Red Herring, The

5.3 Average

Food  6      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  3     

A lovely spot on the river, the food was ok my steak was tuff my husbands fish was fantastic and the sweets tasting plate was very nice. I was not asked if I would like anything else to drink other than water and when I had a pot of tea and the milk jug was cracked. Would I go again No not for that money. 2 mains 1 dessert tasting plate and I glass of wine 1 coffee 1 tea $147.00.

Aug 22, 2010 

1.8 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  3      Service  1      Value  1     

We returned to the Red Herring for a family member's birthday with high expectations that the experience would be as good as our last visit some 6 weeks prior. It was not. Out of our table of 5, 4 of the 5 mains were cold, bland and something I would have expected from a food hall Not a supposedly 5 star restaurant. Two of us complained about the temperature of the food and the plates were swiftly removed by the waitress with no apology.

The meals returned some 10 minutes later, again, with no apology. They were, however, hot this time, but the quality was nonetheless embarrassing. I ordered the Wild Mushroom Dumplings on the pretense I was getting a liquid broth with steamed dumplings, the broth was okay but the dumplings looked and tasted as though they had been left in the deep fryer for hours and after 1 minute sitting in the broth they became soggy and tough.


Throughout our meal, we topped up our own wine glasses, constantly asked for water refills and were not once asked how our meals were (even after we had sent two plates back to the kitchen) nor asked if we would like more wine when the bottles were empty. After our meals were over and the plates were collected, we waited and waited and waited some more for the dessert/coffee menu to appear. It never did so we asked for the bill and headed to the front counter to pay and express our disappointment at the lack of 'everything'.

I could hardly believe it when the cashier continued to process our bill without once making eye contact with us to acknowledge our negative comments. He simply stated "Well, I can't do anything about now, I will let the Exec Chef/General Manager know". We paid our $330 bill and left feeling angry and upset that we had wasted our precious family time and money at the Red Herring.

I will never go back to this restaurant and I intend on passing details of my bad experience to anyone thinking about going there.

Aug 22, 2010 

1.5 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  2      Service  1      Value  1     

Hugely disappointed by our dinner at the Red Herring. Chose the seafood platter for 2 as I always love it (plus my wife wasn’t overly inspired by the rest of the menu) and we have had many great ones in Fremantle. Prawns were powdery, mushy and almost off. For a supposedly top class restaurant, not to have even half a crayfish on a $115 seafood platter is quite surprising. Chips/potatoes were tasteless. But we managed to keep our good mood until we presented the voucher and realised that their staff did a typo and wrote “2009” instead of “2010”, I thought the management would have been understanding.

After all, and we had a very modest dinner, no entrees, 1 bottle of wine, the platter and one cheese to share. Oops, I forgot to mention the $10 bottle of water! Not at all, senior staff said that he couldn’t check the validity of the voucher (maybe you should organise a system to do so then?) and wanted us to pay the $200 from our pocket. After ruining the mood of our romantic dinner, I stated that he will have to check on Tuesday the validity of the voucher and that if not valid, I will come in person to pay, an option that he should have offered.

Very rudely, he asked for a copy of my ID and laughed at our faces. I find it unbelievable that a voucher can expire as they already had the cash in their pockets. Hoping some customers will forget to use their vouchers and, therefore, bank $200 for doing nothing? even accounting for inflation, a 10 year old $200 voucher will only get the customer less for his/her money!

Finally, I had to call them myself on Tuesday to sort out this situation. He admitted their mistake but was unremorseful. His argument was that customers are not always right. Fair enough, but in this case, you and your staff did a mistake. how long you will survive in hospitality when you refusing to compensate for such treatment.

Bottom line: Expensive, below average food, horrendous customer service and no ambience for a place so well situated! Sterile, stark lighting, etc.

Jun 09, 2010 

6.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  5     

If we didn't have the Entertainment book this would have been over priced. Thought the service was good and had a nice table with comfortable chairs. Food was nice but had expected better from the Red herring.

May 30, 2010 

5.8 Average

Food  7      Ambience  5      Service  7      Value  4     

Not all that impressed. Lacking ambience and they don't seem to be overly concerned if their patrons are enjoying value for money. The food is a little over priced for the way that it is presented. The mains could include a side dish rather than having to buy everything as 'an extra'. The restaurant is beautiful to look at and is positioned perfectly but it lacks atmosphere? I don't think I would go again.

Jan 17, 2010