The Illawarra Brewery — Restaurant in Wollongong City Council

Terrible experience here over the weekend. I booked a table to have dinner with my 8 year old son before watching my other child perform at Southern Stars. It was supposed to be a nice dinner out one on one with him. We booked here because we also wanted to watch the dragons game and the Steelers club was booked out. On booking I asked for a table reservation where we could watch the game. When we arrived we had been seated in an area where the tv doesn’t work.

However my main issue here was around food. I went to the bar to order at 5:45pm to be informed that the kitchen closed at 6pm. Incredibly early for a Saturday night where there was an event and no explanation or advertisement of this when booking? Made a rushed decision to order only to be told out two choices were sold out. Including hot chips lol. At this point I should have seen the red flags. Ordered a kids burger and some salt and pepper squid. Waited an hour and never received our food as we needed to leave so had to have our money refunded instead. The wait time was never mentioned when ordering. Kitchen seemed incredibly disorganised and I watched food get sent back. The staff member I approached about the wait time was incredibly rude, and only really became genuinely apologetic when I called her out for being rude. She literally said to myself and another customer “I don’t know what you want me to do”. Among other ridiculously unapologetic statements. They couldn’t seem to cope with a busy night which is odd for a venue within a major entertainment precinct.

Venue itself is tired and dated. Tables and floors dirty. Dark inside. Probably OK if you just want to have a drink on the deck.

It was a very disappointing night and it really ruined what was supposed to be a nice night...

Absolutely hopeless restaurant. I had a reservation for 1pm only to notice that my table had REVOLTING dirty plates on it. The service was very poor as all tables weren’t cleaned of dirty dishes, not to mention how filthy the tables were.

We were waiting for our food for at least 30-40 minutes just for 3 entrees. The restaurant was NOT busy at all (I understand why now), the staff said that the kitchen was backed up with orders and could not keep up. I made it clear to the staff that they should have notified me of this before I ordered my food as I would’ve gone elsewhere, very bad communication on their behalf. I don’t understand why they took my order if they were so “busy”.

The food was average for the prices charged and portion sizes weren’t worth the price. For such a great and convenient location next to the stadium I would expect much better. Don’t waste your time and go...

Great location, nice enough beer. That's about it.

I ordered sweet potato fries from the bistro, shortly afterwards I get a plate of standard potato wedges brought to my table.

I politely let the server know that I ordered sweet potato fries. In a manner as if I just ruined his entire day, he lets out a big sigh and in an impatient voice he informs me that "they're still fries man".

For a place that tried to bill itself as decent, the least I would expect is that my order is correct. And while mistakes do happen on occasion, surely a place with any self-respect should be trying their hardest to rectify their mistakes rather then peer pressure the customer to eat the incorrect order.

Very rude.

It was a terrible experience and in the three days since this experience, I have actively discouraged two families not to go there and will...