Apollo Bay Fishermen's Co-Op — Restaurant in Victoria

When arrived in Apollo Bay, the weather absolutely rough but in saying that, I do believe that is also the appeal of the entire experience. With raging winds and heavy rain, our options were to eat inside the car or outside the eating area.

Haven't had a lot of lobster dishes in Victoria, especially in Melbourne at the many various wine bars, but the grilled lobster here was just perfect! The freshness of the lobster often questioned whether I was eating such an incredible mud crab or whether this is the best lobster we've had and it was definitely the latter. The lobster was just so full of meat, juicy and tender, grilled with herb butter. Served with a slice of lemon and seafood sauce(?) which almost felt like an optional add-on because the lobster was finished with almost little to no use of the seafood sauce.

We also ordered the seafood platter that came with fried fish, chips, salad, fried calamari, fresh scallops and fresh prawns. Fried fish was very crunchy and flaky inside, just a solid fried fish. A healthy amount chips was also served where we were not drowning in finishing the chips. Salad was light and went well with everything on the platter. Great fried calamari and the scallops and prawns were just incredibly fresh and delicious.

The aggressive weather raining on myself, blowing tissues on other customers was just appealling to the nature of how fresh the food was. An easy sacrifice for incredible food despite our clothes getting fairly drenched.

Absolutely worth the drive and worth getting rained on. No brainer for me.

Also forgot to mention that it had a great price point for how delicious...

Looking at some of the reviews we were excited to get some " fresh seafood". After all this place is a Fishermans Co-op and located right next to the harbor...should be awesome right..quite a few 5 star reviews.. Well not so much. We arrived @ 6:00. An hour before closing. Seating was limited but grabbed the only 2 seats available. Tried the fresh shucked oysters. They came out in about 5 minutes. Tiny little oysters. They did not seem freshly shucked. Kind of fishy tasting. Would not order them again. Tried the seafood platter. Fried fish was okay. Not going to be memorable. Some of the fish was " fishy" leading me to believe it was not fresh. It should be at least we thought. Calamari was not fresh, like it was pre- cooked and held under a heat lamp. Kind of dry. No flavor.. Scallops were tiny, about the size of a fingernail. Again, warm at best and not that good. Prawns, seemed old. They were big but that's about it. Chips were good. The best part of the meal was probably the coleslaw. Just not the great seafood meal I think we were expecting. A bit...

Taste like an angry fish market.

Oysters not fresh I ended with tummy ache - I assumed it would be straight off the boat maybe I’m wrong. Fish and chips - the most easy item is bad. Crumbs are soft and moist. As if I took over the item from someone who ordered and left. Lobster - part of it are not cooked 🤮

Staff have to shout for each order to be served. Some families sitting far away are not able to hear. Worst, the staff got agitated. I had to hear the angry shouting every time an order is ready to be served. I was ok with the shouting until I tasted raw lobster. Why not consider a queue number system to display order number ready to be collected instead of the shouting and getting everyone frustrated? That old staff of yours can consider retirement or do something more productive.

Maybe it’s filled with annoying tourist these days. Hence, everyone is affected by the mood.

Hope you will be able to turn around soon. Location is good - looks like a place you could have daily fresh catch and cooked with passion....