153 Great Ocean Road
Apollo Bay
Vic 3233
03 5237 1123
On the corner of Hardy Street and the Great Ocean Road, in Apollo Bay Cafe 153 is at the northern (Lorne) end of the strip of cafes, shops and pubs. We headed there with some nervousness after reading some average reviews on urbanspoon, mainly focussed on the service, but also on value.
On arrival, the two service staff seemed a little overwhelmed with a flurry of new diners, including a grounp of 7, when there were already two larger tables seated. We were shown to a table by the window of modern, clean and bright interior.
The menus weren't too long but contained some interesting options, I've included them below as they are different to the current online examples, the starters cover plenty of offerings from the ocean...
...as did the mains...
... and indeed the specials.
We shared the house gravlax pizza for entree, which show cased the smoked trout brilliantly, with the goats cheese working much better than expected, all on a small thin and crispy base...
I went with the seafood chowder for my main, the soup was thick and reasonably flavoursome, the seafood was the real star, with great mussels, prawns, fish and scallops. I probably could have done with another slice of the lovely sourdough.
The concept of a Brazilian claypot was new to me, but the seafood stew was beautifully flavoured, packed with plenty of mussels, prawns, fish and scallops and topped off fried soft shell crab. It certainly had the better half raving about it for a couple of days!
We found the service to be friendly and pretty efficient once everyone was settled, certainly more cafe than fine dining, but that was to be expected. Perhaps when Apollo Bay is packed in the holidays it can get very busy, but is that 153's issue? The view across the bay to the Otway hills is fantastic and the good food was worth the $100 we paid including a few drinks. We'll be thinking of heading back next time we are visiting!
Apollo Bay
Vic 3233
03 5237 1123
On the corner of Hardy Street and the Great Ocean Road, in Apollo Bay Cafe 153 is at the northern (Lorne) end of the strip of cafes, shops and pubs. We headed there with some nervousness after reading some average reviews on urbanspoon, mainly focussed on the service, but also on value.
On arrival, the two service staff seemed a little overwhelmed with a flurry of new diners, including a grounp of 7, when there were already two larger tables seated. We were shown to a table by the window of modern, clean and bright interior.
The menus weren't too long but contained some interesting options, I've included them below as they are different to the current online examples, the starters cover plenty of offerings from the ocean...
...as did the mains...
... and indeed the specials.
We shared the house gravlax pizza for entree, which show cased the smoked trout brilliantly, with the goats cheese working much better than expected, all on a small thin and crispy base...
I went with the seafood chowder for my main, the soup was thick and reasonably flavoursome, the seafood was the real star, with great mussels, prawns, fish and scallops. I probably could have done with another slice of the lovely sourdough.
The concept of a Brazilian claypot was new to me, but the seafood stew was beautifully flavoured, packed with plenty of mussels, prawns, fish and scallops and topped off fried soft shell crab. It certainly had the better half raving about it for a couple of days!
We found the service to be friendly and pretty efficient once everyone was settled, certainly more cafe than fine dining, but that was to be expected. Perhaps when Apollo Bay is packed in the holidays it can get very busy, but is that 153's issue? The view across the bay to the Otway hills is fantastic and the good food was worth the $100 we paid including a few drinks. We'll be thinking of heading back next time we are visiting!
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