ishka restaurant at the breakwater

despite reading all the negative reviews my partner and i still decided to come and dine here and we were more than happy with the food and service. having a number of dietary requirements eating out can be difficult however the staff were more than accommodating to my needs. we ordered the seafood plate as an entree, and had the barramundi and the special of the night which was the baked veal. we also ordered a couple of sides. food was cooked perfectly and couldn't fault anything. it can get quite noisy from the bar downstairs so if you want a quiet place to dine maybe don't go there but we enjoyed the atmosphere. will definitely gobackagain.

way overpriced, tiny serves, & cetainly not a great restuarant. i read the reviews for this restaurant before hand, but went with an open mind. the general consensus was hit & miss quality, tiny serves & overpriced. unfortunately, its true.

when your charging what this restaurant does the food needs to be excellent. sadly its not. when your half empty on a friday night, maybe you need to getbackto basics. lower the price, & put a bit more food on the plate. the whole fine dinning thing,.....isn't working !!!!
positives for us where great service & an excellent location. the quail, tapas & seafood entree were nice, (bar the prawns) nothing spectacular though.we ordered 4 between us given there pathetic size

negatives the "local tiger prawns". they were bland & tasted & looked like "seconds" or imported. the mains we ordered, (the steak & lamb) were also bland & devoid of any real flavor. asked for a steak medium, came well done & the vegetables were under done after waiting almost an hour. the $9.50 "hand cut" chips which were awful, & floury which we also had to send back. ive had better chips from a two bit fish & chip shop.

this misses the mark for quality, quantity & value for money !

girls lunch - disappointing experience. a very disappointing lunch at ishka at hillarys today ! my friend and i's steak and mash both came out cold, so we sent them back, they camebacknot even 5 minutes later, ...... still not hot - too embarrassed to sendbackagain and not knowing what they may do to them, we all know what happens if you sendbackyour food !! when the steaks returned, still not hot enough, still cold, the waitress never even camebackto check it was now acceptable ?? when the waitress took the plates away we explained that the meal was still not hot enough and we were too embarrassed to complain again so the on duty manager came over and said that if we had desert "that desert would be on us and is on the house" - when we got the bill she had only taken one desert off the bill, so after debate between myself and my 2 friends, the waitress and the manager, she totally denied that she had said "desert was on the house" unbelievable, wont be going there again !!! and your pudding wasn't even great either !!! fine dining - i don't think so ! the other 2 friends are regular customers too which the manager also acknowledged recognising them, and did nothing to make our experience a pleasurable one so i don't think that i will be recommending this restaurant to my very large network at all !!!!!

i wont be goingbackeither - if you cant offer good service or any compensation for a bad meal then you are not worthy of a good recommendation which i am happy to do for great food and great service but sadly ishka you disappoint me !

having a bit of a break from adelaide in scarborough, perth foodie mate and myself decided to head to ishka for dinner. although we had read mixed reviews from different sites, we thought, we will try anyway! well! my foodie friends! we really should have taken notice and not bothered, severe waste of money.

the décor is actually quite lovely (except the dining chairs look a bit cheap which i found unusual).

service was good, except for the fact that they did not handle complaints too well, the most difficult job for a waiter, as this is usually not their fault.

we started with some cocktails, which were okay, the marshmallow martini i had was uber sweet, so beware!

i ordered the lobster, cuttlefish entrée and foodie mate had the beetroot ricotta ravioli, underwhelming, you know? when you have finished your entrée and no one has anything to say about it! i am not even sure that i had wa lobster, tasted like slipper lobster and was overcooked. the cuttlefish had no flavour, sauces were okay and a bit of shredded iceberg and cherry toms, not really fine dining fare. the ravioli was under seasoned and lacking in ricotta. we also shared some oysters with the crispy bacon and smoked chilli, really nice but no crispy bacon. i had a second entrée as my main, which was the smoked duck dish and didn’t eat this, the combination does not work, cold slices of duck, fat not rendered properly, skin not crispy at all and yet the pears were warm! crisp bread doesn’t belong on the plate either, goat cheese nice though! although these are all good ingredients, they didn’t come together as a whole dish. foodie mate had the pork dish, which any home cook could have done, this is not the standard we were expecting. had mash as a side which was also left, just wasn’t up to standard.

 the biggest disappointment of all, was the dessert platter to share.

