Salmon Rocks at Darwin Waterfront was my go-to eatery. Friendly staff, great food and awesome gin. Relaxed vibe. I recommend the miso crumbed crocodile and sticky beef and papaya salad.
Follow-up · Plenty of outdoor seating available. I dined on Tuesday evening and it was quiet at that time. This meant prompt service. I then ordered takeaway on Friday evening and the joint was jumping. Great atmosphere. On street parking is limited but there is a waterfront paid multi-level carpark on Kitchener just behind Salmon Rocks.
**Not Sustainable for Restaurants** I’m writing this as a restaurant owner in Spain, mainly to share our experience with other owners who may be considering this platform. It can be appealing at first, especially if you’re looking to fill seats, and it may work well for diners looking for discounts. However, from an operator’s perspective, we… Read more
found the partnership very difficult to sustain financially.
During onboarding, there is strong pressure to offer large discounts across your menu—often 30% or more. At the same time, restaurants are required to accept last-minute reservations, including walk-ups made through the app, with no notice. This removes flexibility for the kitchen and front of house to decide whether service is actually manageable at that moment.
In addition to the required discounts, there is a monthly listing fee and a per-guest commission (around €2). Once everything is accounted for, the numbers simply didn’t work for us. In practice, we were losing roughly 15% on every guest that came through the platform. While tables were being filled, it wasn’t sustainable for the business.
One thing we wish we had fully understood beforehand is that the platform took over the reservation link on our Google listing without us realizing it. This meant that even guests who already knew our restaurant or found us organically via Google were routed through their system, and commissions were applied to those bookings as well. This was particularly disappointing, as those were not customers generated by the platform.
No-shows are another area to be aware of. Owners are given only two days to mark a no-show in the system; otherwise, charges are applied automatically. In our first couple of months, this happened several times, and resolving it required repeated follow-ups and phone calls to receive credits.
Support for restaurant owners was also challenging. Simple changes often took days, and communication was limited to chat. Despite being charged as a business partner, we never had a reliable way to contact our account representative directly. Over six months, we were assigned five different reps, which made continuity and accountability difficult—especially during the summer when coverage was inconsistent.
If you are a restaurant owner, I strongly encourage you to carefully review the contract, discount requirements, and commission structure before signing. While the platform can help increase visibility and fill seats, it’s important to understand the true cost to your margins. For us, the model simply wasn’t viable long-term, which is why we’ve decided to cancel the service. Think twice before signing up.
Formal Review and Complaint Regarding TheFork Company To Whom It May Concern, I am the owner of Massimo Restaurant in London, and I am compelled to formally address several critical issues we have encountered with TheFork. Initially, TheFork’s sales representative, Lucinda, explicitly assured us that the billing would be £2.50 per booking,… Read more
rather than per individual guest, and that the monthly subscription fee would be £29. Relying on these representations, we entered into an agreement. However, it subsequently became evident that charges were applied on a per-person basis, leading to unanticipated and inflated costs.
Moreover, we have documented numerous incidents of fraudulent or scam bookings facilitated through TheFork platform. These bookings involved fictitious contact details, such as invalid email addresses and unreachable phone numbers, resulting in unjustified charges when the system failed to flag them as no-shows. Despite our attempts to address these discrepancies, TheFork’s system did not consistently recognize these fraudulent bookings, causing significant financial detriment to our establishment.
Additionally, the inconsistencies between the verbal assurances and the final contractual terms have caused considerable confusion and mistrust. The initial agreement referenced charges “per booking,” yet the final contract and platform terms indicated charges “per person,” thereby breaching the trust upon which we based our decision.
In light of these issues, we strongly advise all restaurants and businesses to exercise due diligence and ensure that all terms are documented in writing before entering any agreement with TheFork. Failure to do so may result in unwarranted financial losses and reputational damage.
We hereby reserve the right to pursue all available legal remedies to address these breaches and to seek appropriate compensation for the losses incurred.
Sincerely, Ali Najafloo Owner, Massimo Restaurant
Reviews with attachments
Closing down The Fork AU, expiring all Yums with 2 months notice – I have been loyal to The Fork for several years now and have built up a large amount of Yums (points), and was hoping to use them in Europe in May. Recently received notice that The Fork is closing down in Australia end of March, and all points must be redeemed by then or they expire. You would think they would allow customers to use their points… Read more
overseas where they will still be trading, but no they won't. I think they're banking on most people simply forfeiting most of their points, which will, of course, save them money.
