Ishka Restaurant

Posted by: Mangarri Jojo | 31 January 2010, 9.24pm

Sparkling views and impressive decor yes but the food at Ishka Restaurant was ordinary and underwhelming. The vegetarian frittata was frightfully overpriced for such an uninspired and flavourless meal - an adequate light lunch perhaps but not a $30+ evening dinner. The omnivores at the table were equally impartial to the over-cooked steaks served.

The service was good the waitress was knowledgeable, good humoured and attentive to our table without being intrusive.

The atmosphere was upbeat, busy and very noisy with the popular pub below. The Ishka has a celebratory vibe but not the place to go if you re up for an evening of intimate conversation. My less tolerant partner described the Ishka as having the atmosphere of an army mess hall .

The Ishka has potential with more attention paid to the quality of the meals coming out of the kitchen perhaps there were having an off night but my dining partners and I won t be heading back in a hurry.

Food:			Visit: Fri 8 January 2010 Mealtime: dinner
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Posted by: Xan | 4 January 2010, 7.13pm

I was looking for a nice place to take buisness associates and wives for the evening. The reviews were mixed but due to its location it was felt the Ishka could do the trick. What a mistake! When you arrive you realise that the building is badly designed due to the large open well down to the bar below which allows for the noise to rise and makes the restaurant very uncomfortable if you would like a conversation.
The staff were polite but obviously lacking in experience not knowing what drinkswere available or what the specials were. Starters arrived and were okay but nothing special for the price. From here on in things go from mediocre to terrible. There was a wait of over 1hr for the mains to arrive after chasing the head poncho. There were no offers of drinks in this time and again staff had to be chased. Once the mains arrived they all looked as if they had been under a heat lamp for several weeks and if it was not for the case of hunger and making a scene infront of visitors then the food would have gone back. Again there was a longer than normal wait for desert and coffee and both these were following the trend of the mains, mediocre to very bad. An apology was given whilst paying the very large bill, but no discount only the promise that the service would be better next time. I dont know who the owner is, but they have obviously not come across the phrase"First Impressions". The location is not sufficient to dig this poorly managed establishment out of the deep hole it deserves to disapear down. Dont waste your money, if you want good food a view go and buy some fish and chips from next door and sit on the bench looking at the boats, you will get better service, food and atmosphere!

Food:			Visit: Thu 17 December 2009 Mealtime: supper
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Posted by: Poo Stomper | 10 September 2009, 8.16pm

What a pretentious rip off. Talk about day light robbery. We had a booking for a table of seven, despite arriving 5 minutes late (we had a pre dinner drink down stairs) our table was not ready when we arrived. There was no apology for this, just "you can wait at the bar and we will get you when your table is ready"

I had to poke my eyes back into their sockets when I opened the menu and saw the prices. I am more than happy to pay top dollar if the quality of food and service is there. I didn't realise we were out for fine dining.

The 9 chips for $9 came to the table first and sat there for about 10mins before two plates of $19 oysters came out. Then my $23 slimey wanton drowned with gluggy creme fraiche with a sniff of smoked salmon followed. Oh dear was this an indication of things to come????

Our $38 chicken arrived, then my $42 steak which looked ok but was the driest, unjuicy piece of medium rare cow I have ever eaten (and I have eaten a few herds in my time). But by far the biggest theft of the night was my friends gnocci at $37 for five pieces. It would want to make you coffee in the morning for that price. It was soggy and tasted like powdered potato mix. All meals were bland with a distinct lack of seasoning and ooommph. The wine list was quite extensive, and sure enough all wine came with a millionaires price tag. A bottle of Cloudy Bay which is $22 in a bottle shop will set you back $64 - sheer madness.

To rub salt into our wounds (because there certainly wasn't any in the food) we were presented with a bill of over $800. After three attempts to get a bill that listed what we ordered without other peoples orders on it the smug man operating the cash register said "no I'm sorry that's not possible." This was icing on the cake of insult to us as patrons. After a good 15minutes suddenly Mr. Smug managed to produce a bill with only our orders on it.

Have yet to read anything good about this establishment except for how nice its location is. There is no way I would be foolish enough to go back there again.

Food:			Visit: Thu 10 September 2009 Mealtime: dinner
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Posted by: amandamarie | 25 April 2009, 4.03pm

I thought dining at the new Breakwater (at the Ishka Restaurant upstairs) would be a treat. While it wasn't terrible, the food left us very unsatisfied. It was a unanimous conclusion on our table of 7 people (which included some chefs), that the food was unexciting and overpriced. After viewing the menu - I had a feeling of dread as I looked over the $38+ main meals. So decided against ordering an entree. I opted for the $39 duck breast. This was accompanied by some brocollini and a mango tartlet, which was as big as a 20 cent piece, at best. I thought this was going to be a situation where I would definitely need to order a side dish to plump up my meal, which all were rather steeply priced at $9 for some chips. The hand cut chips were very chunky, but a small serving meant it pretty much amounted to $1 a chip - crazy!! I certainly couldn't justify spending $48 on a meal that still left me hungry - and I'm not even a particularly big eater.

My husband chose the beef, for his main. The steak was accompanied by some mash and asparagus, and choice of sauce. It was adequate , but for $42, nothing special. We most certainly had more room for desert, but were not prepared to spend a cent more at Ishka. And the desert menu, with things like sticky date pudding, was a tad too wintery for such a beautiful summer's day.

The service was average. We had to remind the waitress of our two side orders which was annoying, as we were practically finished our meal by the time they came out. The resturant wasn't very busy, but the noise level from the bar below was so bad, we found it difficult to hear people on our table.

I can appreciate fine dining as much as the next person, and have no problem paying top dollar for a meal. I also would much prefer quality over quantity. But in this case, it was simply too little average food, for too much money. Either it should improve its food creativity and quality, or drop the prices/increase the portion sizes.

Clearly the only things you're REALLY paying for at the new Breakwater are the million dollar views AND the million dollar redevelopment.

Food:			Visit: Sat 20 December 2008
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