Ocean Restaurant and Bar - Blue Bay — Restaurant in The Entrance

March 2023: As beach days wind to a close for the season there’s still time to squeeze in a short break at another motel-meets-destination-restaurant couplet. Ocean Restaurant takes up prime position at the water’s edge of the Ocean Front Motel. Along with the golden sands of Roberts Beach at your doorstep, it’s a minute away from The Entrance Ocean Baths and about ten minutes walk up the coast to the town centre.

Using a theatrical black box approach, the restaurant centralises an uninterrupted view of the ocean. There are two ways to eat: a la carte or two- and three-course menus ($65/$75) chosen from a reduced selection of dishes. The interest lies on the wider menu with snacks like neatly sawn-off pieces of bone marrow come topped with Avruga caviar and crème fraiche ($16). It’s great scooped out onto house-made potato crisps with Kizakura premium yamahai sake ($10/glass) chosen because the by-the-glass list lacked interest.

Entrees, like Fremantle octopus ($25) grilled over wood and teamed with saltbush, Rodriguez sausage and roast vegetables in a tomato-based sauce, are so generously proportioned they’re fine to share. Mains, from black Angus Riverina beef ($48) to the market fish of the day ($46) are pricy but they don’t require sides. The beef, which was under seasoned and not presented at the requested medium-rare, sat on truffled Paris mash with parsnips and a whisky mushroom sauce. The fish, rock ling, was well-cooked with a caviar cream sauce, salmon roe and chewy pre-cooked prawns that didn’t really add to the experience. Dining on a Sunday attracts a ten per cent surcharge.

April 2022: Ocean Restaurant & Bar throw the kitchen sink at their Tasmanian sea scallops ($24/3). The trio of plump, roe-off scallops arrive under shaved Grana Padano, toasted hazelnuts, crumbled morcilla, fresh chives and lemon truffle butter, but their delicate flavour is surprisingly evident. Local Pacific oysters from Empire Bay ($26/6) are another stacks-on affair topped with shallots, fingerlime pearls, trout roe and mirin, and arranged around a tub of creamy cocktail sauce. Again though, despite the number of ingredients, it leaves a hole so you can still taste the oyster. Both entrees eat well against a little glass flask of yamahai sake ($9) with an on-tap Sapporo ($9) chaser from their bar.

The fish of the day was Tasman sea trout ($39) presented in a generous crisp-skinned slab with a delicate white butter sauce accentuated with cheese balanced by vegetables. Wrapped into a pretty pastry parcel, the Muscovy duck ($42) maryland is accompanied by a slice of breast meat, the last of the season’s cherry jam, red brassicas and greens. It’s a pricy but generously proportioned main that rules out dessert, but leaves me with a positive net impression of this glass...

This is my second time here. I dont remember my first experience but I can give a review on my second. Atmosphere is great and so is the view of the ocean but if they had open windows that be amazing and perfect. Service was okay, they seemed new but they were nice I guess thought after serving 3 glasses of lemonade to my three brothers they ran out? Well I can't judge. The food well I can say its not worth $290 the Bennalong resturant cost more but it was worth more than this. I will talk the pros and cons. The best dish was the smoked salmon topped what seemed to be like chips and ikura roe and under the salmon was sauce that tasted either sour cream or really light mayonnaise. The smoked scent made me want to eat abit more and I like the chip and the sauce a really good combination. The garlice bread I laughed becauce its just bread with a side of this garlic sauce with oil but bread was nice. I liked one of the cocktails which was called cosmopolitan which had vodka and cranberry. The scallops with these slices of cheese i think it was parmasean and pieces of gnocchi was nice. I liked the gnocchi soft and chewy and is not over powered like some other gnocchis I have tasted. The scallops are really soft and chewy, these dishes have flavor even when I was drinking my cocktail. What would have been my best experience. The oysters half was just "fresh" raw oysters and the other is topped with green flying fish row, this greasy chives and ikura roe. I have eatened many fresh oysters, not a fan with this one the three toppings was just weird you taste the saltiness of the ikura oil from the chives and the taste of the flying fish roe. Not a good combo I wanted to spit it out. The dish I ordered is this trout I think its a hybrid trout topped wity ikura and flying fish roe and pieces of cucumber with ink spagetti and white sauce. I did not enjoy it, the trout was soft but I felt like I was eating mash potato with raw trout, ink spagetti was tasteless so I am eating watery noodles, I think the cucumber was pointless because you are eating really soft trout that it taste mushy. The octopus it tasted funny noy really grilled just soft and inside is tasteless. I wanted to drink something fizzy cause I had much ikura, flying fish roe and that greasy chive and that mushy trout or I would barf. But amyways is it worth around $290 nah not really. Where I live I can buy a dozed of fresh oysters and some trout and make it myself and it be less than $100. But anyways second time not liking it is a sign so I kinda hope I don't come here but take it as a feedback. It was hard to decide what I should...

I've eaten at the Ocean Restaurant before, and had some of the best meals I've ever eaten. After the last time, though, I'd think twice before going back.

Not that it was terrible, but we had a starter, an entrée, two mains, two servings of bread, two beers and a glass of champagne, and it cost $170. And for that sort of money, I expect it to be exceptional. Unfortunately, it was only marginally better than a pub meal.

The bread was very nice (olive bread with honey & thyme), the starter (quail) and entrée (lobster slipper) were pretty good, but my $42 eye fillet steak (main) was dry - only the last mouthful was great. The accompanying mushrooms and jus were outstanding, but that's it. My wife had the cold seafood platter, and she loved all the seafood, but the mussels were tiny. Laughably so. It was almost an insult serving them up.

Sadly, the service was uninspiring too. It was efficient, but cold and felt subtly unfriendly. We didn't feel welcome. To the contrary, we felt we were an imposition. Plus, even though my wife booked a month ago, we were given a table right near the front door, desk and reverse-cycle air-conditioning. And the AC was blowing cold air all over us. I don't suffer much from the cold, but I had to go back to the car to get my jacket, and even though I ran back and put my jacket on, I was still cold under the AC. Freezing. I was so uncomfortable, it was all I could think about. Eventually, I said something about it, and the waitress said she'd turned the temp down because it was stuffy, but she would turn it back up. I said I don't want to make everyone else suffer, and was happy to take another table (no window tables left), but she said no, it was probably just her. She then turned the temperature up, and I was no longer cold, so when she came back to the table, I thanked her, and she repeated that it was probably just her. This was nothing terrible, but it's subtly unwelcoming. She positioned the issue as a question of her comfort or mine, so I spent the rest of the night feeling guilty that she was now uncomfortable.

No finger bowl with the seafood, either, and a few other little things. And at the end of the night, they over-charged us by $40. Tried to hit us up for the hot & cold seafood platter, when we only ordered the cold. They apologised and fixed it, but then spent quite a bit of time explaining how I could add a tip with their eftpos machine...!

All up, very disappointing. Perhaps mostly because I now don't have a favourite restaurant on the Coast. I fear the Ocean has gone the way of Onda. Great in its early days, but...