Harbourfront Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Wollongong City Council

New Years Eve 2018 - Unbelievably disappointed ☹️.

Spent NYE 2017 here and it was up there with one of the best NYE's I've ever had - food, fireworks and an excellent lively band that played music designed to make people dance and sing along too (80's and 90's classics etc delivered with high energy and enthusiasm) and by 10.30pm virtually everyone was dancing and having a good time. The atmosphere was buzzing all night.

Unfortunately this year the choice of band was such that you had two choices - slit your wrists or leave 😒. Most people by 10pm had voted with their feet and left. The cynical part of me suspects this was by design so the venue didn't have to serve lots of drinks as included in the evenings package. The band were anything but dynamic, no energy was brought to their performance and this was reflected in the slow, boring music selection delivered with no energy for the majority of the night. The place was static. I was with a group of 11 people and there was one other small group who hung on in there to try to see in NYE with some fun. The band around 11.30pm finally started playing some songs that it was lively enough to dance to but to do this was 'forced' by then and it was only because we had no other choice and wanted to salvage something out of the evening. I reckon about 8 people in total made it to the dance floor before midnight. I was looking forward to a lively night so much and I can't believe how poor it actually was - the band selection was not in keeping with the type of evening required.

The other slightly annoying thing was that our main course was served up at 8.59pm - the fireworks started at 9. I was seated with my back to where they were let off so to see the fireworks I had to let my dinner get cold which was a shame as I could tell it had been cooked and prepared really well.

I feel robbed and cheated and am spending today desperately trying not to dwell on how and where I chose to spend a lot of money in seeing in the New Year. This is the only negative review I have ever left as generally I am a positive person and accept that mistakes do happen but the level of my unhappiness and disappointment is such that I feel I need to warn others so they are not misled into feeling the way I am...

My rating is actually 0 stars, but this site doesn't provide that option.

Unfortunately, I dined at the Harbourfront on Sunday and was very disappointed in the service. To start, the waitress asked one person at the table if they would like tap or sparkling water. My friend said 'tap water for me please' and, with that, the waitress disappeared without asking anyone else at the table. When the tap water arrived, i asked for the sparkling water. Fine, I got my sparkling water, but the laziness of the waitress initially not asking all diners at the table (or assuming my friend magically knew what we all wanted) was a little disappointing.

The service didn't improve throughout the afternoon. My friend ordered fillet steak. She tried using the cutlery provided but needed to flag down a waitperson (not an easy task) to ask for a steak knife. Surely that should be provided automatically when steak was ordered.

I ordered grilled snapper which was bland. I tried a few times without success to get the attention of a waitperson to request some lemon but gave up and simply ate the boring fish.

Before we finished our lunch, the staff were clattering around us, setting up tables for the dinner service, dragging tables around the room. Surely this major re-arranging could have waited till the restaurant emptied.

There's no excuse for the lousy service we experienced. The restaurant was not fully booked - there was a vacant table next to us the whole time. We had booked well in advance and the restaurant appeared to have plenty of staff wandering around. Staff seemed careful not to make eye contact with diners once our meals were plonked on the table.

Unfortunately this was not our first negative experience at this restaurant. My previous visit ended with the waiter bringing out the vacuum and started cleaning around us! So we went to Bombora where we enjoyed a welcoming and friendly atmosphere for...

Overall I must say it was a disappointing place. There was so much hype that it was a nice restaurant but I experienced quite the opposite. The food was so expensive and it wasn't  even good. The chicken was two little thin strips and the greens were chewy. I nearly choked. It was so much for such a tiny amount of food. Is it supposed to fill us up? The chairs were hard. My arse was so sore. I should've asked for a cushion because I needed it.  My arse is boney but surely they can put in cushioned seats anyway. The employees were very nice but some kept staring at me. The other customers, especially old ones, also kept staring at me. I also don't know why there were 2 sets of knives and forks when no one uses them. This restaurant is too expensive; people don't have that kind of money. The mushroom-looking lamps were exotic (that's all i'll say). And the lighting was bad. Too dark. When I took a picture the lighting was terrible. I got someone to pick a $17 dessert for me. And it was bad. It was so small. Why do they underportion but overprice? The dessert was so disappointing and I ate it in 30 seconds. I give it at max 3/10 (And that's generous). The menu was small. And too expensive. The menu you picture in your head is nothing like the one you get. Everything is small and random. Nothing you would expect from a 5 star fancy restaurant. It is not as good as people make it out to be. It seems like a Special occasion place but it would ruin the occasion with all the disappointing stuff. I also got prawn juice squirted on my shirt cos I failed to open the prawns properly. But I don't want to blame that on myself so imma say that there should've been more preventative measures in place from the business's behalf. Ps. Why is chicken on the market menu?! Pps. I don't even understand half the words on the menu Ppps. I don't think I will go back. Pppps. I want the business to pay for the dry...