For a nice meal in Apollo Bay the most prominent option is Chris's Beacon Point Restaurant. Unfortunately they were booked out so I stayed in town. The two remaining options were La Bimba and Vista. Both have good and bad reviews and it was a tough decision choosing between them. What drove me toward La Bimba in the end was two things - there are more La Bimba reviews and recommendations, the website for Vista leads to some Japanese website and also when I tried to call Vista to book they didn't answer. That seems enough reasons. Funnily on the night I walked past and the place looks nice, there is a good amount of seafood there including a (rather expensive sounding) $190 fresh seafood platter with mash (no fried food and no fries they advertised to me).
La Bimba has a nice location above the bakery and there is a view of the ocean albeit quite obstructed by trees.
- Farmer's plate $28 - Apollo Bay Bakery brioche (soft and buttery), pulled duck (soft and fatty with mild taste), cured beef (very strong flavour), local moderate strength blue cheese, chutney (may have been dates I think), beautifully spiced cauliflower and taramasalata (an odd tasting pink dip made from fish eggs);
- Pumpkin, tahini, almonds & parsley $12 - some of the best roast pumpkin I've eaten with firm skin and soft flesh and topped by flavours and textures;
- Snapper with chimmichuri $37 - a slightly plain but decently cooked fish;
- Blue eye, mussels, chorizo, green sauce $38 - a nice meaty fillet, well cooked with some small mussels, peas and salty sauce.
The food and cooking was very good overall and there's some other seafood items I'd like to try in the future - smoked eel, snapper tartare and the (slightly expensive) seafood paella for 2 for $79.