Customs House Hotel, 1 Bond Street, Newcastle

HIDEOUS - WILL NEVER GO BACK Had a delightful experience 6 months ago. Thought we'd recreate it, well it didn't happen. Wouldn't let us sit near the heater on a cold night, told we wouldn't get table service there, (should have walked out then) once seated we checked out the menu, thought is was average at best, on par with a club bistro, it was club fare to be honest, certainly not complicated, with a high end restaurant price, these guys will go broke unless they lift there game. For the sake of your business give better service, take a look at your presentation and check on all guests, not just a cursory comment is it all OK and then just walk off, just as you are about to hear how good it is not! We wanted to have a quite night, they put next to us some noisy sailor types, had a chair hit me, this is in a restaurant which has room for hundreds, I ask WHY? The service staff are lazy and sloppy, I am still waiting for me steak knife and we didn't order the Cascade, take a look at the table. If you order sour dough, blah blah bread, you get plain old garlic bread, 4 pieces about 8 mm thick for your $10, it gets better, our guest ordered a prawn entrée with some over generous name, he got 3 prawns the size of 50 cent pieces, covered in cabbage and served with Chorizo slices, WTF!!!!!! That was $18 or $6 per prawn I had the 350g sirloin steak, it was cooked properly to medium standard, but had absolutely no flavour other than the sauce. The most flavourless steak I have had this year, my last club steak was half the price and twice as good. I am very sorry to anyone from Sydney who has to experience this crap, it was hopeless and luckily our guest from Melbourne had experienced better in this town. PATHETIC AND A PRICE GOUGE.

Average food and service, great location and amazing building though.

Really depends on what night you go. If the place isn't too packed you're headed for a great night out. Because has a great relaxed drinking atmosphere.

Lunch was enjoyable, much better than we had hoped and the price was reasonable. Wine list by the glass also good, and they serve you as if you are dinning in a much more expensive establihment. Opt for a table under the portico if you can.

Reasonably priced food (their beef fillet is amazing), great atmosphere and a great beer garden out front! Perfect summer venue.