The Red Cray on Beaufort - Mount Lawley

Was getting really excited about the opening of this cafe, been there twice and this is what I think so far: Food: the breakfast was alright, but the pork

The service was great and the entree mussels not bad, was a large serve for an entree just needed more chilli. The bread was light and served warm. My husband thought the grilled octopus and chorizo entree was also okay but it was accompanied by too many other flavours eg red onion, capers and a mustard sauce? Mains however were very disappointing. I ordered the lobster risotto. The lobster came in a half shell seperate from the risotto and was very over cooked and the saffron risotto lacked flavour with three fresh grape tomatoes on the side. This layout also made the dish quite awkward to eat as I'm used to risotto in a bowl with everything cooked together so you can eat it with a spoon. My husband ordered the meat medley which came out a lot smaller than we anticipated. The sliders on his plate were mainly bread and the steak very chewy. It didn't look appetising. To the staffs credit when I informed them of the overcooked lobster they offered me another one. I declined as we'd already eaten most of our meals. So instead they then gave us a discount on the bill to compensate and were very apologetic. We might come back to give it another chance as the service was very considerate.

The service was great and the entree mussels not bad, was a large serve for an entree just needed more chilli. The bread was light and served warm. My husband thought the grilled octopus and chorizo entree was also okay but it was accompanied by too many other flavours eg red onion, capers and a mustard sauce? Mains however were very disappointing. I ordered the lobster risotto. The lobster came in a half shell seperate from the risotto and was very over cooked and the saffron risotto lacked flavour with three fresh grape tomatoes on the side. This layout also made the dish quite awkward to eat as I'm used to risotto in a bowl with everything cooked together so you can eat it with a spoon. My husband ordered the meat medley which came out a lot smaller than we anticipated. The sliders on his plate were mainly bread and the steak very chewy. It didn't look appetising. To the staffs credit when I informed them of the overcooked lobster they offered me another one.... read more

Mixed feelings about this place.  Pros: Excellent garlic bread, child meals are huge, good variety of mains Cons: Dim and harsh lighting, place can get noisy, table service not consistent The fish of the day was meant to be snapper, however it was swapped to barramundi as I was told the snapper did not come up well.  What luck, as it turned out to be the freshest barra I have tasted.  The crispness of the crust gave texture to the smooth perfectly cooked fish.  I enjoyed it immensely, thank you.

Aesthetically, the restaurant looks extremely dated and crappy. I didn't like our table because of the lighting and there was a tealight candle that no one had bothered to light. We ordered the Red Cray platter which was $80. I should've known when it was served with chips really. The sauces that came out with the platter were basic: just mayonnaise and tartare sauce, presumably not even made in the kitchen. I asked if there were different sauces I could have and I was offered tomato sauce...! No, thank you! My date felt the scallops were underdone, but overall it was just very average and cold. The food was in no way impressive. Service was average-poor. I was totally unimpressed with our awkward greeting, the waiter asked twice if we had already been looked after when we clearly hadn't been. I asked for a side of rice, and the waiter kept asking did I want more chips. Why would I, when I already had a mountain of chips in the middle of the platter we had? Then out came a side of chips. Bizarre. Side of rice took forever, I eventually went to cancel it, then out it came. So funny. Last little gripe: they don't have their own bathrooms.  I'll never ever go there again or recommend it to anyone, in fact I'll definitely be recommending against it. Sorry guys but you need to do better.