Bellbrae Harvest Restaurant - Torquay

Thanks Dave for such a wonderful birthday lunch. The food was amazing alionsl my guests were surprised and delighted by your descriptions and presentation and the splendid tastes we enjoyed. The service was excellent and the location delightful.

Having read the reviews much was expected of this restaurant. The setting was indeed attractive but the food was woefully overpriced and pretentious and the service was haphazard - orders not correct, interminable wait for food and apparent confusion on the waitress's part about what she should be doing. The duck dish was the most expensive on the menu. It was extremely salty, overcooked and flabby with no crispness to the skin. The accompaniments were an odd and unharmonious combination of trendy culinary fashions - cocoa dirt! - and stodgy sweet potato slice and a couple of bits of yellow carrot. The fish dish seemed somewhat better but again considerably overpriced. Never again!

It's a cute venue, and I'm sure it would amazing in the warmer months, the food was pretty pricey and they had some weird option. 15 bucks for one scone? But it was a good scone. Also what the hell is liquified popcorn foam?

We were very disappointed on our return visit to Bellbrae Harvest. We had booked in for my Birthday Dinner as we thought it was the right choice for a special event. However, it ended up a memorable event for the wrong reasons. Both the service and the food were disappointing and we are not sure we will be back. As a vegetarian, I ordered the Zuchinni Flower and rice main meal. It was bland and very light, with the portion being what can onlybe considered an entree rather than a main. We thought that maybe a dessert may help offset the feeling of not having enough to eat. When adsked the waiter what cheeses they had, we were told they hald 'blue brie' and cheddar. We questioned a 'blue brie' cheese, and was told he didnt know anymore. As such, we gave this a miss. With the total bill costing nearly $200 and needing to have toast when I got home, did not make for the right 'memorable' evening.

We had Saturday lunch for 4 adults and opted for the Chef's table including matched wines. The presentation, preparation, and knowledge of food was excellent. There was a good range of food selection with the 5 courses and a special request was dealt with appropriately. There were traditionally and experimental elements to the meals - think smoking things under glass, foam and dried, roasted, crushed and interesting presentations of simple foods to add that extra surprise to the plated foods. The matched wines request seemed to get lost in translation, however this was not a major problem. Would we go back again - yes, and take more foodie friends.