kengoey69

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  2      Service  2      Value  2     

Barbarz is the new name, with new owners, at the old Pane di Vino site. We really used to love the pizzas made by the old crew, but we could not find a pizza that appealed on the new menu. This is unheard of for pizza freaks such as us, meaning we had to order pasta. We ordered spaghetti marinara, and a prawn fettuccine that sounded quite different on the menu, but was served with an identical sauce.

Really, the only difference was fish chunks in the marinara, and fettuccine vs spaghetti. My partner found the fettuccine bland, my spaghetti dish was ok but oily and salty. We were slugged $3.50 per head for BYOing, which in suburbia is over the odds and greedy. This was our first visit under the new regime, and we can now say this another local venue we have struck off our list.

When I wrote the above review, I had a holier than thou reviewer directly after me inferring that we were but 'simple pizza/pasta eaters' what would we know? Well, the following reviews since this place changed owners tend to confirm my initial less-than enthusiastic review.

Anyway, our next visit several years later confirms nothing has improved here.
Even with a booking, we were ignored for a good 5 minutes at the door, given the impression by staff/management of the day we were in the way and an annoyance. If it wasn't for the fact we were still waiting for people who made the booking to arrive, I'd have hopped back in the car and gone somewhere else.

Coffees were tepid and bitter, food no better than the slack, ignorant, ungrateful and pretentious service. Forget it, this place will never get another lousy cent from me as long as they exist.

May 22, 2012

1 Not Recommended

Drinks  1      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

We had a ghastly lunch from the specials board, with both of us ordering the '250gm Rump Steak Burger'. $18 each, resplendent with salad and chips. The salad was a joke, more red onion than greens, the chips horrible, and the steak was jaw-breakingly chewy and I mean sinewy, cheap chewy, the worst I've had in decades. Not rested, a chunk of indigestable mortar, they would have been better off filling the buns with Fantails.

You think you'd get a decent steak sandwich in a country town, wouldn't you? Not here, let me tell you. The cutlery from the servery was filthy. Oh, and the crowd is 50yo+, dressed in cardigans with leather elbow patches and tweeds, and the genius in charge thinks it's appropriate to have some vile non-descript rap blasting as their piped music? Saturday Lunch?

Go figure - and don't start me on how difficult it was to get served by the grim, sullen, attitude laden 'I'm only here for the money' barwoman who seemed to think it was Ok to chat on the phone for five minutes, staring you down, whilst four people tapped their fingers at the bar to get their over-priced drinks. Oh, and then you get snapped 'Whatcha Want' because you interrupted her! This place stinks, it deserves to go belly-up, the 'membership program' doing nothing to save it.

May 05, 2012

7 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  7      Drinks  7     

We enjoyed a nice boozy lunch whilst on holiday, special of the day was cajun style wahoo. $25+ for mains, good wine list, not a bad spot on the marina. Go here if you need to avoid the mobs of kids, as it's more bar than family venue.

Apr 30, 2012

7.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  9      Service  7      Value  7     

We has some gorgeous seafood here, but beware, it's pricey. Superb location, get a spot near to the windows or outside to enjoy. Isolated, yet close enough to get to when staying in Nelson Bay. Enjoyed the artwork on display too, which you can purchase if you've enough 'ready' left after eating here!

Apr 30, 2012

7 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  5      Service  9      Value  7     

On this site you need to be really wary of placing any credence in the 'stitch-up' reviewers popping up for the first time & never to review again, almost always with an nasty little axe to grind or alternatively, a glowing, wonderous 5 star review.

Whichever way, the reviews for this place seem to be skewed, which is a shame because I think Ninety has a lot of potential and shouldn't be dismissed. The service was a highlight, really nice, friendly & efficient.

On to the food- we shared a mezze plate as an entree which was a cracker. Haloumi, mince triangles, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, dolmades, pasties, three dips and a stack of toasts, bread stick and flat bread. Enjoyable. The mains, we had the 250gm wagyu and the king prawn tomato-based risotto. The risotto was a hummungous serve, enough to feed two, with a heap of prawns but a touch plain- just missing that little something. But hey, they used Arborio rice and we waited long enough to assume that it was cooked via reduction and on our request.

The 250gm wagyu was more like 100 grams, garnished with some micro-herbs and served on a huge bowl-plate with enough chips underneath to feed a thousand seagulls. I asked for medium rare, and got medium to well. To close we had a dessert share plate, with a wonderful pannacotta, and espresso laden tiramasu and two flavours of ice cream, superbly presented. I think we could well give them one more try but we would choose differently for our main meals.