we had a terrible choc pudding which was not a pudding at all, like a dry brownie with cheap choc bits, lime rice coconut was just a bit of dry rice with zero taste, brulee was okay, rasp & almond tart was passable, again lacking taste and the eton mess was just that.

we did say a few words to our waitress about our meals, which was taken on board and referredbackto the kitchen, but, we received no acknowledgement. it was only when we went to pay, that we were refunded the duck and the mash, but still, no words from the kitchen or management.

what we found, overall, was that the décor and service just didn’t match the food that was being served, there is room for improvement here and this should be acted upon immediately.

i came for a work christmas party high tea on the weekend, view was great from upstairs and the food was fresh and tasty. could do with some more ventilation up there though as it was a very hot day! will bebackagain.

good service but i think they need a chef who knows how to cook as my rear steak was so cold you can't taste anything, waste my money 😓😡

my parter ordered trio pork as it sound delicious, however when we got it, the best way to describe will be 3 different looks of how to present pork. the pork was tasteless and nothing really stand out that's worth paying almost $40 for a plate.

it's a real disappointment for a fine dining choice of restaurant. the menu is so limited and we won't be goingbackagain for sure. it's the first and will be last time we visit this place.

having grown up just down the road from hillarys marina in the northern suburbs of perth, i spent a lot of time at the original, irish themed breakwater tavern.backin the day, it was the local hotspot for a cracking wednesday night session, terrible friday night karaoke and a great spot to enjoy the vibe of the relaxed marina. (it is also the place where i met my future husband as we worked the bar together, but that’s another story!)

never fails to impress whether its a special occassion or casual post beach feed. can get quite noisy when there is live music or big crowd downstairs. food is worth comingbackfor and the service is attentive but not obtrusive.

the high tea experience at ishka on a sunday afternoon started off well but the lack of service throughout the duration dampened the overall experience. ishka is located upstairs from the breakwater and a big group of us girls were shown to our table close to the window which was great because of the really nice view.

so the food review...
-the highlight of the high tea menu was the freshly made scones with strawberry jam and double cream. the scones was still warm and it was a really great way to start the high tea.
- overall i really did enjoy the menu a lot and there was a great selection of savory and sweet. by the time i finished my portions i was satisfied and full.

okay the cons..
- my friend who is gluten intolerant got the gluten free version of the high tea and was very disappointed. paying $42 she only got a plate of sandwiches, frittatas and two sweet treats. value wise, it was overpriced for what she got and i don't recommend going here if you are gluten intolerant.
- in terms of the service it started off attentive but once the waitresses place the tea and the food on the tables, they didn't comebackto refill our teapots or milk. trying to get someone's attention was hard as they seemed to have disappeared. maybe they were short staffed but it was disappointing that the service wasn't there to make the high tea experience at ishka memorable.

the venue was very nice and and paying $42 for the high tea was reasonable (not if your gluten intolerant) for perth. the high tea was not the best i ever had but it wasn't bad either. overall would gobackto ishka again for the scones and the lovely view.

do not dine here if you want a pleasant experience. went for a friends birthday dinner. oysters were delicious and our waitress was lovely, i felt sorry for her due to the behaviour and actions of "management" . we ordered steaks medium rare, they arrived tough and cooked through. when we advised that they were overcooked the manager came out and argued with us at our table, he took the steaks away then camebackand said that we were wrong and it is due to the lighting in the restaurant. i personally do not feel that lighting makes a steak tough and overcooked. he gave us our platesbackand left. the lovely waitress camebackand was horrified to see the offending steaks on the table, she apologised and said that they would be taken off the bill. another "manager" sat at our table and again said that we were wrong and our steaks were cooked to perfection, again her reason being the lighting and, if it wasn't the lighting then it was the suppliers fault. i have never had a worse experience at a restaurant, i will not ever return to ishka and can see why they haven't won any awards since 2013. also, cakeage fees at $4 per person is ridiculous for the poor effort they put into displaying it.