Don’t waste your time !!! – The fork allowed me to make a reservation on Valentine’s Day of a restaurant that was closed, they sent me sms confirmation and then asked for a review. This experience was so embarrassing, and the after action is a email stated they contact the restaurant to change there opening hours. They are temporarily shut !! More lies PLEASE DONT USE FORK APP !
The Fork - – Tried to log into my account, “account doesn’t exist “ tried to open a new account same email account already exists Opened a brand new account, booked a restaurant it moved the booking to the next day, I rebooked and canceled the first one it canceled both this went in and on, I checked the booking directly with the restaurant did not trust the fork. Tried to give feeb back website errors. Very poor
Writing as a restaurant – Their technology is broken, their staff are beyond useless and their whole business model is based on misdirecting your customer base into their ecosystem to harvest their data and massively increase the fees a restaurant pays to them. A few days after signing up to a Pro account we started to have doubts and all our concerns were realised over… Read more
the following two weeks. After three weeks we are now scrambling to migrate to another booking platform and put as much distance between us and The Fork.
All of our no-shows and the large majority of our late cancellations are from people who booked via The Fork rather than on our own website. The failed bookings have cost us up to 30% of our covers on some nights. These have not been secured by credit card due to inconsistencies and failures across The Fork infrastructure. We have literally lost hundreds and hundreds of $ because of The Fork, in just 3 weeks.
On top of that, their technology is terrible. 5 mins before the arrival of the first of 3 sittings on a sold-out Friday night, The Fork system wouldn't display our bookings, leaving us blind as to who was coming, how many people, where to seat them. The Fork's response was to turn off bookings for the night. This meant we couldn't even re-book a table to cover the inevitable late cancellations/no-shows from The Fork users.
Customers are regularly not receiving confirmation emails, leading to confusion and no doubt some of the no-shows. Last night, customers were receiving their booking confirmation emails half way through their meal, despite having booked days earlier. Other customers have received multiple confirmation emails, including on one occasion, a confirmation in English and then a confirmation in French (with bookings in French timezone).
Due to the number of late cancellations/no-shows from bookings made by The Fork direct, we requested credit card verification be turned on, to allow us to charge a cancellation fee. That took 7 days and countless emails and chat sessions to put in place. And it turns out, they can't apply it to bookings made via their 'partner', Google. So, anyone who uses the dominant booking button in a Google search result does not need to give credit card details.
And speaking of the booking button on Google - that magically appeared after we signed up. Now The Fork hijacks web traffic from people who search for our venue, directing them to book via Google/The Fork. So we're now paying $3 per customer to have our website traffic hijacked. This massively increases our fees to The Fork (our costs for this outstripped the monthly fee we already pay within a week of going live, so you sign up for a $90 monthly plan and end up paying hundreds of dollars more. The overall cost is way beyond what even the most expensive platforms charge for a monthly fee). We requested to have the booking button removed due to their inability to take credit card details and were told it would take up to 2 weeks. It was added almost instantaneously when we signed up.
Our other issue, which almost seems trivial after having an almost empty venue on a Saturday night solely due to The Fork users, is that their technology is unable to accommodate covid-related capacity restrictions. You can't simultaneously set an overall capacity and use table management to assign bookings to tables. In our case, this means having to put a lower number of seats on our floorplan than we have, to avoid breaking the law. After researching, it looks like all other platforms allow you to set an overall capacity that overrides all other details. So, we're likely losing even more revenue every night due to The Fork.
All in all, it's the single worst product/company we have engaged with in our 5 years of trading. Just terrible. Exists solely to harvest contact details.
Edit: 2 months after quitting The Fork our email inbox is suddenly full of random cancellation notifications for all our old bookings (not even cancellations, ALL bookings). 30+ emails in just 1 minute. Spam. Their technology is so broken.
Positive reviews
Brilliant at Coutts Ayr – Had lunch at the Coutts Commercial Tavern in Ayr today and wanted to say that the food was awesome, the staff excellent and the atmosphere is very relaxing. Thanks to all for a great lunch today. Bought a new wheel chair while in Town and the staff suggested a red one as they go faster!
Easy to book and lots of rewards – I've used this app to book lots of restaurants especially in Europe, where most restaurants are on there. There are much less in Australia though. No issue thus far. I've also redeemed yums without issues.
Amazing results for my restaurant – As everybody knows the restaurant industry was hit hard by Covid. I wouldn't have been able to survive without the fork, they have helped drive new customers to my restaurant and help fill in quieter times. I would recommend to any new restaurant!
