Apollo Bay Distillery

This has been our Go To place for a number of years. It's been difficult seeing the quality slipping at many of our favourite pubs and restaurants in Apollo Bay so we look forward to perfect pizzas, customer service and no surprises!

After a massive hike we ventured to the Apollo Bay Distillery. We ordered pizzas, salad, chips calamari and drinks. My cocktail Gin Sour was perfect made by a very friendly staff member. It took ages for our table to be cleaned and only happened when another young woman came to deliver our food. She ignored the dirty table and was about to set the food on what was obviously a dirty table. When asked to clean it she complied but only cleaned one of the 2 tables spraying the cleaning liquid on us. She honestly did not appear to notice. When she arrived with the soft drinks she split a fair amount on my cardigan again without seeming to notice. It was very odd to see such disengaged customer service. All in all we were disappointed with the food at our much loved pizza place. The prawn pizzas were ok. Very very thin - they are thin based pizzas but they were a bit average tonight. My favourite pear and parmesan salad is no longer and has been replaced with a salad completely unmemorable. LOTS of leave and not much substance. We are unlikely to come back.

The service at this establishment is absolutely exceptional. The Front Of House staff were so friendly upon arrival and one of the staff members even complimented us, telling us we all looked amazing. The staff had no issue splitting payments for our party and were very helpful when ordering. The drinks arrived minutes after they were ordered and were absolutely devine, appearance and taste wise. The food arrived within 10 minutes of ordering and was also amazing. Upon leaving the establishment I left my bag at the table and a staff member chased me down the street to return it. This is the definition of above and beyond.

Their pizza is the BEST. I would recommend BBQ chicken and Margarita.
Amazing staff, great atmosphere.

Pizzas were really good. Had the Diablo and was great, not too doughy, good topping distribution and also staff were great. Was a quiet Wednesday night.didn’t get a chance to check out the Gin side of things unfortunately.

Both of the staff we spoke to were really friendly! Despite it being a distillery, they serve coffee from a local roastery and it was amazing
pizzas were great too and the beer was perfect to end it off.do consider dropping by here for the drinks!

Stopped here for dinner when we were driving down the great ocean road. Excellent pizza with fresh ingredients and a really good crust. The star of the show was however the superb gin cocktails. They are a gin distillery and obviously use their own gin in the drinks! Was very impressed with the quality of gin and the diverse range of botanicals they used to infuse flavor in their gin!

Delicious pizza cooked in a good looking woodfired oven. One of the best tasting pizzas I've had in Australia. Local beer hit the spot.

Staff are absolutely fantastic we walked in felt right at home would recommend to stop in and say g'day can't wait to come back

Great food and even better gin! This was the perfect place to come to shelter from the rain.

The gin flight was a great way to try their gins, and the information sheet that comes with it was very useful. The pizzas were so delicious! So quick to come!

Mushroom Pizza
Bruchetta Pizza
Belga Pizza
Truffle Fries

Apollo Bay Distillery sits right at the end of the Main Street in town and are the only distillery on the Great Ocean Road, producing boutique and local gin. The venue has both open air and covered verandahs which are dog-friendly and offer views of the foreshore.

They had a great cocktail menu, in addition to their regular menu they had a much better additional menu up on their wall. The prices were good, under $18, I enjoyed the Basil Smash.

The menu is mostly small bar snacks and wood-fired pizzas. The pizzas were sadly underwhelming for us. The Bruschetta was recommended by staff so I opted for it, it was covered in garlic that looked like it was squeezed from a tube, the toppings were extremely scarce and just bland to the point I just didn’t eat it.

The Belga was super dry, not very tasty and the Prosciutto was stiff like jerky. The Margarita was mostly just sauce, with 3 little basil leaves it definitely could have done with some more effort. The Mushroom Pizza was the best of the bunch! We had FOMO seeing the Prawn and Mexican Pizzas which looked quite nice.

The Truffle Fries are definitely for the big truffle fans. A little too much for us.

Hopefully just a bad day this occasion but unfortunately unsure if I will ever be back to Apollo Bay to give it another shot.

2.3/5
$$

Easy online ordering and pick up. Good tasty pizzas with nice toppings. Nice dough and wood fire taste. Happy to recommend.

Ok, yes, that's the place to be in Apollo Bay. Great pizzas (we had the Margherita and Belga (try it!). The staff is super nice and the ambiance really chill. They have a great selection of gins and beers. Definitely recommended!

The atmosphere was great in the beginning until I ordered a pizza and asked for a minor extra. The reaction of the service lady was to give me a weird look making me feel bad about my request. Furthermore, she made an inappropriate comment about my friend and me sitting at a table for more people than just the two of us. As a result we felt unwelcome and very awkward.

Finally, I left half of the pizza for later and was asked if I wanted a to-go box. I clearly articulated my answer affirmative, always staying friendly despite the rudeness of the service. Shortly after, a bigger group entered and my friend and me offered to get up and move. We then were advised to move to a separate room, which was freezing as there was inventory stored there.

Finally, we wanted leave and I asked for the pizza left-overs in the box, which I haven’t received yet only to find out that it has been thrown away by the waitress although I asked for it in a to-go-box just two minutes earlier.

I was offered a coffee by one of her colleagues as a compensation, while she joked about the situation with another colleague.

I wish I could leave a better review considering the rest of the staff, which was friendly but I’ve really never experienced anything like that.

Very disappointed that not advised when we booked for dinner that no advice that run out of gluten free pizza bases, Gf frie and Gf chicken wings. Then we’re ok with us getting a GF pizza elsewhere to eat with the 5 non coeliacs, that didn’t work out with 1 hour wait so wanted to order the GF aranchini (which also had as entree but advised kitchen closed despite it being 7: 55pm and signs clear that kitchen closes at 8pm.
Food and drink great for everyone else but customer service terrible for one.

What a find for an eatery outside of a city!
Food - exceptional (chicken wings and two pizzas: ALL FANTASTIC!)
Drinks - exceptional (we had 3 different gin based drinks: ALL FANTASTIC!)
Service - fast, friendly (our food was ordered, paid for, and served up within 20 minutes!)
Value for money was very decent.

The local info centre tipped us off about this place and we were stoked with it.

Would recommend. Will be back. Especially for a tasting session (this closed at 5pm so we missed out unfortunately).

Great work to the team at Apollo Bay Distillery, crushing it.

Excellent Gin and food. Friendly staff. Overall a Great experience well worth the trip from Melbourne to sample their delights.

Takeaway Pizza was absolutely delicious and the young man that we ordered on the phone with and was there when we picked up was SO friendly! Thank you!

After looking online at reviews for some of the other local pubs and breweries I'm glad we came here for our last night in Apollo Bay. Super Tasty pizza and great Gin cocktails! Some of the best calamari I've had. The staff were very nice and attentive and I hope to be back soon!

Wonderful gin tasting flight and well priced dinner. Picked up a bottle of Ocean Gin, can't wait to have a quiet sip. Staff are fantastic, highly recommend

Ordered take away
Got our pizzas and were informed the rest of the food was coming. Eventually I had to go to the kitchen to ask where it was cause our pizzas were now cold
He said 3 minutes and then later came to inform us that the food was never put through and left us again to decrypt what was going on by ourselves.
So paid a premium for cold pizza and disregard for our order being screwed up