Published:
July 20, 2024
About Hunter River Hotel
Contemporary venue for classic bistro dining, plus a bar for poker, TV sports & karaoke nights.
Dine in
Takeout
Delivery
Service Options
Highlights
Bar games
Great cocktails
Karaoke
Live music
Live performances
Sports
Trivia night
Offerings
Alcohol
Beer
Cocktails
Food
Hard liquor
Wine
Amenities
Restroom
Crowd
Groups
Payments
Credit cards
NFC mobile payments
Accessibility
Wheelchair accessible entrance
Wheelchair accessible parking lot
Wheelchair accessible restroom
Dining_options
Seating
Atmosphere
Casual
Cozy
Planning
Accepts reservations
Parking
Free parking lot
Free street parking
Plenty of parking
Map
Hunter River Hotel Reviews
Went there on river cruise from Newcastle, put us in back room, good on ya, food was mediocre
- Todd Flynn
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Very nice meals, furniture and decore a bit dated
- Ray Kool
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Under reno's at the moment so a little underwhelming from a decor point of view. Lovely kitchen staff, excellent value for money meals.
- Kathryn Lambkin
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
This is the dirtiest venue in the worst state of repair that I have visited in the entire maitland area.
Holes in the walls have been patched but not yet painted. There are over one hundred patch jobs.
The tables were scratched and sticky. My arms were tacky after eating at a table. Yuck. The seats need cleaning if not recovering. Probably the dirtiest thing I've ever been convinced to sit on.
The trivia night is great. The menu is great. Lots of options and good value. Drinks an average price. Popular place, good crowd.
The kitchen closed at 8.30pm, with over 50 people still at the venue. They weren't even willing to sell us coffee or dessert at 8.35pm, whilst attending trivia that finishes at 9pm.
The double doors to the toilets were wedged open, despite hygiene rules stipulating they be installed and actually used. There was a lot of water on the bathroom floor. Toilet seat was dirty.
It's hard to trust that the kitchen was hygienic after the state of the rest of the venue.
- Kerensa Mitchell
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Staff are all lovely, I was disappointed that a busy restaurant only had one vegetarian option
Update to my post 9 Jan 24, they now have more vegetarian options and we have eaten their several times in the last 6 months and we order pizza there regularly now for takeaway as I can now get a vegetarian pizza.
We order the pizza get told how long it will be, but they don't start cooking it until hubby has been into pay for it, which means he then has to wait for them, not that he complains as he gets a schooner
- Graham Loss
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Rump steak with veggies and Tasmanian salmon, great meal very enjoyable. Great service we recommend.
- Donna Smith
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Recently enjoyed a Thursday night meal. Great service, happy staff, the premises was very clean and the food was great and very large servings.
- Kirk Lloyd
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Plenty of parking. Great staff. A good venue to visit.
- Richard Eldridge
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Pleasant lunch time stop.
Good food .
Good price.
- Netty
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Netty. Was. Here. Fair menu for $15 lunch specials. I had the Satay Chicken Wrap. Flavour was there. Just big enough to fill me up.
- Michael Ryan
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Most enjoyable meal. Not too busy, so quick service and delivery of the meals for our group of 14 people. Been here before and was just as good previously. Looking forward to our next get together here. Average price for lunch was around $20 per person.
- Mark
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Main meals are excellent. But the dessert menu, I haven't been that disappointed since Madonna's role in the 2002 James Bond movie, Die Another Day.
- Renae Johnson
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Lydia was amazing. Food was fantastic. Very well looked after by the staff.
- Elizabeth Blyth
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Lovely staff and an enjoyable meal. Will come back after the refurbishment to see how the place has changed!
- Tanya Wood
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
I recently had my 50th birthday celebrations in the function room upstairs. My whole experience was positive! From the communication, food and service. I had 80 people in attendance. The food was amazing by the awesome Saskia and her team and the bar staff who looked after us made sure we were never thirsty. All of my guests have commented what an amazing night it was! Thankyou from the bottom of my heart! 🫶🏻
- Trevor Palmer
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Great lunchtime food and good service
- Dave S
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Great food. Servings were very good.
Staff were great. Order taker (Harrison) at bistro was great, especially with the kids. Happily recommend
- Scott Bellamy
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Great food cold beer, currently under renovations, but still go the staff are amazing as is the food.
- Melisa Ak
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Good food.
We came here as a big group, so tried a variety of dishes.
