Lontara

After having great meals in the past, today's lunchtime experience was a big disappointment. Ambience and service was ok with the staff being polite, but the food was nowhere near previous experiences and well below the required level for this restaurant.

To be honest, I have had better Asian food from a food hall. Not sure what has happened in the kitchen, but it needs to be fixed before I will go back.

Of all the dishes we shared, the only one worthy of a recommendation was the Miso Swordfish.

Ate at Lontara for the first time this season last night. Amazing - attentive staff, great cocktails and food obviously cooked with a lot of care. Congratulations Lontara on kicking goals every year

This was my time visiting Lontara, which I was really looking forward to as I had heard good things. I have never written a review on a restaurant but I feel it is needed.

1. There was no acknowledgement on arrival
2. It took over 30 minutes to order drinks and food (half the restaurant was empty) we had to end up hailing down a waitress which at first she stated it wasn’t her area, then eventually came back
3. We were not offered table water or never received it
4. All soft drinks ordered were completely flat
5. The size of the portions were almost fine dining size
6. Although the food that was plated was tasty, the price point was defiantly not worth the quality of the food that was served
7. The service was basically non existent, at the end of the meal a family member made it known to the manager Nathan we were not happy and he did not even acknowledge our concerns or attempt an apology at all he was so rude
Our family will never return or recommend lontara to anyone, it was so disappointing. We actually ended up going to the bakery after.

For reference the picture posted, each plate of the rolls were $22 each.

As a group of 4 plus an infant we were unfortunate enough to get a walk in table for lunch after the maître d played around at the desk for a minute or so.
The waitress and waiter who attended our table were quick to offer water and a high chair for our little guy which was great.
The menu being quite small did fill me with some hope that they specialise in a few dishes and all would be good…but boy oh boy how wrong was I!

We ordered 2 Portions of Crispy Chicken Asian Rolls, 2 portions of Prawn Asian Rolls, 2 portions of Miso Swordfish Robatayaki and 2 portions Satay Chicken Robatayaki. For drinks we ordered 2 cocktails, a seltzer and a beer which came to a total of $221.

Let’s start at the Asian rolls…basically the size of a Bic lighter each with probably a teaspoon of filling wrapped in a dry flakey pastry. The lettuce leaf, daikon and carrot plate garnish the clear highlights of the dish.
Would have been better off serving up half a dozen vegetable cocktail spring rolls from woolies/coles frozen section.

Now robatayaki should usually basically translate to BBQ’d seafood/meat on a skewer, but what we received for a satay chicken could really only be described as broiled unseasoned chicken thigh drizzled with some watered down peanut butter. It was the most bland embarrassment of a sauce any of us had ever come across.

Although overcooked and dry the miso swordfish was not too bad. Saviour here being the miso sauce.

All portions were ridiculously small and in our opinion largely overpriced.
Seltzer and beer came out to the table at the same time as cocktails and were handed to us unopened in the can and the bottle with no offer of a glass or ice to go with the barely cold drinks.

I’m really hope the dinner offerings do not compare to that of their lunch for the sake of future customers as we will not be back.

We enjoyed breakfast and dinner here.
Loved the French toast for breakfast.
The rib eye beef was melt in the mouth. Staff were friendly and helpful. Service was good. Enjoyed our experience here and would visit again.

Once we got past the wait at the door with the angry little considerate we had a wonderful time. The rest of the staff were lovely. Food was so fresh and tasty and didn’t take long to come. Thank goodness we didn’t leave which I was tempted to do.

We ate at Lontara on Valentines Day,
Front of house staff are attentive and well rehearsed. View is lovely, atmosphere pleasant, but perhaps on the loud side.
Food was great, but unfortunately, not exceptional on this night due ro one dish, May have been the volume, but the Crispy Fried Fish although looking pretty, really left us feeling uninspired. This was the only letdown, the rest of the food was amazing. Softshell Crab was an absolute standout.if I could have this delivered to the mainland, I would.every day.

One stop shop for everything great about Rottnest Island, views, atmosphere, good food, cold beer and buzzing atmosphere.

Everything was exquisite. Staff were of a professional standard, and friendly. The food was divine. We will return again!

They couldn't seat non hotel guests.which is fair enough, but the coffees are gross. Someone please learn to make coffees here.

Sadly it seems menu was changed, not what I was hoping for. Dumplings were bland, rest of food was nice. Service fantastic though

Food took one hour to arrive, had to go to the bar next door to fill up our own water. Unfortunately my friend was served undercooked chicken. Chef was very apologetic, manager (graciously) didn’t charge us for the raw chicken but friend still charged for accompanying rice and drink which she didn’t consume. Very disappointing experience.

Wow - what a fabulous experience! We had the 'chef's suggestion' menu for a set price per person. It was absolutely amazing! The dishes are divine and very generous - by the time we had the delicious desserts, we could only just manage it!
The staff are simply amazing, too!
A brilliant night for my husband's 60th!
We can highly recommend this fabulous restaurant.

The tofu was too firm. The fish was so small and cheap grouper for the price And less than 100g, I was shocked. The beef rib was delicious. The tiny bit of fish is hidden inside

We decided to eat at this restaurant because of the Italian vibe. However, the pasta we had was not as authentic as I’d have expected. It had way too much cream. That said, the staff are amazing! Service was impeccable.

We had the Bottom less Lunch on Sunday & it was great value for money, lovely choices & the staff were excellent. Really pleasant experience - well done!

Had heard a lot of great things about Lontara but we found the service very average. The girl serving us, a young possibly American girl called Jenny, was basically eye-rolling us from the minute we walked in and basically had a constant p*ssed off face with allllll the facial expressions. I’ve never really had an issue with rude waitstaff, but she was just something else.

We attended for bottomless lunch which was a two hour booking, by 1hr and 15mins in (only 45 mins left on our booking) the only food we’d received was 3 dumplings each and one tiny fish skewer. At $65 each not sure how this is considered bottomless.

After asking for more food we were finally brought out everything quickly so it would’ve been much more enjoyable had it been spread out across the two hours. They commented that they were super busy however looking around, half the tables were totally empty and a lot of staff just standing around so not sure how true that was.

The food we did receive was all yummy, however the dumplings were very doughy tasting and pretty dry/flavourless, didn’t actually taste like dumplings should, maybe needed to be steamed longer. There was a crunchy mushroom dumpling that was delish though. Drinks were also all really nice.

Maybe they were just having a bad day so I would give it another chance on my next rotto visit purely because there’s not that many other options in rotto, however the attitude of that staff member was pretty unacceptable. The other ladies were all lovely so seems like there’s just one bad egg.

Amazing food (beakfast&dinner) 18/03&19/03 and even better service! The lady that was front of house went out of her way to change our dinner table so we would see the ocean and was very accommodating even though it was only her 2nd day on the job! 5 stars for the food the service!

Very underwhelmed with Lontara. The food was good, but certainly not great value nor quality for the price. What was more disappointing however, was that we had to ask where two of our dishes were (they had been forgotten). Further, I ordered the West Winds Plum suggested G&T which was by far the worst drink I have ever tasted. I couldn't drink it and the multiple waiters did not ask why a full drink remained at our table. Two stars simply for the moreton bay bug dumplings.

Situating within the Samphire Club/Hotel, it’s a lovely semi-open restaurant, excellent food and friendly staff with a beautiful view of the east side of the sea of the Rottnest Island.

Don’t know why this is rated lower than Isola, this restaurant deserves better rating than Isola, from someone who has been to both, both are priced similarly anyway.