the bathers' pavilion restaurant

the bathers’ pavilion café is situated inside the historic bathers’ pavilion building on balmoral beach. the café sits on one side of the building, while the one hatted bathers’ pavilion restaurant sits on the other. unlike the café, the restaurant was almost empty. the bathers’ pavilion building finally, our name was called and we were shown to our table. we were starving by that stage, and wasted no time in ordering our meal. we started off with a small entrée of oysters. coffin bay basket grown oysters with a

awesome view. dining here makes me want to stay longer in a resto like this.. great food too and service is just fine.

bathers pavillion let down. my family and i have come here a few times and have always enjoyed the magical sea views. today, unfortunately, the food was very dissapointing. my food was delivered cold. i then sent it back and it took as long for my meal to arrive as it did for my wife to finish her pancakes (which were pleasant enough). when my eggs benedict did eventually arrived there was so much slime in the eggs that the bread was soaking wet the moment i cut through the eggs.

the coffee was very mediocre. it had that bubbly foam rather than a creamy foam andnthe foam it did have was half way down the glass. i like a full cup of coffee not half with bubbly foam.

next time we'll get a coffee and a brekky roll down on the water for a third of the price and an even better view o fthe water. farewell bathers and let me know when there is new management - we may return then.

the bathers pavilion occupies a prized position overlooking balmoral beach - a beautiful spot for a meal. there is a popular cafe in the building and then the more expensive a la carte restaurant, where we had the good fortune to be dining.
between two adults and two kids we had 10 dishes, and with the exception of a child’s fish and chips which fell into the ‘nothing special’ category, everyone of them was exceptionally presented and cooked. the last time i had a similar quality meal was at the dorchester’s a la carte grill in london - but this was better, lighter and more playful.
it began with an amuse-bouche shot of fennell and cinnamon soup - creamy and delicately flavoured - and a basket of caraway seed bread and some plain or salted butter.
we each ordered from the three-course set-price menu, good value at $95, and probably saving about $15 a head on the overall cost of adding up individual dishes.
our entrees consisted of a dozen freshly shucked oysters with mignonette vinaigrette, seared scallops with pancetta and pickled apple smoked yoghurt & chorizo oil and kurobuta pork belly with pickled pine mushroom, braised lettuce, hazelnut crumbs and pork skin.
the oysters were as fresh as you can get and presented simply with nothing too fancy to obscure their taste. the scallops were an attractive dish, but a lot of restaurants seem to be following the same rule with this dish these days and so it had a familiar look to it - perfectly cooked.
the pork, from the japanese strain of black berkshire and generally regarded as the best on the market, was light and full of flavour, neither overly fatty nor devoid of juice. the airy puff of crackling sat on top like a chinese prawn cracker, bearing little resemblance to crackling or rind, and all the artery hardening we associate with it. best though was the accompanying savoury bed of mushrooms, lettuce and nuts - delectable and a real winner of a dish.
for the mains we ordered the poached blue eye trevalla with crab consommé, new potato confit, wilted kale and herb emulsion, the ora king salmon with confit celeriac and avruga caviar, yuzu orange sauce and salmon crackling and duck breast with smoked pear puree, glazed australian wild fig, turnips and walnuts.
these were all beautifully presented. our waiter served the trevalla and then poured a small jug of consommé over the fillet. soft and falling apart it was given a little piquancy by the dobs of herb emulsion.
the salmon, again wonderful to look at, was perfectly cooked - the flesh soft and flaky, the skin crisp. the avruga, a herring derived caviar substitute, was arranged on the dish like blackberries and sat amidst cubes of celeriac and globs of herb emulsion. the smear of yuzu sauce, with its tart, grapefruit like notes was a good accompaniment.
perhaps the most satisfying of the mains was the duck - so tender and wonderfully combined with nuts and fruit puree - a real standout.
throughout this we weren’t over-indulging on the alcohol front, so only had a glass of wine each - both from the margaret river - at around $15-$20 a glass (whole bottles are roughly twice the price of a glass).
if we thought the appetisers and the mains were spectacular the desserts took it up another level again.
of these the raspberry meringue with strawberry, lychee sorbet, prosecco jelly, lime and olive oil curd was simply a work of art. stunningly presented the delicate meringue casing gave way to an orb of delicious sorbet. a real ‘wow’ of a dessert.
the dark chocolate mousse with hazelnut cremeux, sesame praline and dark chocolate sauce was the height of sophistication with richly satisfying ingredients and hints of gold.
lastly my mandarin mousse with valrhona dulcey blond chocolate, turmeric and lemon sauce with orange sorbet came out looking like some delicate japanese flower arrangement or a joan miro painting. again, so wonderful to look at and a beautifully conceived dish.
in addition to all this the staff were extremely relaxed and helpful and the atmosphere was refreshingly casual for such quality dining.
all up i couldn’t fault the bathers, an impressive meal worth every cent and a great place to treat someone to a genuinely classy meal.

