the rocks

the view is priceless and the food as just as amazing. i had the spaghetti... wow. best marinara and everyone on the table agreed. it will defeinatly be hard to beat!! everyone else was super happy with their meals, especially my mum with the lamb shoulder. our server was super friendly. highly recommend and can't wait to come back!

pros: food, setting 

cons: service, banquet pricing

called ahead to book and to inform that we’re planning on ordering the banquet which will need some minor modifications, as 1 member of the party is pregnant, and that 1 is allergic to nuts.

told “no problem.”

arrive and sat. told waitress that we want to order the banquet but make some changes to avoid foods that can’t be eaten due to pregnancy/nut allergy.

told “no, we don’t do that.”

point to menu where it clearly states ‘changes can be made to banquet with advance notice’ and explain that we’d called ahead and given advance notice.

“no. we can’t change the banquet.”

you can’t change the salad that has nuts sprinkled over it at the very end and just, you know, not sprinkle the nuts over it at the end?

“no.”

so it got off to a rough start with an abrupt/rude shutdown of our plans, which we had run past the restaurant when we booked.

meanwhile 1 member of our party does some mathematics and realises that the banquet is criminal price-gouging… and that for the same price of $70 per head we can order the same exact menu items (while being allowed to substitute or adapt to accommodate our pregnancy/allergy requirements) and drinks and some desserts.

so we do.

the food is awesome. everyone ate their fill and then some. had some drinks. great views. spent just over $70 per head and got drinks/desserts as well as almost exactly the same meal as the banquet which costs $70 per head with no drinks or desserts included.

so the rocks’ back-of-house staff salvaged what could have been an unpleasant evening with their great food, drinks, and desserts which cost us less than if we’d ordered the banquet.

our waitress was either rude or was secretly and subtly pushing us to realise that the banquet is insanely overpriced and that we should order the items separately. i’m guessing the former and hoping the latter.

advice for the rocks is to train your wait staff to be a little more accommodating of food requirements. we weren’t being unreasonable and we gave advance notice and we were brusquely told it could not happen. it was not an ideal start to what was (eventually) a great evening, thanks to stellar food.

christmas lunch at the rocks. the menus was fixed. plenty of thought went into the menu. sea food made up the entree's followed by turkey and roast vegetables for mains. traditional pudding for desert.
pricing was fixed per head. drinks were not included. plenty of helpful staff on hand to attend to your needs. never an empty plate or glass. a credit to the rocks as to have a full house plus some and ensure the day went off without a hitch is a credit to them.

every time i've been here it's great. starters and mains well presented and delicious. service top notch. keep up the good work. .............

great location, nice decor with well spaced out tables and professional, helpful staff. problem is the food is pub quality at best but at fine dining prices. to start we chose 2 entrees. scallops and the beef dumplings which were served 15 min apart. scallops were expensive, extremely over done and chewy. flavours were nice though. waited another 15 min for the dumplings which again had great flavours but the filling was odd. kind of like over cooked hamburger meat in texture. for main we chose the seafood paella and slow cooked lamb shoulder. paella was oily and baked onto the bottom of the pan it was served in. again seafood was over cooked and overall the dish was quite bland. lamb shoulder was great. good quality and cooked well. nice and soft and a large cut. sides of potatoes and mushrooms with asparagus were good.
desert we shared the profiteroles which were filled with ice cream and were not bad at all. my wife's favourite part of the whole experience actually. this place has a lot of potential but falls very short. majority of the food may have been more tolerable at pub prices. but i doubt it.

booked table online, no problems, seated promptly. staff friendly. shared entree unusual & tasty, wished we had ordered 1 each. main of snapper well cooked, beautifully presented. would happily recommend this restaurant.

went to the rocks for dinner on saturday night at 9pm. we had a booking but it took at least 5 minutes for staff to greet us and another 10 minutes to be seated at our table. it was very busy and quite noisy. once seated we received excellent service with water being regularly topped up. the food was delicious, which included the seafood paella and slow cooked lamb shoulder.

