Manta Ray - WHITSUNDAYS

We had dinner at Manta Ray on Hamilton Island on June 4, early evening. We arrived when the restaurant was at peak business hours, but by the time we had placed our orders things had quietened down considerably. We had two starters: garlic prawns $30 10% and sautéed calamari $26 10% . Both the prawns and the calamari were cooked decently. That’s where the good things ended. We could not taste any garlic in the garlic prawns. The 4 prawns came in a green/grey sludge that was essentially not edible. No depth of any flavours and with a weird taste. The calamari came with a lot that is: a lot! of onions. The dish could have been called onions with calamari. The chillies were a nice touch but the whole thing felt more like an Indian curry gone terribly wrong. On to the mains: pan seared salmon with gnocchi $40 10% and the seared pork scallop $40 10% . The good news: the salmon was cooked nicely and was flaky. The accompaniments on the other hand were a disaster: cherry tomato, broccolini, spinach, undercooked celery, capers and gnocchi in a weird sauce. Basically it was over and under cooked vegetables at the same time in what appeared to be 2 cups of olive oil without much seasoning. We did not touch the accompaniments after the first try. It was extremely unpleasant. The pork was better with the scallops done nicely although a bit salty. Not bad but not memorable either. The food was inconsistent, unexciting and it just left us disappointed. Our theory is that they have one person in the kitchen who knows how to cook seafood. The chef must be mostly clueless though. Three misses out of four dishes is pretty bad. We mentioned the issues with the food to our waitress and generously, the restaurant offered a free dessert. We declined though, fearing for more poor food, and thanked the waitress for the offer. Our waitress was very accomodating and understanding. All in all, with 4 drinks 3x wine 1x beer , the bill came to $228. The additional 10% was caused by this day being a Sunday. We thought that the wine was a bit expensive. $228 for two is acceptable if the food would have been good and consistent but this was a poor experience for us. One could argue that the harbour views would make up for something or explain the relatively expensive food, but at night the harbour is dark and there is not much to see. We will not return here.

My family and I booked this restaurant for a birthday dinner. We were informed upon arrival that we would only have 2 hours for our meal, which was not mentioned when we made the reservation. Some vegan dishes were accidentally served as meat dishes. The portion sizes were small, so we ended up needing to order extra appetizers. One of the main dishes we wanted was not available due to ingredients. We were charged over $110 in fees and surcharges on top of our bill. To make matters worse, we were given a 5-minute warning to leave just 20 minutes before our allocated time was up.

The food at this restaurant is incredible, the service is top-notch, and the cocktails are delicious. The staff even assisted me in arranging a cake for my husband's birthday. Thank you so much!

Located on the marina, providing a beautiful view even at night. The attentive service in a relaxed atmosphere was fantastic. The food was delicious and beautifully presented. Our 5:30pm reservation was a bit noisy due to families, which affected the romantic ambiance.

Unfortunately we have just returned from a terrible meal here tonight the worst we’ve had whilst travelling Australia. We were immediately greeted with ‘your server is Abbi but she’s really busy at the moment’ which should have rung alarm bells. Our starter arrived promptly nice gf bread but with sloppy hummus and just 4 olives. We then had to wait over an hour for our mains. During this time the table next to us complained about their food and sent their meal back no less than 3 times. We were actually discussing how bad it could be to do this, as previous to tonight, we’ve never sent a meal back. Shortly after the table behind us also sent a dish back. Our food finally arrived one bite and the pasta was cold. Not even warm. The pasta was hard. The sauce had congealed around the edges and what looked like shop bought grated cheese placed on top. Our server was lovely and quickly took it away when I mentioned it was cold. My partner had finished his meal (average pork, edible, not worthy of the $40 price tag) by the time our server returned with my second plate. Hard to describe what could be wrong with chorizo and spinach pasta but it was salty, yet very sweet, thick what I can only assume was jarred pasta sauce. Really poor quality ingredients. I’ve had better ready meals. I ate a small amount and left the rest, it now being 1hr 45 into our meal. We promptly left, our server removing the item from our bill. I’d give 0 stars if I could, only credit goes to Abbi, a true professional and lovely person who dealt with all the complaints this evening amazingly. If you are in Hamilton I’d strongly suggest not eating here by far our worst meal out comically awfully.