Fishbone Wines — Restaurant in Western Australia

i was the primary guest who made the booking at this location, and i was paying for the other 6 guests. the waitress (apparently from uruguay) stood at the top of the table and only took orders from two of my friends who monopolized on the dishes until i asked for some vegan rolls for the vegan guests. she still didn't ask anyone else or take it her responsibility to go round the table which meant the other four (five including me) guests had no choice. when i asked her twice about the sake both times she went off to ask from the kitchen and both times she returned without directly passing the info on to me until i attracted her attention and asked again. in fact i found it difficult why the waiting staff didn't understand what was written on the menu. i thought this was a must in all restaurants. but australia is always well short on inductions and training of staff. two stars were for a couple of the other sushi rolls. otherwise all the hot dishes tasted like rancid oil eg agedashi tofu, gyoza, fried prawns. in cape town, south africa i noticed they don't use vegetable seed oil which is toxic and even more so when heated. Hint: use coconut oil which is healthy and non toxic when heated. south africa (remember this is a very poor country compared to australia) also has a rule that if the cooking oil is used more than twice an inspector who does the testing will close down the restaurant and the owner will lose his licence. the first slice of salmon nori maki (sushi roll), i put in my mouth, had a piece of unchewable raw salmon which kinda put me off the whole meal. being a sweet tooth i was delighted to read there were michelin-trained chef's desserts; however, the icecream dessert tasted far more exciting than the michelin-looking desserts which tasted rather bland eg couldn't taste anything of the miso paste in the white choco mousse affair and the yuzi, whilst tasting yuzi-ish in the centre, wasn't really a sweet. big let down. the ambience wasn't that great or as expected. perhaps needs a bit of a boost with a new japanese chef and decor and matching music with staff that care for all its customers - after all aren't we paying your wages (noticed a number of reviews with similar complaints about fishbone staff?) also wouldn't be bad to have some...

My partner and I divide our time between Perth and Margaret River and more often than not when we are down in Margs we are lucky enough to have friends come and stay. We currently have our very good friends from the UK here for a wedding and to that end they were looking for a restaurant to take all 18 in their party to. These were a mix of family from London, Hongkong and Auckland....and us. We suggested Fishbone as it had been a while since we had been there for a meal. They had confirmed the lunch booking for Sunday February 9 but 2 of the party (a couple) could not attend due to circumstances out of their control and so the number that arrived became 16. Sadly shortly after we sat down our waitress advised that management had asked her to advise that we were going to be charged for the 18! We were embarrassed and quite honestly annoyed. Over the years we have dined at a lot of restaurants in the area and never had this occur before. Certainly in the last few years 'post Covid' most bookings require a nominal credit card charge which we understand and accept. Advising that our party of 16 were going to be charged for 18 was we feel rude, unnecessary and actually coloured the experience for everyone right from the start. The others discussed how extraordinary it was and we (as locals) were simply embarrassed and very disappointed that this had occurred. The service and the front of house staff were very good, the quality of the food was average and we will certainly not be recommending Fishbone to other friends or guests and will no longer have it on our list for potential dining venues. Margaret River and surrounds offer a lot of choice these days and the quality is exceptional. Treating guests in the manner Fishbone did is short-sighted...

We went to Fishbone winery for my birthday lunch this week (June). Fabulous wine tasting pre lunch ($10 charge though which is newish) It used to be free. Food was wonderful as usual. We ordered the rainbow sushi roll and the double salmon sushi roll as well as one vegetarian roll. The double salmon and the vegetarian were more tasty than the rainbow roll by quite a lot. It just didn’t wow us. We also ordered the Miso Dengaku salad. This was cracking and delicious but half the size that it was four yrs ago when we went. This was disappointing as it was still 30 odd dollars. I think it’s too expensive for its size as it’s only vegetables, no seafood or meat. I don’t think it warrants being that price. But I would still order it again as the flavours are so good. We also ordered the spicy edamame beans to start with. These come warm which is nice in winter. They are so tasty and the spice level doesn’t blow your head off but it’s a good hit. They have excellent vegetarian and vegan options on their menu that actually taste amazing. You don’t feel as though you’re missing out line in some restaurants. The wine was excellent, dessert great too with tasty gluten free and dairy free options that actually tasted really good. Laura our waitress was so attentive and helpful. Francesco on wine tasting was wonderful too. We love this winery amd will always visit when in...