Golden Port Hotel

I was a bit concerned after reading the reviews, but as an ethnic Chinese diner, I found the food went well beyond what I expected. It reminded me of food back in China.

The food was average-level "Chinese" food, and that was the one decent thing about the place. Service was really slow and there were no smiles. It's okay if you're just looking for some random place to eat, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend it. It also smells horrible.

The tasty food and genuinely cold beer were the only things that made this visit worthwhile. We were six people arriving at an empty restaurant and got seated quickly. The men ordered beer and the women got a bottle of sparkling wine to share. The beers arrived promptly and were clearly cold. The wine took at least ten minutes, and when it came, it was warm, like it hadn't been put in a fridge at all. We asked for an ice bucket, which arrived with no ice. After asking again, we got about ten cubes. By then it felt ridiculous, so we drank the warm wine and decided to stick to beer. The food came quickly, tasted good, and was what the menu said it would be. Nothing special, just typical "Australian Chinese restaurant" food. But there was no customer service, no smiles, and nobody explained the dishes. It was far below what we'd come to expect from people in Vanuatu during our trip. We skipped dessert, paid, and headed back to our resort for a properly cold bottle of sparkling wine. We told other resort guests not to bother with the hassle of taking a taxi or bus up the hill. And no, we didn't tip.

The portions are huge, and there's a massive menu to choose from. The food was delicious, and we had lunch here twice during our stay. The views over Port Vila are amazing. After dark there's not much to see, so if you're having dinner, get there early and you might catch a lovely sunset. Highly recommend, and we'll definitely come back next time.