Apr 28, 2012

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  2      Service  2      Value  2     

Barbarz is the new name, with new owners, at the old Pane di Vino site. We really used to love the pizzas made by the old crew, but we could not find a pizza that appealed on the new menu. This is unheard of for pizza freaks such as us, meaning we had to order pasta. We ordered spaghetti marinara, and a prawn fettuccine that sounded quite different on the menu, but was served with an identical sauce.

Really, the only difference was fish chunks in the marinara, and fettuccine vs spaghetti. My partner found the fettuccine bland, my spaghetti dish was ok but oily and salty. We were slugged $3.50 per head for BYOing, which in suburbia is over the odds and greedy. This was our first visit under the new regime, and we can now say this another local venue we have struck off our list.

When I wrote the above review, I had a holier than thou reviewer directly after me inferring that we were but 'simple pizza/pasta eaters' what would we know? Well, the following reviews since this place changed owners tend to confirm my initial less-than enthusiastic review.

Anyway, our next visit several years later confirms nothing has improved here.
Even with a booking, we were ignored for a good 5 minutes at the door, given the impression by staff/management of the day we were in the way and an annoyance. If it wasn't for the fact we were still waiting for people who made the booking to arrive, I'd have hopped back in the car and gone somewhere else.

Coffees were tepid and bitter, food no better than the slack, ignorant, ungrateful and pretentious service. Forget it, this place will never get another lousy cent from me as long as they exist.

May 22, 2012

1 Not Recommended

Drinks  1      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

We had a ghastly lunch from the specials board, with both of us ordering the '250gm Rump Steak Burger'. $18 each, resplendent with salad and chips. The salad was a joke, more red onion than greens, the chips horrible, and the steak was jaw-breakingly chewy and I mean sinewy, cheap chewy, the worst I've had in decades. Not rested, a chunk of indigestable mortar, they would have been better off filling the buns with Fantails.

You think you'd get a decent steak sandwich in a country town, wouldn't you? Not here, let me tell you. The cutlery from the servery was filthy. Oh, and the crowd is 50yo+, dressed in cardigans with leather elbow patches and tweeds, and the genius in charge thinks it's appropriate to have some vile non-descript rap blasting as their piped music? Saturday Lunch?

Go figure - and don't start me on how difficult it was to get served by the grim, sullen, attitude laden 'I'm only here for the money' barwoman who seemed to think it was Ok to chat on the phone for five minutes, staring you down, whilst four people tapped their fingers at the bar to get their over-priced drinks. Oh, and then you get snapped 'Whatcha Want' because you interrupted her! This place stinks, it deserves to go belly-up, the 'membership program' doing nothing to save it.

May 05, 2012

7 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  7      Drinks  7     

We enjoyed a nice boozy lunch whilst on holiday, special of the day was cajun style wahoo. $25+ for mains, good wine list, not a bad spot on the marina. Go here if you need to avoid the mobs of kids, as it's more bar than family venue.

Apr 30, 2012

7.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  9      Service  7      Value  7     

We has some gorgeous seafood here, but beware, it's pricey. Superb location, get a spot near to the windows or outside to enjoy. Isolated, yet close enough to get to when staying in Nelson Bay. Enjoyed the artwork on display too, which you can purchase if you've enough 'ready' left after eating here!

Apr 30, 2012

7 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  5      Service  9      Value  7     

On this site you need to be really wary of placing any credence in the 'stitch-up' reviewers popping up for the first time & never to review again, almost always with an nasty little axe to grind or alternatively, a glowing, wonderous 5 star review.

Whichever way, the reviews for this place seem to be skewed, which is a shame because I think Ninety has a lot of potential and shouldn't be dismissed. The service was a highlight, really nice, friendly & efficient.

On to the food- we shared a mezze plate as an entree which was a cracker. Haloumi, mince triangles, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, dolmades, pasties, three dips and a stack of toasts, bread stick and flat bread. Enjoyable. The mains, we had the 250gm wagyu and the king prawn tomato-based risotto. The risotto was a hummungous serve, enough to feed two, with a heap of prawns but a touch plain- just missing that little something. But hey, they used Arborio rice and we waited long enough to assume that it was cooked via reduction and on our request.

The 250gm wagyu was more like 100 grams, garnished with some micro-herbs and served on a huge bowl-plate with enough chips underneath to feed a thousand seagulls. I asked for medium rare, and got medium to well. To close we had a dessert share plate, with a wonderful pannacotta, and espresso laden tiramasu and two flavours of ice cream, superbly presented. I think we could well give them one more try but we would choose differently for our main meals.

Apr 28, 2012

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

1 Not Recommended

Food  1      Drinks  1      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

God, what an awful place. Enough said, don't go, nasty prices for drinks, nasty food.

April 2012 - Four years after writing the above review, nothing has changed at this place. Went for lunch with an aquaintance who lives in the area. My shout for drinks, I went to the mainbar where a terminally slow lady behind the bar fussed and faffed about not having a certain wine for a customer, and then proceeded to dawdle down to the bottle shop to get some supplies.

