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. weorderedthe seafood plate as an entree, and had the barramundi and the special of the night which was the baked veal. we alsoordereda 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 go back again.

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 get back to 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.weordered4 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 !

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!

iorderedthe 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 referred back to 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 read the recent reviews and still chose to come here. why did i do it? maybe i wanted the sea view, the fancy setting, or may be i wanted the nice drive up to the boat harbour.... 

don't be fooled by the location. this is the ultimate restaurant rip-off.

the $46 seafood entree plate (to share) was so overpriced it was an insult. it included 2x tiny oysters, 2x scallops, 2 very small pieces of cured salmon, 2x small prawns, the crab was missing, and a small avocado tian.

consider this... the oysters was $4 or $4.50 each, so that's a maximum of $9 out of the $46. where's the rest of the money going to?

the waitress advised the eye fillet 250g, but it looks much closer to 200g. iorderedit rare, and it came out medium. worth mentioning that it was flavourful and tender however.

my colleague had the ravioli. i can't comment on the taste or quality, but for $33 it was entree sized.

we alsoordereda salad but it was never served. unsure if we were charged for it.

the only positives was that the oysters (though tiny) were excellent, fresh and flavourful. the service was attentive, but the overall experience was so disappointing that the best service wasn't going to make up for it.

take my advice, go somewhere else...

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 parterorderedtrio 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 going back again for sure. it's the first and will be last time we visit this place.

never again!!   too noisy could not talk at all.
we went to ishka for dinner on sunday night.  the waitresses were friendly and lovely but that was it.
iorderedthe pork 3 ways and cabbage with apple.  i asked the lady how much veges were on the plate and she suggested we get a side dish and thank goodness she did.  my pork consisted of 6cm long pork belly no crackle all fat,  2 pieces of pork 5cm long with no flavour, tasted reheated.  two 4cm long croquettes on a tablespoon of cabbage and two very thin slices of cooked apple.  $38.   iorderedside order of chips.   they were nice but $9.50  please....
so all up $47.50 for 5 mouthfuls of pork and chips.

the food is quite expensive here, but they do have fabulous views overlooking sorento quay. i enjoyed my cocktail, food was okay.orderedthe duck and the flavours were nice but the duck was still a bit too pink for my liking.

my wife and i had lunch the other day. impressive location. stylish surroundings. the service was friendly and prompt. weorderedthe fish of the day and were really impressed with both the taste and the presentation.

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" . weorderedsteaks 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 came back and 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 plates back and left. the lovely waitress came back and 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.

obnoxious and overcooked. dined here with my family for dinner. had to wait a long time for a pre-booked table. we were brought another table's desserts before we were even served our entrees. food was expensive which i don't mind if it is excellent. this wasn't. small portions and nearly all mains were overcooked. one steakorderedrare was well done and all other meat and chicken dry. maitre'd named marco was rude when we complained. this place is beautiful, has amazing views and used to have nice food. not anymore. don't bother.

had our anniversary lunch here today. very very hot, at least 30c in the restaurant... totally inadequate when you are paying these prices. asked for aircond to be turned up, answer is aircond at full. all doors open. had the lunch special sirloin, my mistake! $32 for a grey piece of meat that even though cooked adequately (med rare), although hard to tell by the poor cut of meat, no better quality than a cheap cut found in any supermarket) was tasteless and not worth the $32. weordereda cheese platter, and couldnt finish the 3 pieces of cheese ordered, but when requesting to take the remainder home, the answer was"sorry, we are not allowed to do that!"
our waiter was friendly & efficient. service goid, meal poor, ambidnce completely unacceptable. do not come if outside temp over 30c!!

entrees (seared wagyu skirt steak, scallops and turkish bread with olives,chorizo and evil) were ok. one of the mains (fillet steak) was fabulous, however the seared duck was disappointing as it had been overcooked, no sign of pink at all. we passed on dessert however a couple of guestsorderedthe truffles at $3 each. they were good but overpriced for the size.

we came here last thursday for our anniversary dinner, the atmosphere was lovely, the staff were attentive and the food was delicious. with that being said i noticed that some things were missing from each plate that weorderedthat was on the menu. slow roasted pork belly had a vegetable terrine missing, the duck had kale missing and our molten chocolate cake with ice cream had no balsamic and caramel reduction glaze... even though those things were missing the food was great and we will go back.

overpriced and left dissappointed. we went as a table of 8 and 5 had tiny portions that didn't touch the sides. for $40 i really expected my food to full me up an satisfy me. instead we left wanting more and heading out for somewhere else to eat. we didn't even bother looking at deserts as they had already lost our trust. sad really, if we had a good main we would haveorderedmore and spent more. instead we couldn't wait to leave and it spoilt the birthday dinner. we will not be returning.

wishes it was fine dining. we had a birthday celebration here mid week, so the restaurant was not too busy. due to this fact, service was terrible, and it may have been that they were understaffed. i had to catch the waitresses eye on several occasions to be served. as far as the food goes, it was good but i wouldn't classify it as fine dining. as one other reviewer stated, it's cafe dining but with fine dining prices. iordereda black angus steak which was very nice, but the plate was lacking any resemblance to what one would expect at a fine dining restaurant. i'm glad i tried this place, but i will struggle to talk it up to anyone.