Highland Restaurant

I very rarely write reviews, but considering I was never asked for my opinion at the restaurant I thought I should put them here. I dined at Highlands tonight (22/01/2024). The food was average. I had the steak for main ordered medium rare which came out medium well, and for dessert my husband had the chocolate fondant which was dry in the middle. Not what we would expect from a fine dining restaurant but not the worst. The service however was abhorrent for the price. Multiple times we would look around and find NO staff at all in the dining room, the wait staff were inattentive, taking up to 15 mins to clear plates after the main meals. When we wanted to order another drink we would find ourselves yelling out for a wait staffs attention and being ignored; we also saw other patrons having to go up to the bar and order drinks there after having similar issues. The blame is not entirely on the staff themselves though, it seemed as though each waiter had to make drinks for their own section as there was no bar staff in sight. Like I said, even when being handed a bill for very near $300 we weren’t asked how the meals were.

The one star is for the service - not the food which was wonderful!

We arrived at the restaurant, despite a fall on the way to it, and an incident report lodged at reception because the pathway was not properly lit, to be shown to our table.

The waitress asked if we’d like still or sparkling (water).

Off she went.

About 5 minutes later, she returned and asked if we’d like a drink? “Water would be nice” and off she went again to find some.

She returned with water and asked if we’d like some wine, etc. We ordered a relatively pricey bottle of red.

In the meantime, my husband returned to our “luxurious” cabin to get me some Panadol for the pain I was experiencing due to my fall on the way to the restaurant.

Waitress 1 then approaches me and asks if we’re ready to order. I asked her to wait until my husband returned.

5 minutes later, Waitress 2 approaches and asks if we’re ready to order. Again I asked her to wait until my husband returned.

5 minutes later, Waitress 3 approaches and asks if we’re ready to order - clearly 2 of us entered and only 1 of us is sitting there!

While I was asking her to wait as well, my husband reentered the restaurant, sat down and we were ready to order.

Waitress 3 took our order and then brought out the wine. No decanting, no “would you like it to breathe”. Just a twist of the top and a plonk down on the table! Classy! You can see in the photos, how the wine glasses matched?

Our entrees were really good and so too were our mains - although some greens of some description would have been welcomed. The meat was really well cooked.

Waitress 3 then came back, asked us if we’d like dessert (we declined) because they were closing up and left. We then got up and approached Waitress 3 at the entry to the restaurant so we could pay.

Waitress 3 asked … “What table were you at? ” … we’d be lucky if there were 15 people in the restaurant - and she’d just served us! We pointed to where we’d been sitting and she called up someone else’s order. We then again pointed to where we were sitting and finally she pulled up our order, we paid and left.

We were staying at this hell hole (Cabin 50 - don’t ask for it!) We had dinner at this hell hole of a restaurant.

The night before, we stayed and dined at Stillwater Seven (Launceston) and the accommodation, food and service was far far more superior - it was hatted … and cheaper!

Breakfast was also included in our overpriced tariff at Cradle Mountain (it was also included at Stillwater Seven), but we found an Easter egg on the go more enjoyable than having to suffer the wait staff in the Highland Restaurant again.

We won’t be back.

Perhaps we ordered the wrong dishes but the salmon was utterly tasteless and the sauce, if you could call it that, was watery and didn't taste of anything at all. Very underwhelming. And the $68 beef dish? Well, nothing really to write home about when you have to slice the wads of fat off yourself.
Not overly recommended. We went to the tavern afterwards so I could eat something that was actually nice! So I suppose you could say at least I had a new experience of two main courses in one night!
Such a shame!

We tried to make a reservation though the Highland Restaurant is closed to individuals who aren't staying in their accommodation due to Covid-19 risks. However the bar and bistro is apparently open to everyone, great insight especially for an establishment that cannot accommodate family booking.

Terrible customer service. We had dinner somewhere else and just wanted to try their desserts. Restaurant was empty but they said they only do 2 courses. Seriously!

Far to expensive for the quality of the meals.
Surcharge when paid with a credit card.
Chairs really uncomfortable.
Piano music just making you feel like sleeping.
Employee in charge of the fire dressed like a homeless person.
Wifi access refused.
Waitress arrogant.
No reason to attend this place.

Huge gaps between hits and misses.
Average customer service for what you pay for.
The recipe for dishes were fine, but the skills of chef was pretty poor.
Very dry meat dishes, better stick with vege options.

Didn't happen for us tonight looking forward to a dining experience, however, they missed the mark. Unclean cutlery to the table, the 2019 wine arrived as a 2020, the eye fillet was replaced by porterhouse, lamb back strap, hmmm, no, not tender or what I expected as back strap, too large and tough. The wine list is impressive and the friendly staff really tried, will benefit from more training and experience. I suppose everything was ok, actually, maybe a tad unfair, both entrees, wallaby and pork belly were lovely, just not what we expected for the price.

