Rick Stein At Bannisters, Port Stephens, Australia

We dined at Rick Stein at Port Stephens tonight – a much-needed night out to celebrate the end of a hectic year, and it absolutely delivered. From the moment we arrived, we were warmly greeted by Sarah, who looked after us beautifully all evening. The seating is lovely with plenty of space, and the whole experience felt relaxed and unrushed. I loved that we had time — time to choose drinks, time to pick our meals, and perfect pacing between courses. Never rushed, yet never left waiting. The food was delicious. We shared a mix of starters and entrées, and our 11-year-old daughter loved the zucchini flowers. The oysters Charentaise were so much fun — oyster, sausage, wine… what a combo! We were warned the blue crab would be messy, and wow, they weren’t kidding 😅 But oh my goodness, it was so worth it. Napkin tucked into the collar, dive in and enjoy — that rich sauce and sweet, meaty crab are absolutely to die for. Cocktails are a must. The Tom Yum Martini is incredible, and even the Paradise Flower had some seriously tasty flavours going on. Dessert was divine and left our taste buds tingling — and a little tip: pair it with a muscat, highly recommend 🍷 Beautifully presented food, amazing service, and flavours that truly tantalise. If you’re up this way, Rick Stein Port Stephens is well worth a visit. We’ll definitely be back.

Very nice expensive place, full service nice wine selection with zero alcohol and a full drinks menu with like 20 pages of various types, full menu mainly fish based and the chips were quite English with the chips not being soggy. Nice server called Ed made sure that everyone’s drinks never went dry. We had the scallops entree! Very nice with the hazelnuts on top. This is for 6 people Mains: Nelson bay swordfish curry the orange plate with green leaves with the side of the rice and roti wrap, very nice meal pork belly pork belly had a rich sauce lots of fat but they give you lots of meat with 2 long strips The tuna steak is quite nice not as flavourful (rich) as the pork belly The cod fillet says that it has diced carrot celery and shallots but as you can see in the picture it does but barely there. So keep that in mind that’s why we got the salad to share. The salad as a side was quite marvellous. The chips was a nice portion! The olives with the bread and butter are quite nice to start. To finish off the waiters are quite nice and bubbling with energy! Overall the meal was delicious and would come back if I had some cash to spend!

Everything on the menu looked great. It was a less exciting menu than the Mollymook one (I remember sea urchin and the like on the menu there) but regardless everything we had was sensational. Sashimi was amazingly fresh and all local. Food was quite rich but flavourful none the less. Jess, our waitress was lovely, sweet and attentive. Thank you Jess for making our evening relaxing and perfect. Ambience was great.

Absolutely love the dishes here. You can beat Ricks famous fish curry! Also the osso bucco was full of flavour. Great service. A must visit!