Decadent/ quirky styling, great atmosphere, we checked in at 5:45pm before the dinner rush, followed shortly by a classical guitarist. Food was delicious, service efficient and pleasant. You always feel like you are in good hands when the waitress doesn't feel the need to write your order down. Reasonably priced if you share some tapas between you @$50-60 per head with drinks (2) Views are amazing too if it day light hours, will definitely pop back when next in Newie. read more

Rustica - Fried zucchini flower & vegie croquettes - Mediterranean Near Me - Newcastle, NSW

See all

Decor a little intense - but the view of the beach is still lovely! Service is quick and friendly and the food is great! Perfect for a weekend lunch with friends or family event. Nice for sharing but probably could do individual meals as well. Everyone I've ever been there with has loved it. read more

What a great find!! Suitable for an intimate meal or a larger gathering. Great views of the beach, superb food, friendly staff. The lamb was delicious - roasted to perfection. Good variety of portion sizes for all appetites. A number of delicious vegetarian dishes were available. Additionally a number of meals are vegan and gluten-free adaptable. Come hungry! read more

See all

Wonderful supper. The service is very good. And the food is gorgeous, however the duck leg is a little bit salty. read more

See all

Great food and a magic view, this place is a welcome new addition to the Newcastle dining scene. The decor seems almost garish at first glance, but somehow it works and, to be fair, is not a huge departure from the stylings of restaurants you may find in Italy itself. The overhead prismatic light array is a sight to behold. Food shows influence from a number of Mediterranean countries, and is reasonably priced - very pleased to say that this place is not just cashing in on the view. The shared plates will fill the table and are a great option for larger groups. Wine is a mix of Australian and international, and shows some good diversity. The main problem with this place is the external toilets, it's a bit of a trek down the stairs to the neighbouring building and this is sure to frustrate some. Apart from that, well worth a try. read more

Rustica - Mediterranean Near Me - Newcastle, NSW

If you want a romantic setting for your next date or in my case an anniversary, Rustica ticks the boxes. Mood lighting provided by an intriguing display, soft background music and delicious food. After waiting over a year, broken-record-ing as I would drive past "I'd like to try that place" and hearing good and bad reviews from friends, it was finally my time. We were seated by the window near a ceiling high mirror wall and I straight away noticed a favourite love song playing and took it as a sign of an enjoyable experience to come. We ordered the slow braised lamb shoulder share plate served with greens, chat potatoes and candied walnuts which to my delight not being a nut fan were very tasty. The meat fell off the bone and I mean not even a hyena could scavenge something from it. The portion is for two with my partner and I demolishing it along with 2 drinks each and a dessert each. Another couple ordered it alone and could not finish. So use the serves two guide loosely. Dessert of choice had me in 3 words; chocolate, raspberry and vanilla. Chocolate fondant with flowing chocolate, raspberry sauce and vanilla bean ice cream. A perfect end to the night and the total of $119 was a pleasant surprise too. Now to come back in Summer to appreciate the view by day. Can't wait! read more

See all

Seriously delicious shoulder of lamb. Fall apart tender meat, awesome roasted and spiced potatoes and lots of greens. Platter for two was huge for $32 - took home a big doggie bag. Great value, attractive ambience for groups or intimate dinner read more

Excellent food with outstanding views over Newcastle's main bench through plate glass windows. Inventive interior design, loved the crystalline lighting. The pork was very good, the duck outstanding--probably the best duck dish I've ever tasted. The wine could have been better. Tasted like a $10 bottle. read more

As mentioned before, this place has an amazing view and makes the most of it with ceiling to floor windows. The room is open and very interesting in design. The menu has something for everyone and seems to range from Mediterranean to Middle Eastern in influence. The Banquet is the way to go and gives a good feel for the menu. The wine list is very good, extensive and well priced. But the toilets... oh why oh why are they outside? I mean it's literally an outhouse. It was raining when I went. At least offer customers and umbrella! Rustica is a great addition to the Newcastle restaurant scene. I think the toilet situation will cost them the accolades they could earn had they thought a little more about customer convenience. read more

Poor quality food. Nice decor but food quality way below the price they charge. Ordinary selection of food over priced.

Absolutely loved the decor. The food is quite overpriced, however it is quite tasty. I think the primary selling point of this place is the ambience and decor. They have good customer service. read more

First impressions were lovely decor, great location. Next - pretty typical Australian restaurant service. After standing at the entrance for about 4-5 minutes in a place no more than half full and not even a glance from the waiting staff, I eventually decided to seat myself. 9 minutes later the waitress serving the next table decided to ask if everything was alright - I asked for a menu. The selection was interesting but a bit limited. After about 10 minutes another waiter asked if I needed any help. I asked what was in the 4-dish mezze (no clue on the menu). After managing to remember 1 of 4 dishes he excused himself to go find his cheat sheet and proceeded to butcher the pronunciation of two of the four items. The wine list was reasonable and we'll priced - hard to screw up in Ozzie - so I ordered a McLaren Vale Shiraz. The waiter poured right to the bottom of the bottle, sediment and all. Still it was yummy. My mezze plate arrived and it looked nice - but unfortunately the flavour of each dish was flatter than the accompanying bread. The bread itself was advertised as 'grilled' and 'house made'. I expected this to mean warm but it arrived somewhere between room and fridge temperature, this in addition to being far from authentic or even flavourful. I elected to cut my losses and skip the main. I've lived in 7 different countries and routinely travel the world on business. I eat at 5 star restaurants, hawker stalls, cheap diners, cafes, hotels (yuck) and lots of airports. I just returned from a round the world business trip 3 days ago and it normally takes me a while to 'adjust' back to Australian restaurants - generally good food, generally overpriced, generally poor service. Rustica made the adjustment harder than normal. I used 2 previous yelp reviews to choose this place tonight - they definitely overrated it. I will not come back. read more

