Great Ocean Road Deli, Apollo Bay

Warning: Eat here at your own peril.

Having arrived in Apollo Bay for our first night's stop along The Great Ocean, we didn't have anywhere in mind to eat.  So when we came to view this place, we thought it looked OK - clean, modern and fresh.

We were shown to our table by a polite and smiling English waitress.  The menu had lots of fish and seafood and a list of specials. 

I decided to go for the 'scallops, tiger prawns cooked in a rich Napoli sauce tossed in linguini pasta'.

Little did we know, we all had a long wait for our mains.  I think it actually took forty-five minutes.  My dish arrived with dry linguine, diced fresh tomato and garlic, with a bit of scallop and prawn.  They had given me the wrong dish - basically the other linguine listed special. 

Calling the English waitress back, I notified her that this was the wrong dish.  She immediately apologised and took my plate telling me that she would tell the chef and get it corrected.  Two minutes later, she came back and told me that the chef would toss it in tomato sauce.  Hmm, this didn't sound too promising.  But I was hungry and didn't fancy another long wait. 

Whilst everyone else started tucking in, the English waitress came back with my dish almost swimming in the said tomato sauce.  This is what I was presented with...look at the pathetic basil that was added as a last minute presentation...

The linguine was soft and therefore, overcooked; the seafood was well, let's just say, two prawns and two scallops (which weren't fresh either, rather frozen ones I think); the Napoli sauce - what can I say, it was a reddish brown watery thin sauce.  Not the rich tomato Napoli that it should have been.  I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry as the so called chef obviously didn't know what a Napoli sauce was or even how to cook pasta 'al dente'. 

We complained to the English manageress who eventually knocked the price of this dish off our bill.  The least she could have done really.  She even made the absurd excuse that the pasta had a little napoli sauce under the pasta the first time, but I had missed it.  What a lie, she was the one who actually took away my pasta to be doused in sauce and apologised for it not having any in the first place.  Some people will try any excuse under the sun.

Great Ocean Road Deli should be renamed to Abysmal Great Ocean Road Deli.  All I can say is, looks can be deceiving...

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