booked for four on monday 2/11/15. waitress did not allow time to settle in. ordered 3 fish and chips and 1 mussel dinner. mussels were ok but the f & c's(red gurnard) were terrible,tasted like cardboard. was looking forward to a great meal and turned out a disaster. i live in mornington and have dined at most restaurants in town, the rocks is overpriced and i would say the meals are very low grade compared to others. second time we have been to the rocks, disappointed a couple of years ago and again this time. will never go here again. i think we were given a $20 discount on the overall bill.
i have never written about a restaurant before, so to go to this extent will hopefully give you some idea of my disgust at the meal served to us.
my advice - just don't go there!!!

called in here for lunch as it smelt good while walking past. we were seated promptly and drink order taken quickly. jug of water provided but the glasses must have come straight out of the dish washer as they were quite warm...not ideal for cold water.
the food order was taken as soon as we had decided what to eat but unfortunately the guy who took it failed to pass it on to anyone... after 20+ minutes (and after watching the table next to us get their food and nearly finish it) i asked how our order was going, only to be told it wasn't entered. i offered to pay for our drinks and told them we would be on our way. they instantly refused to take money for the drinks (milkshake & lemonade) which was nice of them.
they might be worth more than a 2 but i can't give more to a restaurant that forgets to place an order.

nice location, nice decor and outdoor area. the food is ok, i say ok, it's better than ok but not as good as the prices might suggest. all too often it seems if a restaurant has a view they charge more for the privilege but the food ends up lacking a bit. have been here a few times but it's never my choice.

excellent view of the water. my food (pictured) was $33; opted for grilled not fried for fish of the day. service is good and prompt. the little f&c shop next door had a 40min wait - just for chips!
we likes this restaurant and will be back.

tried for ages of booking local places and seems to be the norm in this area for places not to take bookings, rather have you just rock up and try your luck in getting at table...
the rocks were the only ones that could take a reservation of 4 ✔️
walk in and got taken to our table. the restaurant is quite nice and inviting. clean, neat and presentable✔️
menu is a bit overwhelming but we chose prawns and salt and pepper calamari for entrée ✔️✔️ they were absolutely delish!!
mains we got the wagu beef burger✔️spaghetti marinara✔️ muscles in tomato sauce ✔️ and the bbq salmon✔️
all meals were yummy and everyone enjoyed them. we did order the chat potatoes but they were forgotten - but we were quite full so not a big issue.
service was great, had a super vibrant friendly guy look after us.
one thing, i wish he had of written our orders down instead of trying to remember as he had to come back to re-confirm, but also he forgot to put forward our chat potatoes. but as mentioned, they weren't missed as we were full from our yummy meals!
would come back here for lunch next time as the view would be amazing!!

had some fresh oysters when we were there, a lamb pizza, fish and chips. the fish and chips was okay, nothing to complain about but there isn't any wow factor as well. i wouldn't say i like the lamb pizza either.

ended up here after taking a random drive to mornington. fish and chips were ok. can't say anything bad about it, but can't really say anything good about it either. my wife's mussels were very good though. the creamy sauce in which they were served was delicious.

went to the rocks with some friends for sunday lunch & was really looking forward to it because i love good seafood!! i order a dozen oysters natural & the paella, have to say besides being some of the dearest oysters ( over $40 ) they were the most tasteless i've ever had! i think they must have cleaned them in fresh water?
the paella was pretty good even though a bit smaller serve than i expected! so all up i had oysters,paella, 2 ciders & 2 latte's cost $118 which i think is a bit rich! i definitely will not be going back there & would advise people to not have the oysters!!
i was a bit disappointed with there seafood menu! i'm going to try the seafood @ wings & fins in tooradin next & after reading the review i should be happier there? i will report on them hopefully in the positive?