Seafood Extravaganza - Manly West

I went to a birthday lunch , we were told everyone had to have set menu , not told that when booking made , chef wanted it that way ! Booking party insisted we order separate meals , I considered meals expensive , as did other guests , so quite a few went halves in share platters, which I thought would have at least 2 of each portion , they served on a platter for two , 1 oyster , 1 prawn cutlet , 2 half Moreton Bay Bugs , 2 fresh prawns , about 3 pieces calamari and a small serve of chips (fries) , $52 .

View was great but that is where it stopped. Meal size small and expensive. We had Catch of the Day for $35 which consisted of two small pieces of fish a few chips and greens. Seafood chowder was ordinary. Oysters Kilpatrick were ok.

We hadn't been to Wilson's for about five years and sadly it has gone downhill for us. I have read other reviews and can't believe people have rated it so highly.Until today, their chowder was the benchmark for all others. Today it was lightly seasoned, flavourless milky water with one tough prawn, one scallop, a teaspoon of fish and two tablespoons of calamari. The watery consistency of the soup may have been tolerable if it tasted good, but it did not. After eating barely half a cup of seafood we were left with a bowl of dishwater. Hubby put his spoon down, but like the trooper I am (I was hungry!) I suffered through it. The waitress didn't seem surprised when she collected the bowl and saw hubby's still full of "soup".Hubby's main wasn't bad - tempura battered whiting with chips and salad and a super tasty caper and dill sauce. No better than a pub meal. My main was dry spaghetti with 3 prawns, 2 scallops and sundried tomato (the only ingredient that gave it flavour!). Shame my glass of wine wasn't delivered until the end of the meal.For dessert, hubby's profiteroles were fat, soft and generously covered in chocolate sauce. I had wanted the fruit - melon balls, berries, honeycomb, brandy snap and berry coulis. Alas, no honeycomb or brandy snap so I passed and got the world's smallest piece of cheesecake instead.The service was poor. The waiter didn't ask for our drink order and then took the drinks menu away after taking our meal order. We ordered drinks at the bar. When topping up our water, the second waiter ignored our two empty glasses, leaving them on the table, and didn't ask if we wanted other drinks. Again we approached the bar for drinks, greeted by a rude "what do you want?" from waiter #3. The ordered drinks never came (though they tried to charge us for them at the end). We ordered the drinks again from the table and they arrived towards the end of our mains.Given the prices, and based on previous visits, I expected better service, much better food and good presentation. I still have the photos from our first visit and we were almost too excited by the meals to eat them! Instead we had staff in polo shirts and wearing whatever they saw first in the washing basket. No tablecloths on the tables and cheap cutlery dresses this restaurant down. And in five years they still haven't bothered renovating the exterior.We also used a Groupon voucher, which advertised "indulgent" meals and desserts. But once Wilson's have sucked you into their deal, they then offer a special "Groupon menu" that has less meals than their standard menu, different dishes and not even the meals on the Groupon advertisement. Also, the deal permitted a $39 main. However, if you wanted the $49 reef and beef advertised on the Groupon deal it wouldn't cost you an extra $10; you had to pay the full $49. I'd checked out the menu beforehand and was looking forward to the salmon with gnocchi. This wasn't on the "Groupon menu". I'd also chosen the chocolate tart. Again, it disappeared from the "Groupon menu". For the same money, my pasta dish would have come with bugs and cuttlefish had we not used a voucher. What a scam.I am always happy to cut some slack and give a restaurant another go after a bad experience. But I won't be rushing back to Wilson's. I may give them a few seafood chowder recipes though.

When explaining the dining experience to friends the only thing I can call it is ‘Faulty Towers’Went for a Saturday lunch with my partner, arrived to no-one else in the restaurant and 3 staff on….Were given menu’s and advised on the Groupon rules of maximum amounts per course. Noticed at first glance the menu was half that was advertised on the Groupon, plus the items had been hiked up in price (to over the $22/$39/$14)Being the only one in there still waited a good 15min for the order to be taken, needing to remind them that we would like drinks. Drinks took about 10-15min (glass wine and a beer) to arrive. Both of us ordered the Pappardelle pasta with Pesto and Prawn – was advised 10 minutes later that there was no pappardelle pasta and it would be (packet) spaghettiEntrée of calamari was nice, the oysters were bland and not fresh (took 20-30min from ordering to arrive)Pasta main came out, the (3!!!!) prawns were gritty, mushing and inedible, spaghetti sprayed the super runny pasta sauce everywhere… Desert was ordered – partner ordered the Fruit Cocktail with Brandy SnapAfter waiting another 20 minutes for desert (by this time there were 3 other tables of 2) desert arrived. Mine was nothing amazing but was nice. The Fruit Cocktail however came out on a flat plate with 2x strawberries chopped up, hand full of grapes and blue berries and 6 cubes of melon – no Brandy SnapWhen I finally caught the owner (had to physically get up and approach him and he was purposely refusing to catch my eye) asked him about the Brandy Snap – was advised they had none. Then to be told that this was because the Apprentice had dropped the tray of them this morning….. its 1.30pm in the afternoon, I am sure you could have whipped up another batch knowing full well there were diners coming in on a Saturday lunch/dinnerAll in all an awful experience which I have openly advised a lot of people to never go to – word of mouth is the worst.Had I been billed for the full price of $150 for that food, I would have refused to pay – still a shame that I could have spent that $70 at the pub round the corner and had better food

The food was great, the service very friendly and overlooking the water was relaxing. The setting is dated but everything was clean