berardo's restaurant & bar

5.3 Average

Food  5      Ambience  6      Service  5      Value  5     

We went to Berardo's to celebrate our friends birthday the other day as we had heard that it was a good restaurant to eat at. Well we were in for a bad surprise as the main meal, wild barramundi seafood chowder, was tasteless and all four of us were disappointed. I must admit that the entree was lovely.

The service was lousy and they took away our wine glasses despite them still having some wine left. There wasn't any salt or pepper on the table or even offered with the meal. I wouldn't recommend this restaurant to any body. We never usually register any bad reports on restaurants but this is an exception. We have eaten out all over the world, so we are not new comers to eating out.

Jun 08, 2010 

6.5 Recommended

Food  6      Ambience  7      Service  9      Value  4     

Overall a disappointing experience mainly because of the food. Marinated black angus, requested medium, was dry and too charred. The accompanying salad was just a few mixed leaves with little or no dressing and the chips cooked in duck fat were bland and undercooked. Barramundi was a better dish with more flavour. A trifle for dessert was pleasant, but nothing special.

Mar 27, 2010 

7.5 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  6      Value  7     

This review is based on 2 visits.

1st visit was 1 1/2 yrs ago. Ordered the degustation which was amazing, however, it took them 30 - 45 minutes between courses so we just wanted to get the hell out after 2.5 hrs!

2nd visit we tried the al a carte menu. Food was amazing just like last time, however, their service is just really slow. We found this to be the recurring theme. Unless this is what they're going for, it just took so long for everything. Including the coffees at the end. Definitely give it a go but just expect to be there for a good 3 hours.

Jan 18, 2010 

5.3 Average

Food  4      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  5     

Went to Berardos Bistro for breakfast on a thursday morning and made a mistake in ordering the scrambled eggs with bacon on sourdough. The extremely small single piece of toast was disappointing as was the poor tasting egg mix. Sadly we won't go there again for bfast.

Jan 14, 2010 

5.8 Average

Food  3      Ambience  8      Service  5      Value  7     

We had dinner here tonight and it, unfortunately, did not live up to expectations.
We had the "locals menu" which was very reasonably priced at $35 for a 3 course meal with a glass of wine.

The entree was a fig and goats cheese salad with prosciutto which was quite nice. They were also kind enough to substitute my wife's entree for a tomato salad since she is expecting and could not eat the entree on offer. The main was seared swordfish. Pity it was overcooked, not very flavourful and dry. Lucky there was a nice sauce which made the fish semi-eatable.

Dessert was quite good though but portion was tiny. My wife even suggested we go somewhere else for a second dessert! I'd have scored the value higher, but had to knock a point or two off for the size of the dessert. Berardo's is a well thought out restaurant and nicely decorated with a nice feel to it, but, unfortunately, the service did not do it justice.

Really good restaurants distinguish themselves by getting all the small things right. We, unfortunately, had to ask for salt and pepper, when serving the waiter dumped the plates on our table and then disappeared quite quickly. We were never asked how our meals were which is disappointing for a good restaurant, how can you ever improve if you don't do what your diners thought of their meals?. Had they asked, we could have told them about our overcooked mains.

With all the other restaurants close by, my advice is try something else.

Apr 29, 2009 

4.5 Below Average

Food  6      Ambience  7      Service  2      Value  3     

Having a partner who works hospitality, we have limited days to go out for dinner so we decided to try Berado's as we knew they were open on Monday nights. When I called to make the booking for 7pm they asked me if 7:30pm was ok instead. No big drama, we don't mind eating late.

So we arrived at 7:30. The dining room had about 12 other tables of people - all either couples or groups of 4. We advised the waiter of our booking and he wandered off to a table nearby. Since the table was empty we assumed that it was ours (a "please follow me to your table" would have been nice). After 15 minutes of sitting at our table and one water re-fill, a waitress came over and asked us if we wanted any drinks. 10 minutes later we got our wine and our food order was taken.

Entrees arrived at 8:30pm. My squid was overcooked and very tough, my partner's rabbit raviolo was tasty, but the consumme was very heavily spiced, and the peas were dried out and had probably been in and out of the freezer several times. We then waited 45min for the mains to come out. While my chicken was very tender, the cacciatore sauce was incredibly salty. My partner definitely made the better choice with his lamb which although a bit under cooked (requested medium rare and got very rare).

We didn't bother staying for dessert. Maybe if the waiters were a bit friendlier, or even showed the slightest bit of interest in us and how our meals were, we might have been tempted. Sadly the best service we received all night was when the waiter who originally seated us went and opened the door for us as we were leaving.

Maybe they were under staffed, or not expecting 30 odd covers on a monday night but regardless, it will be a very long time before we bother going back there again.

Sep 17, 2008 

3.5 Below Average

Food  2      Ambience  6      Service  3      Value  3     

We visited Noosa and stayed from August 29th - September 3rd. On 1st September monday night, my wife and I visited Berardo's for dinner. Our expectations read on this website fell flat.

We had seafood chowder entree to share, my wife ordered the wagyu rump steak done medium rare, I ordered the seafood risotto. The seafood chowder tasted like potato puree with 3 mussels and 3 small pieces of fish elegantly placed on the plate. Food temperature was good, but 2 of the 3 mussels did not open properly and tasted fishy/off.

The wagyu rump steak was just a normal piece of rump steak, no 'marbling' in the meat and the medium rare was cooked more like medium/medium well. Pale pink center with a chewy leather boot texture.

The seafood risotto was undercooked, the rice grains were less than 'al dente' and my jaw muscles had quite a good workout. Taste wise, I felt that the seafood risotto was anemic and failed to capture the wholesome goodness of the seafood ingredients. We are well travelled people and have tasted the seafood risottos in Italy and compared it to the paellas in Spain. We felt that overall, the meal was a failure.

Service was ok, but I rank it low. We were ready to leave after the meal and asked the captain for the bill/cheque. He nodded and somehow something caught his attention and he went to the bar to clean the wine glasses for the next 2 - 3 minutes. We had to gesture to him 2 more times before the bill was finally presented to us.

Sep 08, 2008 

9.3 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  9     

Tucked away upstairs in Hasting St we found the decor of all white to be a little starting when booking during the afternoon, but by night it looked great.

Food and service were spot on. You must try the house speciality of Quail, it's to die for! Pefectly cooked fish too. Great wine list - maybe a little too pricey but we would return again.

Apr 02, 2008 

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  8     

We really enjoyed our dinner in Berardo's - the food was fantastic and it was nice to see that there is decent fine dining in Noosa. It's been awhile now so can't remember specific dishes but the service was commendable and the atmosphere was cozy - there are sails overhead and covered chairs so it feels nice yet relaxed and holidayish. Definitely recommend trying Berardo's if you're staying in Noosa.

Oct 23, 2007