expensive and very underwhelming. we went to this restaurant in a family party of ten last saturday. the booking had been made several weeks prior. when another family member had made the reservation based on a special offer and confirmed the date, she was not advised that offer would not be current for the date of our booking. she was only advised this when we were finally all seated at the table and with two elderly family members in our party, one of them diabetic we really did not have the choice of relocating elsewhere to eat once all ten people had arrived. two members of our party were running a little late, even so, the table had not been set and we all had to wait until a staff member saw fit to rectify this. we had been sitting waiting about fifteen minutes at this stage. the restaurant was almost empty, so it is not as if they were rushed off their feet. we were not met upon arrival and had to search where other members of our party were sitting. the service was average. nothing poor but not outstanding. the food while nicely cooked, was very expensive for what it was. the main course servings were small with even sparser garnish. there were no separate salads on the menu to choose from. the male members of our party, all six of them left the restaurant still feeling hungry. the view is nice, yes but not worth $40 for a small serve of food. the atmosphere was average to ordinary. the only outstanding things about this restaurant are the view and the prices. we were disappointed and underwhelmed. there are better restaurants in perth that serve equal if not better quality food, do not charge these prices, have a great atmosphere and make you feel very welcome. if we have a choice, we will not be goingbackto this posh pub cafe.

incredibly rude and incompetent. my best friend was visiting perth for a few days so i decided to treat her to a special dinner at ishka. i rang and made a booking for 8pm that night. i gave my name and number and double checked everything.my husband and i had been there for lunch a few months before and thought it had been nice so i was excited about taking my best bud there for a great night out. we got there at 8pm and was told it was fully booked and there was no record of my reservation. i asked them to check their bookings and nothing. i even asked if there was another restaurant in perth with the same name, in case i had rung the wrong 'ishka' and no there isn't. i even showed them the number i had called on my phone and it was theirs. a woman who looked like the manager came over and confirmed there was no record of my reservation. the woman looked and spoke to me as if i were a total idiot, however i remained very polite and said that wasn't a problem as i didn't want to spoil the evening for my best friend who i hadn't seen in a long time. i was offered no apology whatsoever. we were told to wait at the lounge until a table came up. so that's what we did. we had so much to catch up on that before we knew it over an hour had gone by and we were still chatting.....but no table had been made available. i went over to check and noticed there were plenty of tables available! so i approached the woman and told her we had been waiting. she responded as if she didn't know who i was! we sat down and had mediocre meals. i am so disappointed at how incompetent the reservation system and the staff was. moreso i was disappointed at how i was treated. i was so co-operative and polite to them and they treated me so badly after what had been a mistake on their part. no apology, no smiles, no complimentary anything for having made us wait so so long and for treating us so rudely. i will never bebackand i will tell my friends and colleagues to go to places like mia cucina where the food is excellent and the views sublime, rather than ishka where you are treated badly and the food is extremely overpriced.

what - no brandy?. four of us including a couple visiting from sydney had a booking at ishka last night. my wife only drinks brandy, but there was none available and they don't stock it because not many people ask for it. i thought that if just one person asked for it that they may consider adding a bottle to the approximate 60? bottles of other spirits on the bar wall. our sydney visitor cancelled the booking and was rudely treated by the maitre de, who then insisted that we didn't have a booking anyway, despite me saying that i had received a call from the restaurant during the afternoon confirming our booking. he then reluctantly told us that the booking was cancelled. we ended up at mia cucina which was a an excellent experience (great brandy) with a spend of just under $400 which ishka missed out on for the sake of a $30.00 bottle of spirits. our sydney visitor was astonished that a licensed restaurant of this class did not serve brandy. oh well, we won't be goingback.

i've been here a few times now and am always impressed. my partner and i took my mum here recently while she was visiting from the uk and we were seated on a table on the balcony overlooking the water, which was lovely. the food as always was outstanding and our waiter (i think his name was lewis) was excellent, so friendly and efficient - as are all the staff. thanks ishka for making the night special for my mum! will bebacksoon for another night of deliciousness :)


-----08 nov, 2013-----

great restaurant. my boyfriend and i dined here last night, despite the breakwater being our local this is the first time we've been to ishka, but it definitely won't be the last time! the scallops were perfection, the fish of the day (gold band snapper) was so fresh and delicious and our waitress was lovely! the music from the bar downstairs is quite loud but i don't think it spoils the ambience, it's also quite expensive but i guess you get what you pay for. looking forward to taking my mum here next year when she visits from the uk :)

beautiful dinner @ ishka's. my friend and i had dinner at ishka's on saturday night and i wanted to say what a beautiful place it is, service was fantastic and the food was absolutely gorgeous. i was a bit apprehensive at first as i had read some other reviews prior to going there, but must say we were extremely happy. will definitely gobackagain.