beautiful setting. what a view... the perfect place to enjoy breakky on a sunny morning.

great. i love the bathers. the service is amazing, location is beautiful. the menu however, trumps both! i love the bent towards seafood. i walked away from the bathers reflecting on the attention to detail - the vegetables and mashed potato were the best i have had. i recommend the bathers and i go there for special occasions (or any decent excuse in between).

our dishes arrived at the same time after we were about halfway through our mocktails. fashion obsessed girl’s pan-fried garfish fillets with courgettes, fennel, mint & labne yoghurt ($25) had slightly smaller fillets of fish than we were expecting, but do keep in mind that it was listed under the “small meals” menu.

been a couple of times and consistently high quality creations. three courses was too much but lovely deserts, thus skipped the entrees. good choice for both menu and drinks. love to come back more often!

remember rotureau? here is his domain, and boy has he done some great things with his sweet-tooth creativity. the mascarpone ingot is dad’s dessert. it looks amazing, doesn’t it? the sheen of the blood orange brulee, crunch of the hazelnut nibbles, the high-roller gold leaf presentation, it’s all there.

the food was delicious and the service was amazing. despite being vey busy, the staff made everyone feel special. we were celebrating belated valentine’s day and they gave us a delicious compliment as a dessert 😊 i would highly recommend the raspberry cheesecake for dessert. everything else was top notch too. thank you. will be back.

the bathers pavilion is an elegant venue in a spectacular setting, with renowned chef and co-owner serge dansereau at the helm. it is so disappointing that the service is lacking (in experience, professionalism and any interest at all in its diners) and the food is so poorly executed.

at breakfast my friend, a vegan, ordered sourdough with avocado and i ordered the fritters. the sourdough with avocado came to the table with an egg, so had to go back to kitchen and the fritters were cold ( which when pointed out received the question "what would you like to do?") so also went back to the kitchen.

the sourdough and avocado sans egg came to the table and this time was ok - not spectacular or even great. after my friend had almost finished her breakfast (and she is quite a slow eater), my fritters turned up, this time warm, but inedible due to their saltiness.

when plates were cleared, given one meal was almost not touched, i expected to be asked was something wrong - i wasn't, so pointed out how salty the fritters were, simply to receive the response "oh, ok."

sadly this is the second similarly bad experience for breakfast here, so wont be going back again. i sometimes wonder whether people get caught up in the atmosphere and hype of restaurants when they write reviews - because the bathers has received some good ones - because the problems with service and food are not one-offs, rather they show a lack of training and oversight.

great location and nice view of the beach. unfortunately the food is too ordinary for the price. disappointing.

this place is wonderful to take tourists, and even for a christmas party or romantic evening but it is a bit expensive. a bottle of sparkling water is $8, which is a bit rich. the food was good, the highlight being the calamari and zucchini. the views are spectacular, which almost makes the prices worthwhile, but it’s really only appropriate for special occasions.

nothing better than brekkie at the bathers. what a view! so relaxing to chill out on a saturday morning. and the food's great as well! they make a mean blueberry pancake here. and it's always service with a smile.

a very beautiful venue with very welcoming service.

we had the degustation with matching wines.

the oysters were out of this world, tuna tartare, pork cheek, octopus with orange purée, lamb with date purée.

the wine selection was nice and complimented the dishes well.

the location is right on the sand and the venue has an amazing vibe.