Negative reviews
This was going to be a 5 star review...but it's -1 now! This was going to be a 5 star review but then TheFork cancelled two of my reservations and suspended my account. They could not give me a reason but "irregular use"??? What does that mean exactly. I could not contact nor speak to the customer service dept only via chat but the girl Isabella… Read more
was nice but clueless why I got suspended. They took away my 1000 bonus points l've accumulated and was going to use tonight before I left Florence. They emailed me and said the restaurant "Il Volo" (great people/food) cancelled my reservation. They did not. I eat there every day. TheFork has horrendous customer service.
This is their reasoning: “ Dear user, We inform you that we have detected that you have made improper use of our reservation service by creating multiple bookings without attending your reservation(s) and/or otherwise trying to take improper advantage of our loyalty program. Article 6.2 of our Terms of Use, which you can consult at https:// www.thefork.com/legal, finds as Prohibited Action the following: "Use TheFork Platform or its contents for illegal, illegitimate or fraudulent purposes, or contrary to the rights and legitimate interests of TheFork or any other third party. [...]" Therefore, and in accordance with Article 6.4.1 of our TheFork Terms of Use, we are compelled to inform you that your TheFork account has been permanently deactivated. This action will cancel all your current reservations and erase your accumulated Yums. If you believe our decision was made in error after reviewing our Terms of Use, you may contact our Customer Service or refer to Article 9.6 of our Terms of Use. Kind regards, Quality, Compliance & Fraud TheFork”
Don’t trust TheFork – TheFork confirmed two reservations and then cancelled them 48hours before the event. The restaurant told me they had been fully booked for that date months before I had made the reservation through TheFork and that they had had many incidents like this before with this 3rd party agent.
Don't use "Fork Pay" from "The Fork" – Don't use "Fork Pay", the software has a glitch that means you have to pay twice, and then chase up getting half your money back (good luck with that). Likewise "The Fork" gift cards, they're linked to the same problem, don't use them. I've already wasted so many hours on it, call this paying forward for someone's benefit.
Recent reviews
Very poor service from The Fork – I paid a booking deposit of €100 on 4th February 2024 for a meal in the Pelayo Bar in Seville on Fri 9th February 2024 via The Fork. This amount was deducted from my account on the 5th Feb but when I arrived at the restaurant there was no reservation and no record of my deposit. I paid for my meal and have tried to get reimbursement from The… Read more
Fork.com numerous times - I have emailed directly with copy of receipt of purchase & have also tried via their app with no satisfaction.
Very poor service Regards
They are a bunch of useless parasites – I wish there was a negative review possible! Multiple emails requesting the removal of ALL data associated with my account are constantly stymied with redirections, closed cases unresolved, ANYTHING to be obstructive. Months later... still no reply. DON' USE THEM!!!!
What happened? – Use to be very good at earning points, but since August virtually no offer of bonus points being offered so really unless things change this is a waste of time. Received an email. The Fork are now Finished in Australia. Probably a good decision. I still had a $20 reward I could not use at the pub I always went to as they no longer took yums.
Could not manage my booking online – Booked using their platform because it looked easy. Wrong. For some reason it ignored my request for 4 people and set it for one person. When I tried to change it thru the 'manage my booking' function, there was no option to change the number of guests. Had to call the restaurant. Waste of time.
Terrible and if I can give them zero stars I would do it – Made booking for particular restaurants for 9 people and that was for my husband birthday party. I had a confirmation for our reservation but time was different. I called restaurant to make sure they have my booking and to tell them about time difference but owner of that restaurant told me they don’t have my booking at all . They didn’t receive… Read more
anything from the Fork about my reservation for 9 people. Terrible service and I wouldn’t use this side anymore for any bookings. Just wanted to warn people and give them my experience with this side. Thanks Fork for nothing.
Thefork.com.au - dont bother – I thought this will be useful to know about the discount advertised on thefork.com.au table booking system. They said that I have a 30% discount owed to me, the restaurant charged me the full price without the discount. Went back to thefork.com.au. I showed the check and fork.com.au closed my issue and gave me some funny money Yum points… Read more
without returning any cash back. I will not be surprised if the Fair Trading department come knocking their door.
Cancelled my booking 2 days before Fathers Day – Booked a restaurant on the fork month ago for fathers day, today I get an email saying "Unfortunately, the restaurant Le Feu Flemington will not be able to honour your booking on Sunday, 3 september 2023 at 12:00" No offer of a replacement booking just no where to go for fathers day. How disgusting
Smallest portion I've ever had! – I ordered the Sunday 'roast of the day special' advertised on their 'specials' board. It read broccolini, roasted pumpkin and chat roasted potatoes with roast pork and jus. When arrived I was stunned and dismayed at the two wafer thin and slim slices of pumpkin, one slim stem of broccolini and two small steamed potatoes cut in half. The serve of… Read more
pork was decent and tasted beautiful, however the rest was tasteless and smaller than my child's meal, and I left still hungry.
