Public Dining Room

A wonderfully warm welcome on arrival. We were celebrating my husband's birthday and there is no better location - gorgeous view (even when it's pouring with rain), great service and stunning food.Our waitress for the evening was Bernadette who was warm, attentive and engaging. We kicked off with a James Boag and Hendricks & Tonic which arrived promptly.For entree my husband had the grilled pork belly, fermented chilli glaze, perilla leaf, pickled tasmanian walnut, chilli & black garlic aioli, sunflower seeds which was tender and really tasty. I had the crispy flash fried calamari, smoked paprika, rocket & garlic aioli which is always beautiful.Our main courses were beer battered fish (daily catch), hand cut chips, sheeps yoghurt tartare sauce which was yummy (the chips are a little too chunky with a lot of potato) and the grilled cornfed chicken breast, soubise, black lentils, charred apricot, pine nut & golden raisin salsa, chicken jus which was gorgeous and so succulent.And as a wonderful surprise at the end of the night my husband received a little lemon tart with raspberry on the top on a plate saying happy birthday" - a lovely touch and the perfect end to a fantastic night."

I’ve always known about Public Dining Room and have seen how it overlooks Balmoral Beach but had never been until recently for my husband’s birthday.I booked him a surprise lunch and we ordered the following:Drinks* Balmoral Thyme* La Señorita RosaSnacks* Wagyu Beef Tartare with chardonnay and Dijon dressing, mango, caper, prawn cracker* Spiced Soft Shell Crab with toasted brioche, apple, gem cos, ginger aioli, bonitoSmall Plates* Pan Seared Scallops with lemon pea puree, horseradish creme fraiche, mint, jamon powderLeaves & Heirloom Vegetables* Sauté Mix Mushrooms with confit garlic, caramelised apple vinegar, pistachio praline, parmigiano reggiano* Straight Cut Chips with burnt garlic aioli, smoked sea saltLarger Plates* Grasslands Eye Fillet with truffle & mushroom puree, caramelised carrot, fungi, confit shitake, rosemary, red wine jus* Spaghettini with pesto alla genovese, king prawns, preserved lemon confit ocean trout, king edward potato, green beans, garlicDessert* Valrhona “jivara” chocolate mousse, raspberry coulis, cherries, coffee crumbs* Affogato – vanilla bean gelato w/ espresso & frangelicoOur cocktails were refreshing and extremely fitting for a lovely sunny day overlooking Balmoral Beach!The Balmoral Thyme is a generous-sized cocktail and lasted all throughout our meals whereas the La Señorita Rosa was much smaller but more potent.Our snacks were such a beautiful way to start our meals.Both the Wagyu Tartare and Soft Shell Crab were presented beautifully, with the former looking like a mini terrarium!Both were flavoursome and delicious. Would definitely order it again!Our scallops were then served with the sauté mushrooms and the fries.The scallops were delicious and the sauce that came with it was elegant and very complimentary.The mushrooms were tasty although I choked a bit from the vinegar hitting my throat.The chips were standard chips, nothing too special aside from the fact that they were served in a huge bowl which was good!It was strange having the sides come out first before the mains and we had to ask for the mains to be brought out soon as we were quickly filling up on the sides.We should have told the waitress that the mains were to come out after the scallops and then the sides to follow the mains as I remember she mentioned the sides were to come out prior to the mains.I think it’s an issue with the way the menu is structured as it places the sides above the mains and we ordered from the top down.The steak was cooked to perfection for medium rare. It felt as though it had been slow-cooked and pulled apart easily and was very tender. The truffle and mushroom purée was a real highlight along with the other vegetables on the plate! Everything had its place.The Spaghettini was our least favourite dish of the day. The sourness from the pesto was a little off-putting after a while.Not a dish we would reorder nor recommend but the seafood on there were standouts. The prawns had an extremely Umami flavour and were very tasty!The chocolate mousse was served as a thin and long bar instead of in a glass as I had expected. It was tasty and I loved the biscuit base although it was a little smaller than expected.The Affogato was very generous in the large glass the vanilla ice-cream was served in although an Affogato is pretty standard, with no real skill needed to make this dessert.Reflecting on our experience at The Public Dining Room, it was a gorgeous dining experience with the waitstaff all extremely attentive and professional, with food and drinks that were served at a very fast rate! I loved that we didn’t have to wait long for each course.Sitting right up at the window made it even more special as hubby and I could people-watch and enjoy the gorgeous water views. The ambience makes you want to stay for hours on end just for the views.One of the highlights was when we went to settle the bill, the staff knew we had TheFork’s Yums voucher without me having to mention it first!We’ll definitely return again!

Excellent food presentation as well as flavour. Service was superb.Attentive but not too imposing. Loved the nice touch of a Happy Birthday written in chocolate on a plate with a slice of chocolate cake for my friend.

The food was amazing! It wasn't too busy on a Tuesday night, but the wait time was a bit long for ordering and between dishes.

It’s such a disappointment to write this review. Had a fantastic experience 3 years ago; however the place has completely gone down since.In summary: Mediocre food, below average service, and a manager that took no responsibility or wanted to understand what went wrong - suggest book your next event at another local balmoral venue.Bread, oysters, cold and hot starters were brought at the same time - when we politely asked for the hot food to be taken away (so we could enjoy the cold starters without the hot food going cold) we were told the food would ‘dry up’ under the heated lamp… staff was shocked when we asked for it to be made fresh considering it’s a fine dining venue. Waitress was rude when bringing the hot food and saying “take two” before dropping the plates on the table and quickly leaving.Food was average at best, the spaghettini had no flavour other than a bunch of undercooked celery and the Eye fillet was overcooked. At this point we were frustrated with the service and quality of the food, when we gave the feedback to the manager he insisted the food was cooked properly and didn’t see what was wrong with the service… a free dessert is the only thing he could offer. We politely declined the disingenuous attempt to sweeten the experience, pointing out we are sharing our feedback to him so other patrons don’t walk out with a similar experience. At the end he insisted nothing was wrong.

Had lunch here with the family and sat at a nice table by the window. It’s been a few years since dining here last. Service was efficient and the menu had enough to keep me interested. I opted for the fillet steak, rare, which was wonderfully executed. Beautiful flavour and texture. The fish & chips looked really good and I was lucky to have a bite from my wife’s plate. That too was prepared very well. They didn’t have the Rose wine that I had selected from the wine list, but the alternative was delicious. It was good to see the restaurant busy and that service standards have been maintained. Our kids were celebrating their birthday so they recognized this with a personalised dessert with “Happy Birthday” scribed in chocolate. A nice touch. Until next time.

Went here for an early dinner to celebrate my birthday. We ordered the lamb shoulder to share + side of greens. It just fell off the bone and was absolutely delicious and a very generous portion.Pavlova dessert was also delicious.Staff were very attentive, great views, will definitely be back again!

Nice location and good service but food very average and prices high end.Market fish (snapper) was crisp and tender with great flavour. Accompanying seaweed and silver beet were pretty good. Tiny portion for $48 however.King crab tagliatelle barely tasted like crab, mostly just a light tomato sauce pasta. Again, very small portion for $46.Chicken was overcooked and a little tough. Assorted mushrooms were delicious however. Not worth $39 at all