This rating is purely for our interaction with this establishment. We turned up without a booking after a long walk and understandably were told they were full. No problem there but then before that we were handed menus to obviously indicate that the experience is not cheap which we did not have a problem with but because we were dressed more for hiking than a fine dining experience I would have closely considered that as "profiling". Anyway we went and did the right thing and went to make a booking for the following day and which we had to do at reception. There we were given the run around about how busy they are but not yet booked out, preferring to look after their in-house guests but why not, during your hiking the next day, call us and we will see what we can do! Needless to say we are not going to waste our time in a place where you are clearly not wanted and so we went off to the tavern next door. As soon as we saw an iconic Australian businessman and philanthropist "slumming" it in there with the general population then we thought that it will be good enough for us if it is good enough for him. Hopefully he had not experienced the same treatment as we did. And so based on the interaction with all the staff at the Highland Restaurant and Front Desk then I would not consider wasting my time with what is evidently an "exclusive" club. Undoubtedly any response will include COVID measures, etc because that is what they will hide behind. It was a shame as we both had our eyes on the duck!

Not remotely worth the expense! I'm pretty easy to please, but the food was average at best and there was nothing on the menu that they didn't also offer at the Tavern next door (which incidentally charges about 50% less!). The online menu (on their actual site) is also not up to date, so don't rely on that. Was actually really disappointed overall

Like many of the other reviews here, this restaurant is just overpriced. It’s trying to be fancy but completely misses the boat. When you are charging $115 for three a course meal you expect a high level of execution in food and service. While the menu generally sounded pretty interesting, the execution was sub par; our meals came out barely warm, portions were small (in an attempt to be high brow) they arrived at different times and the wine was no where to be seen until half way through the meal. The staff were very pleasant but not trained. While there are not a lot of options on the mountain, I would suggest that you save your money and visit the Tavern and keep your expectations in check.

Look, it was marketed as a fine dining restaurant.it just wasn't 5 star food, definitely not worth the price. Sorry.

The beef main was good.
However, I do not recommend the crab or duck entrees. I do not recommend the lamb main either.
The cocktails were delicious yet overpriced.
The staff were very polite. The room and decor were lovely.

The service and care we experienced from the staff was great. They were obviously understaffed and there were a few people training so full respect giving to that aspect of the evening. The setting was beautiful and we loved the indoor fireplace once they managed to get it started.

I personally wasn't overwhelmed by the food. I felt it lacked seasoning and acidic balance but everything was beautifully presented, perfectly cooked and had great potential. Maybe I just prefer my food to have more prominent flavours.

All in all, I enjoyed my experience and hope to come back and see how they develop in the future.

After a day’s mountain climbing, maybe the tavern bar next door offering warm mulled wine and sausage with mashed potato is a better choice.

The highland restaurant has potential to good, but it’s kitchen needs to keep up with quality dishes it is meant to serve.

Pros: delicious salted caramel martini, oysters are fresh and juicy. The staff are lovely and accomodating.

Cons: underwhelming main. Lamb three ways was a completely let down. Definitely not a fine dining restaurant quality, far from it. The side dish carrot is bland.

The entree short rib is ok, but with watermelon is a wired combination.

Was a bit underwhelmed by the experience. Staff try hard, almost a bit too hard. Dishes were nice especially the eye fillet although the panacotta was a bit dry. As an Accor member I received a 50% discount but would have been disappointed if I had to pay full price.

Good is totally amazing
Service was good to start with.

Service dropped off and we decided to leave post two courses

Made comment that we would have had three courses. The response was
Sorry we didn’t get to you! We waited over thirty minutes and no one came near us?

All good and well to offer set menus and options of two or three course but the service has to continue!

As stated amazing food poor service for the price

In general, good food in a stunning location but overpriced and not to the same quality as would usually be expected with "fine dining". Most importantly, this was a disappointing dining experience as a vegetarian and I would not recommend it. The vegetarian dishes (except the halloumi) were clearly an afterthought or (more likely) not thought about meaningfully at all, and you will leave sad and hungry if you don't eat meat. Despite asking us when we made our reservation if we had any dietary requirements, the staff were apparently not interested in making any accommodations for said requirements. To me, that's poor service, and at a premium price we were not impressed.

This restaurant being one of the few in Cradle Mountain is usually heavily booked as they have inhouse hotel guests, so best to book it in advance to avoid disappointment. However that is not the main reason it is heavily booked - they make excellent Australian food using a lot of local products like Tasmanian Salmon, Wallaby meat, etc. The one thing they can probably improve on is the risotto. I'm not used to fetta cheese risotto but it also doesn't have as much flavour as the risotto I am used to having.

Had a great night, ordered the eye fillet medium rare and came out rare but was such a superb piece of beef that it didn’t much matter. Would go back.

The food prepared was sophisticated and fresh.would recommend people to try the seafood chowder and the mains! Even the black pudding with scallops for entree doesn't taste too strong. Nice ambience where you can see the woods outside. Must make a reservation before you go there as it is usually fully booked.