me salivating about the flavours of this dish over and over again.

To finish, we made room for dessert inspired by the nutella ravioli. With a crisp fried outer shell and then there is an explosion of nutella when you bite into it. A berry coulis cutting through the richness of the nutella and the vanilla ice cream complementing this dessert. They also have gelato made in house using seasonal flavours.

As an added bonus they have a $12 Pasta special on Saturday 12noon till 5pm and $12 Pizza special on Sunday from 12noon till 8pm.

The food here is outstanding and perfectly apt for the clientele and location by the sea. We thoroughly recommend for you to head out of Sydney to visit the beautiful beach of Terrigal on the central coast and be sure to pop...

Hi Rhonda,

I never write reviews, but I feel like I must share this experience.

I have been trying to dine at your restaurant for months, but every time we come by, you are always booked out. I don’t blame you, the place looks pretty awesome.

We finally got a reservation after a few tries, and let’s just say, it was well worth the wait.

We have dinned 3 times in a matter of 5 days, twice downstairs and once upstairs in our total of 3 visits over the last week. (On the 25th, 28th and then again on the 30th of this month.) The food was so incredible, I was back for more every 2 days! Each time bringing someone different along with me to share the experience. My partner and I visited you for dinner to celebrate our anniversary, two days later I was back with my daughter for a mother-daughter girls dinner, and 2 days later I came back again with my mother.

The service from start to finish every single time was on point. In my previous profession, I was a Fine Dining Food and Beverage Attended at some of the most renowned Restaurants and Hotel chains in Sydney, so my expectations of good host and service are already quite high. I was so impressed and blown away to see that your staff achieved a flawless level of service this with such ease, and provided an amazing experience by creating a warm and cozy atmosphere. The young gent (in the front of house) with short hair and a mo was such a pleasure to deal with. I’m sorry I didn’t get his name. He was so friendly, upbeat, vibrant, and he just seemed so happy in life. His energy was completely contagious and his presence just made us all smile. Sometimes you get people that try to be over-the-top friendly and bubbly and it feels quite obnoxious and in your face that you just want them to leave you alone, but to the contrary, he was the perfect amount of bubbly.. and I think this is because he didn’t have to put on an act, you could see he was just a genuine and happy guy. He definitely created a warm and comfortable atmosphere and set the tone for evening to come.

On the topic of atmosphere, I will say however, that the music in the dining area downstairs was too loud for the occasion. I can understand the roaring music upstairs, as it is more of a drinks and pizza bar environment with an outdoor smoking section, however the music was too loud to enjoy a conversation over dinner in the dining room downstairs.

Each time we have wanted to order dessert, but decided to leave early right after the mains as I had a proper headache by that point. Last time we visited, I brought my mother along. Mum became extremely unwell from a migraine by the time the mains arrived due of the sensory overload from the volume of the music. I too was feeling another headache coming on. In short, the volume doesn’t fit the dining vibe.

Nonetheless, this microscopic issue is completely insignificant when you look at the greater picture.

You have me completely hooked on the food. I have woken up in the middle of the night, craving your pumpkin ravioli.. (and I don’t even like pumpkin!) but somehow I am completely addicted. I have ordered it every single time. The pizza's are cooked to perfection and the scallops wrapped in prosciutto has got to be my favorite entre (although I think this was a temporary item, chef special maybe?). I can not wait to try one of your desserts some time. The Nutella Ravioli sounds out of this world. I would love to see some more typical Italian desserts, like an oversized slice of tiramisu, or cannoli etc.

All in all, Rhonda, you are 10 for me! We will be...

We have family on the central coast and enjoy coming to Terrigal and Rhonda’s. We have been here several times and as per some other reviews logged, we have had some odd behaviour from the older blonde lady on the floor. We have enjoyed the food so we let her abrupt service (slamming of plates on the table, arrogant attitude, making us feel uncomfortable) slide until we revisited last night.

My wife was not feeling well so we headed out early so we could eat and go back to the hotel quickly. The restaurant hadn’t seated all customers yet given we were so early however we were advised that they were fully booked for the evening but they could offer us a table at the bar top which was a nice offer so we accepted.

We enjoyed a drink at the bar and the bar staff were lovely and friendly. We then ordered food before it started to get too busy. Our sides that we ordered with the mains came out quickly but no main course. After 30 mins we were looking around to see where our mains were to go with our sides that were sitting getting cold. We flagged down our waiter but they were super busy by now and quiet stressed. We asked one of the waitresses for an update but nobody returned. 15 mins later we asked for a second update - still nothing. 50 mins has now passed, the restaurant was full, my wife was not well and we were being ignored.

My wife went to the bathroom so I approached the older lady on the floor to simply ask for an update on our food so I could see if we should stay or go as my wife was becoming increasingly unwell. I was greeted with a smirk, and an arrogant attitude which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a restaurant when asking a simple question. I was told “my colleague and I have been giving you running updates” which was untrue. When I tried to clarify this with her and advised I was only after an update on the food, she replied “we were kind enough to sit you at the bar, but maybe we shouldn’t have done” with a big sarcastic smile. This condescending attitude was unwarranted and completed uncalled for. My wife returned, we cancelled the food and promptly left.

My wife, family and I have been in and around the hospitality industry in Australia and internationally for over 30 years so we fully appreacited that they were busy and perhaps short staffed. To be spoken to in this manner and ignored after we were customers asking for an update on our order is completely uncalled for.

If the owner of the venue reads this feedback, we strongly advise they reconsider having staff like this on the team. This is not the first time we have experienced irratic behaviour by this lady. Other online reviews flag this also.

Proceed...