Great food but poor service, we dined here Saturday lunch time and found the food delicious and the view gorgeous. What spoilt the experience was the service which was like a comedy of errors. 1) After ordering our order was re-read which took a few attempts to get it right. 2) We were told the scallops had 8 per dish but when tucking in discovered that half were round potatoes the others were scallops. 3) We asked for the beer menu 3 times before we finally got it. 4) Our coffees were forgotten about. 5) Then sugar and teaspoons were not given. 6) When we discovered we had ordered too much food, we asked to cancel one dish, which was still on the bill and we needed to ask for it to be removed. I noticed the bathrooms are now in the restaurant and very pleasant! read more

My partner and I came here for our anniversary after her dying to try this place for awhile. Safe to say it lived up to the expectations we had. While I found the menu a bit odd with so many foreign dishes to what I'm used to (I had to ask her what different things were). I eventually was happy to go for the share plate. A lot of the things I found on the menu often had something weird that you don't normally see with that food thrown in. We skipped entree as we decided we'd rather have dessert (best decision). The share plate was petty good though not amazing in my opinion. The lamb shoulder was cooked to perfection and falling off the bone. The potatoes were nice and salty and the walnuts (which I was skeptical I would like) were quite a nice touch, being warm and soft. The only thing I felt was missing was some form of sauce. There was a small cup of sauce that tasted a lot like the lamb so one can assume was drippings. While this was good I wanted something that little more, like a nice jus. We still devoured the whole thing despite hearing another couple explaining it could feed three. We're big eaters but know some people who would have this share platter to themselves. We then looked at desert. I very quickly decided to get the chocolate fondant, our waitress strongly recommend it as well. My partner got the same. Best idea ever. It was amazing. The chocolate was perfectly cooked and oozed out when split. Raspberries, custard and vanilla bean ice cream were the perfect accompaniment. For only $14 it was heaven. Overall this place is very nice, and I can imagine the view is amazing during the day. The dessert was delicious and the main great. The main slightly missed the mark for me without a sauce and there being that sense that something was missing, it fantastic but not amazing. I'd be happy to visit again. read more

Nice decor, great food and trained staff. Don't forget to book before you go there, especially from Friday to Sunday. The toilets was absolutely clean with nice decorations. It's a great place for groups dining as well. read more

Went for a Christmas gathering this year, beautiful location looking over the NEWCASTLE beach, wonderful decoration resonated with "rustic charm" and beautiful food, overall 4.5 rating read more

Poor service - lengthy delay with main meals. Service below standard. Out of prawns for the second week in a row.

Very torn between two and three stars. The food was good. But not exceptional. We were a group of 6 and we wanted to try the lamb share plate - which means you have to order two of them. The waitress did tell us that the share plates were for 2 people, but they really can do 3-4. It would be great if they had some other share options (I believe they use to have a chicken too). We started with the Frenchy Plate which was a disappointment - not enough bread and the pate just tasted like lemon juice to me. So not a great start. We had decided on the lamb (as mentioned above) and the tagine, as that is the dish they pair the lamb with in the banquet and it's really the only other dish, aside from sides that looks like a share dish. We also ordered the chips with parmesan and truffle oil. Well, I *might* go back for the chips. They were amazing. And now that I've remembered that I'll stick with the three stars. The lamb was decent, but I wouldn't say it was falling off the bone. The potatoes were nice, and I really did love those candied walnuts. The tagine was a let down. I was expecting the other couscous (which goes amazingly with lamb) and I cook Israeli couscous all the time and felt I could do better. It was bland and the only saving grace for me was the eggplant. It went mostly uneaten between the 6 of us. Service was appalling. From us standing awkwardly at the bar while 4 staff members (standing right in front of us) ignored the hostess trying to get someone to take us to our table, to a guy in a lumberjack's shirt leaning right over me to pour water to the person across from me without any excuse me, to ordering drinks at the bar and then waiting 5-10 minutes for someone to actually deliver them to the table (we could see them sitting there waiting, it was ridiculous!). The hostess and just one waitress seemed to be the only people interested in doing a half-decent job on a Saturday night. Atmosphere is OK. It's not too loud and the decor is lovely. Very decent amount of space between tables which is luxurious. View would be lovely when light. read more

We visited Rustica for the first time on Wednesday evening, hoping to have a nice dinner. On our arrival the restaurant was only half full, we stayed by the entrance, hoping to be greeted and seated. After few minutes we have decided to take a seat and only at this point we were "greeted" by a waitress, who told us off for taking a seat in a very rude manner. I have never been treated like this by someone who works in a hospitality business. We won't be rushing back for more. read more