Surely this should have been done prior to lunch trade, maybe as part of the re-stocking chores from the previous night? I waited, got cranky, and then went to the other bar which was open, but the two bartenders here were flat out serving a private function on the other bar so me and the others standing at this bar just got ignored. So, I got back to the dawdlers bar, she just gets back, takes an eternity to open and poor a glass of this precious wine, then spent a good 3 or 4 minutes looking for the code on the register to charge it.

Even the wine orderer at this stage was furious, asking if it's such a drama get him something else. Our buzzer for the meals go off, and I can't even get two schoooners of beer in that time! I finally get served, and she hands me my change on a plate so I can leave her a tip! In a pub? Are you serious, is this really the practice at this so widely publisized 'classy' establishment? Maybe this is why it's reportedly so violent, all the frustrated customers throwing tip plates at each other or at the staff?

Gobsmacked, I go back to start my $16 'Wagyu' beef and bacon burger. Now I'm telling you, if that was 'Wagyu' in that burger then the world is gonna end tomorrow. The patty was dry and indigestible, with the consistency of a house-brick, only less taste to it. Horrendous, the best part of the meal was the piddling serve of steak chips on the side.

Oh, and I nearly forgot about how I got seriously chipped by the officious uniformed attendant for taking my serviettes from the wrong serving station. Apparently, these were the ones that she used for her tasks, which were handing food plates to the customers. I was spoken to like I was a naughty child that had been caught removing a painting from the wall. This place is an over-priced, poorly located sham, the locals can keep it.

Apr 21, 2012

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  9      Value  8     

We had a wonderful lunch here, where we ordered the tandoori chops and the seafood spaghetti from the specials board. Both were really tasty offerings, with service provided by the lovely accented lady who was an absolute delight. Nothing was too much trouble here, with both our meals about as good as you get in a place more cafe than diner.

It says in the details here that they are open 'Daily for breakfast and lunch' but we noticed they are advertising Thursday, Friday and Saturday night dinners. Given the standard on offer for lunch, we would happily come here for a dinner experience.

Apr 20, 2012

4.6 Below Average

Quality  6      Ambience  6      Service  2      Value  3      Location  6     

We were staying around the corner, thought it would be nice to have dinner here. We went to the bar as we arrived early, and attempted to order a couple of Gins with Bitter Lemon to start. The bartender, who after a good three or four minutes had to be paged to arrive at her workstation, thought I was asking for Gin and 'a bit' of lemon. After three or four attempted translations I realised she'd never heard of 'Bitter Lemon'.

Supposedly 4 Stars, and no Bitter Lemon as a mixer, you're kidding. So we go for dinner which was booked a week prior, and we request a table away from the big family tables set up to go. 'Sorry, here's your table, that's where you're sitting'. We then tell them we are not in a hurry, we'll just order the entrees first and then take our time and order the mains when it suits us. 'Not acceptable! We don't do that here, we take the orders for entrees, mains and dessert all at the same time!'

Our meals whilst tasty, were tiny, prissy and pretentious, with the seafood components being slightly overdone. We dumped $250+ on a meal for two including a hefty 'public holiday surcharge', for the pleasure of having their terms dictated to us by 20 or so year old locals working in a '4-star' 'resort' in a country town. And this is looking after the customer to a 4 star standard? It's no wonder Aussies are reluctant to travel in their own state or country. Never, ever, ever again.

Apr 12, 2012

7.6 Recommended

Quality  8      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  7      Location  8     

We enjoyed a three day stay in one of the rooms in the Orchid Club. Paying a little extra gave us a king-size bed in a room facing the city, continental breakfast with hot options included, with drinks and canapes served in the lounge at six in the evening.

Our room was comfortable, but certainly not opulent. The view was ordinary, there was no spa, and wine was not provided in the mini bar. On the plus side, all staff were smiling and happy, and a special mention has to go to our morning host in the lounge, she was an absolute delight. The location is excellent, central to everything the City and Darling Harbour have to offer. Did the trick for us, we left refreshed and rested, ready to face the real world again!

Apr 12, 2012

8 Recommended

Quality  8      Service  8      Value  8     

We went on a two hour BBQ lunch tour around our wonderful Harbour, with our deal giving us unlimited access to the bar. Beautifully crafted ship, which we were given some interesting history on by the chap in charge. The BBQ was bangers on a roll, souvlaki, fresh prawns and some salads with plenty on offer. There was good quality wine, with stubbies of light, VB or Extra Dry to choose from. Really enjoyed our little escape in the heart of the city we live in, we vowed we should do more of it.

Apr 12, 2012