Paymaster’s Restaurant

It’s so refreshing to see the owner take an interest in his own business. He checked that all was OK with us in a friendly manner without seeming overbearing.
The restaurant is located in a quiet spot off the main drag. On a horrendously hot day, the cool shade of the open porch was welcome. The food is also very good and the coffee is better than average.
My only gripe is that our waiter was incapable of taking beverage & food orders at the same time. Never mind, we weren’t in a rush.

This place used to be THE place for breakfast in Newcastle. Recently we went for the first time in a long time — and it seemed like the menu hadn’t changed in 20 years. There’s so much competition these days that — for what you pay to eat here — I’d have expected things to keep pace with the rest of town a bit more. The oldies must really like the sun dried tomato hollandaise!
Apart from the disappointment of the maitre d’ swearing in conversation with the kitchen staff while standing less than 2 m from our table — which included 3 children under the age of 12 — the pancakes were a mystery. We ordered a «full» (or adult size off the regular menu) pancakes for my eldest child and kids pancakes off the kids menu for the youngest two. Given the $ 10+ price difference between the two options, I expected to see more than one pancake on the «full» serve. But no, the serving size was exactly the same? The only difference between the kids and full serve was some banana and chocolate sauce. I would have queried this in more detail except I called the guy out for swearing within ear shot of kids and he took all their meals off the bill. I really wasn’t after free food — I just expect better from a place of this standing — on many fronts.
Sorry, Paymasters — next time we’re looking for a nice brekky out, we’ll head for somewhere new that we haven’t tried, rather than risking a disappointing trip down memory lane.

Checked through the website on what Newcastle has to offer and chanced upon this place.
Great scenic view of you are sitting next to the window.
Was craving for risotto so I had seafood risotto. The portion was quite decent and they even give three big prawns and three mussels together with asparagus, sliced fish, clover leaves. The cream was light to the taste and tangy. It had a lemon hint on it. The risotto was soft yet chewy. Definitely a good dish to try it out.
Mango tango (mocktail) was a little like ice blended mango. It was sweet and came in a good portion too.
Dessert, I ordered lemon posset. It came with a big piece of gingerbread cookie and four raspberry and mint leaves as decoration. The lemon posset wasn’t too sour and when mixed with the gingerbread cookie it balanced the sweet and sourness in the dessert.
Servers were friendly and food was served extremely fast. Even though it was on a pricier end, it is definitely a good fine dining restaurant around the Newcastle area. :)
One of the waiter actually gave me a brief history about its floorings and how long the restaurant been here (20 years). Looking at the pictures he took, you can definitely see the difference between the modern days and back then. :)

We went here for Mother’s Day lunch with the family and the restaurant is lovely. It’s in a nice area and the whole ambiance is pretty delightful. The staff were very friendly and the food service was relatively efficient — especially for the children (which is always a good thing as kids can never wait and are always super impatient). We were located upstairs next to the balcony and had the room to ourselves which was super lovely as it was just our little fam bam.
However, on the whole I probably wouldn’t go back there in terms of food. Some people loved their food, I wasn’t a massive fan. The risotto was okay but it was drowning in a creamy sauce and half of the time I felt like I was just eating butter. My nan made the same comment with her dish (which wasn’t risotto) and so did a few others. I know the duck was overcooked and some of my seafood was a bit overcooked too so that wasn’t the most pleasant experience. For what we paid and what we got, I don’t think it was worth it. The prices are expensive … Average price of a main is between $ 30-​$ 40. However, an appealing element about the menu is the amount of GF options. There’s a lot to choose from :)
The size of the entrees are extremely generous as well and the food is presented very well. The good things about this restaurant are its location (which views the water), the service, the staff and the general building however, I wouldn’t go back here for the food as the price you pay isn’t worth the quality of food (to me). I’ve had better.

Great!
Entrees are out of this planet!
I’d recommend having 2 entrees they are so tasty.
Expect about $ 60 per person.
My lovely girlfriend and I have been 5 or more times and we would say these choices are the nicest:
— chicken and avocado salad
— Apple and chorizo salad
— pumpkin and pine nut salad (vegetarian)
— Thai beef salad
— Lindt brownie
Excellent service. The maître d’ is very friendly and the waitstaff are extremely polite.
We will definitely be returning.

Everyone has given such great reviews. I think I must have come on a bad night as I wasn’t impressed at all.
I like the location as it has some interest but the décor was a bit lacking.
The food we had as a group I could do a better job at home. Not what I was looking for when going out.
Regardless. a good night was had here by all.

One of the best restaurants in town, food and service are very consistent. The food is very well priced, but the service is a real stand out.

Overlooking the water (even on a chilly winter day), Paymasters Café was the perfect setting for a family lunch. It is located next to Customs House and upstairs in the private dining room we were treated to three courses with wonderfully easy to drink Ridgeview Estate wines.
There’s an extensive and tempting menu with plenty of gluten free options available. Our Harissa Lamb Medallions were cooked to perfection.
Each waiter has their specialties. You’ll be taken care of by someone for your meals, another for ordering your wine. The stand-​out moment for me during our lunch was when one of our dining companions’ dessert (chocolate pudding) was undercooked and asked it to be returned. When her dessert came back to us it was delivered by the chef who had come to give us his apologies. We ended up having a great old chat to him about his menu for their five-​course Christmas in July dinner that was happening that night. It was truly seamless and perfect customer service.
A wonderfully charming lunch and a place to come back with family.