My partner had the fillet steak and myself the Curry of the day which in this case was a red Thai chicken curry with rice and Flatbread. We thought both were delicious, but the steak's Diane sauce was funky. It didn't taste like Diane at all and it had chunks (from Gravy powder?) In it, we didn't eat it. The curry was very flavourful but so spicy that it made my stomach hurt. I asked the waiter if it was very spicy, she said it is a bit but she also personally can't handle spice. Therefore I thought I'd very fine as I like some spice but I was mistaken 🤣 unfortunately I couldn't finish my plate as it made my stomach hurt too much at some point but the flavour was still great, the Flatbread was delicious.
We also had Bruschetta, it was good but it was a bit dry. Would recommend a bit more vinegar or Balsamic glaze on it.
The rest of the table tried burgers, pasta, risotto and salads. Everyone seemed pretty happy with their choices.
We didn't have to wait long either, maybe 15 to 20 mins and most of the dishes (for 9 people) were ready at around the same time.
We had 2 friends that rocked up a bit later and unfortunately the wait for their food was a bit outragoes. They only had one Burger and one pasta dish and they waited nearly a full hour. That wasn't nice.
Except for that the food was nice and the prices also not too bad, would recommend.
- Lexie
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Fun night playing trivia (Tuesday) and enjoying a delish lamb shank.
- Gary Haigh
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
For the first time in many visits I was very disappointed. I booked dinner for two interstate friends and I. I was not warned when I booked that there would be 50, eight to 10 year olds running riot in the dining room for a football function. I was embarrassed. It will be a long time before I return to the Hunter River Hotel.
- Melonie Ahearn
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Food was terrible chicken was dry and stringy mushroom gravy although had a lovely flavour was as cold as my chicken chat potato was deep fried to finish off hubbies vegies was covered in pepper before his plate even touched our table my son couldn't finish his chicken as it was to dry
- Peter Bate
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Food was fantastic, staff and other patrons were friendly, karaoke Friday nights is fun even if your only an observer. The pool tables were in free play mode. Only negative I could mention even though it's no biggy is that the digital jukebox thing outside was $1 per song so just left it on autoplay
- Rob Williamson
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Excellent hot fresh food, very friendly staff, will visit again
- Rohan James
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Came in last Friday (six days ago now), I ordered an American type burger, two of my children ordered the kids cheeseburgers.
Come Saturday all three of us are sick and also my wife who had a few bites of the kids burger.
Wife’s fine by Sunday night, unfortunately I didn’t leave bed till Sunday night (fever, felt like my joints were welded together) two kids off school for Monday and Tuesday.
Here I am still off work and spraying the bowl on the following Thursday awaiting salmonella results.
Was it the cramped caravan they’re cooking in? Did I come in too close to end of prep and things were just over looked? I’m not too sure.
I will mention however that there is a five star review from my wife in this list from our family’s first visit and we have visited four times without issue prior to this occasion.
I wasn’t going to do this review, but after two days in bed and another four between the couch and bowl I feel very let down.
For those curious to know how we came to the realisation that it was the pub, every other day our family of six eats the same food and drinks from the same tap. The level in to which we have been sick was proportionate to the amount of burger meat in which we had consumed that night. While our four year old twins were completely unaffected after having the kids nuggets and chips.
Our family has had other unreviewed experiences at this business that would have rated highly, but at this point I don’t believe we will be back.
- Ken Davis
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Came here with a group of friends for dinner and the Trivia and I must say the place was buzzing. It was busy and had a great relaxed vibe. The food was great - the chef had a nice way with barramundi. All the staff were friendly and busy.
- di gontier
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
Always visit this pub, meals are usually very good value. Not anymore. I had the lunch special chicken schnitzel which I have had in many places including this venue. As soon as I got it , it didnt look right. I proceeded to eat and the schnitzel was not chicken breast, it was thigh{in my opinion}, I kept most of it for my dog, wasnt nice. I questioned one of the staff if it was chicken thigh because it was the lunch special and she assured me it was breast, I showed her my leftovers but she wouldnt have it. Im no fool when it comes to food especially chicken schnitzel. Sorry but I am very disappointed and doubt if I will go back to eat there again.
- april Wise
20 Sat 2024 at 01.50 am
A great bunch of bar staff young and locals polite ladies and gents warm atmosphere freshly upgrading and biblically gospel vegies a fool for the food spaced out with an entrance to each section the entry to the pokies an entrance if your goin for dinner an entrance at the betting bar a walk just two mins from east maito train station a local place for all great beer garden jukebox pool table restaurant and gaming bar and a neat pokie room fairsized car park near public transport and laundromat all in one location.. and I received the most views the Google reviews on maps shows it's number one on the map I hear well noticed ya getting Reno's can't wait to see the upgrades bit of awesome well look forward to me next beer and bistro laters
- Norm Walsh