Can't use Yum credits at all in Australia – false advertising to get Yum credits then not being able to use them anywhere in Australia. I had presumed all the restaurants using this system would have accepted the Yum credits. I have $50 in credit I still can't use. They expire in Feb. They say they are trying to get more restaurants on board but its been months and no changes.
False advertising – Spent my money and time booking and dining At restaurants to earn yums finally after one year earned enough for a $20 voucher only to have almost no places local that accept them
Allow bullying of staff – Witnessed staff being bullied all night by owner. When I filled in their feedback request they told me I could let say that . Sickening approach . No respect for customers or staff
absolute garbage - avoid ! – I made a booking through this service once, and a couple of months later received a rude message from "Quality" stating that my account was suspended due to me making "improper use of our booking service". Terrible - don't even bother with these clowns
didn't know I had used the fork when I reserved a table. spread like cancer emailing me – poor poor experience. never knew I was using the fork. poxy thing keeps emailing like a cancerin my email. blocked. poor poor experience. no way to unsubscribe. wish I'd just called then I wouldn't have been spammed.
Frozen foods – Went to Tutor Inn for lunch ordered fisherman’s basket all frozen packet food even the fish was from frozen packet fish. Others on the table ordered the pie which was microwaved and just fish and chips fish was actually battered and fried but so dark maybe need to change their oil. Service was however friendly and prompt but still didn’t outshine the food quality
Totally disaster!! – How many stars do you want to vote for when you booked a restaurant using TheFork on Valentine's day and when you and your partner arrived at the restaurant, they said no booking under your name and no table for walk-ins?
Awful. Complete waste of time and money. Zero customer service and no assistance with customer concerns – Had 10,000 loyalty points I earned by spending thousands of dollars with their booking system and meals. Was unable to use them due to the awful booking system for points redemption. Wrote to explain the situation and ask for some assistance so I could actually use them, but was told they were gone and that I should just make another booking as… Read more
they had a 50 booking points offer… um I had 10,000?! Terrible, terrible, awful customer service. They didn’t even respond to my request to review the issue.
Not an ethical company and completely un-Australian.
Non responsive "quality" team – My account got suspended by the Quality team for supposedly the reason of "improper use of our booking service, to accumulate loyalty points in your account". I have only ever made one booking on the platform, and used a friend's referral code alongside that booking. This suspension only came through months later after the booking, so I am now… Read more
wondering what "improper use" I've made with their booking service and why it took them months to take action. The code is there, I signed up and made a booking with code, attended my reservation as normal.
Customer service through live chat unfortunately can't help so they've directed me to email the quality team. I have sent several emails to the quality team appealing my case but have not received a single response which is really poor form.
The only trait of the "Quality Team" that is of extreme high quality is their non-response rate which is sitting at 100%.
Totally useless! I could rate 0 stars if that was permissible – Booking confirmed twice by TheFork. Day before the lunch, reminder and reconfirmation came from TheFork, yet when we arrived at the restaurant, they had no record whatsoever of our booking!
Side options – We have been going to the Sandy for a while, unfortunately there’s been a change and they have said mains can only be either a side of chips/salad, OR veg/potato gratin. No you cannot have steamed veg and chips anymore…. The gratin was very average too… Come on Sandy hotel, keep the choice of sides.. can’t be that hard… Staff were great, as always!
Worst booking platform – Last minute cancellation for two tables of 12 even though it was booked weeks ago with absolutely no explanation. If I could give zero stars for this poor excuse of a booking platform I would.
Misleading offer deal – I went to book a clearly advertised offer of a 50% discount at a restaurant advertised on The Fork App. The app clearly showed a table was available for the 50 % discount on food at a specified time, when I went to book the App would only let me make the booking if I ACCEPTED THE BOOKING without accepting the offer. In effect no discount !! This I… Read more
feel was misleading and false advertising. I will never use the app again , nor will I attend any venue on the Fork is associated with. I did a live chat with Megan on their Live Chat program EXPLAINING WHAT HAD HAPPENED and all she could do was apologize and say it was miscommunication and that we couldnt receive the advertised discount. Pity I cannot give a ZERO STAR RATING !!!!!
How many text messages and emails does it take – Far too many. After booking has been confirmed, you then get asked to confirm again a day later, then you get a reminder, then you are asked to review. I shall avoid using the fork again.
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Found out they are shutting down in Australia, very secretive