Grange Hotel — Restaurant in Adelaide

3 years ago, I left a negative review for the Grange Hotel, and I can’t believe that I would be back again writing another and final NEGATIVE review. Never ignore a review, no matter how negative it is! Potential customers typically read independent reviews from past customers and will base their future dining decisions on this.

My brother-in-law booked a table for 15 people for New Year’s Day (public holiday) family luncheon. We waited close to an hour before they served our main - mind you; we needed to remind staff of the wait time. Garlic bread finally came, and we were told our mains were 8 minutes away - which was not the case. We had children at our table - poor kids were starving. Spoke to the venue manager, who was not helpful and didn’t apologise for the excessive meal delay. We also noticed other people who came in after we were being served their meals. People when you ask the waitress if your meal can be modified, i.e. how spicy is the meal? A little advice, if requesting a modification to a meal please ask that same waitress that you will get what you had ordered because they will change the point of discussion to their needs not the needs of the patron.

My sister-in-law asked if the crab fettuccine was overly spicy - the waitress said that she would ask the chef to make a plate up for her, which was too not spicy. Finally, our meals arrived, which were substandard and overpriced. The fettuccine ended up being spicy. My sister-in-law queried the order with the waitress who told my sister-in-law that she didn’t speak to the chef as she knew that the fettuccine isn’t spicy at all.

Everything just spiralled from that point on. My mother-in-law ordered grilled fish with chips but was served crumbed fish - speaking the same waitress we were told that they would replace the meal with grilled fish as per my mother-in-law’s order. We noticed that they had scraped the crumbs off the original fish. We questioned this, and we were told by the same waitress that the fish was freshly grilled.

It just seemed that each time our intelligence was being questioned.

As we were seeking compensation, the venue manager finally came over to discuss the level of poor service quality of food, the timing of our meals - he offered us 25% discount off the total of our bill. We agreed to accept his offer. Approached the counter to be told that we couldn’t pay for our meals separately. The total amount was $359 - he agreed to take $59 off the total bill. And to top it off, we even paid the 15% surcharge. The overall experience - was horrendous!!! Never, ever will we book a function with the Grange Hotel.

The professionalism of the staff is inadequate. If you choose to open your establishment on a public holiday, please have more staff on to avoid disappointment. And, of course, when the establishment charges patrons 15% surcharge to have the hotel opened to its patrons, you would expect service levels to be of a better standard.

Food - a small plate of fettuccine (a handful of pasta with three prawns and no crab meat) overly priced.

It is very clear that the owner/owners do not seem to care about patrons’ opinions.

The customer is always right–read the reviews and make changes.

A powerful way to make your restaurant shine is to focus on...

Meal so bad that it is a benchmark rock bottom. I offered this feedback to the hotel privately weeks ago, but since there was no response or acknowledgement of any kind, maybe this one will get some attention. We arrived around 6:30pm, ordered some drinks, a starter and 4 meals. While we were having our drinks we were chatting and didn't pay much attention, until our glasses were almost empty, when we realised that we are still waiting for our starter (simple dips, based on what the menu was saying). I enquired with a team member who went to check on our starter. Then our mains arrived. And then the starter. Not really sure which one to eat first to be honest. Also, a bit of a surprise to get 2 tablespoons of dips and a handful of bread chunks for $22. But sure, let's not worry, and get on with our mains..... Here is our order: Salmon in the bag Gnocchi Korean Chicken burger Salad (cannot remember which one).

The only meal that was nice was the salad. Also, the person who had that was entirely exhausted and would have eaten almost anything. Since i didn't try their meal i cannot comment. Another meal i personally didn't try was the Korean chicken burger. However, the friend who ordered kept noting it was really bad and they left about half of it.

I shared gnoochi and salmon with the 3rd person. Gnocchi was ok flavour-wise, but was chewy and barely warm. The salmon was presented as a perhaps fun and quirky and delicious meal "salmon in a bag".... Unfortunately it was probably the worst salmon i have ever eaten. It was an overcooked piece of fish floating in greasy tasteless water alongside boiled pieces of field mushroom (whyyy??) and stringy and chewy broccolini. The "broth" that could have saved the day was flavourless and made the meal really messy to eat. It would have been so much simpler to sear those same ingredients with some garlic and butter. And at $30+ for a main, you would want something that you at least don't mind eating.

So a week on we are still talking about how terrible the meal was and comparing all other eateries for equivalent price point and size meals.

The Grange was an epic pub once upon a time. It seems now like nobody cares, the place is tired, worn, and the staff probably pick up the vibes of "meh" from...

I’m not even going to talk about customer service as the staff members that we approached for service seemed to had no idea of courtesy or manners at all! I walked in and stayed at the door with my kid waiting for someone to tell us where to be seated. A lady taking food to a table near to us, saw us and walked literally past us. Given that we were on the way, she came and told us where to seat. She didn’t hand menus or explain how ordering works, if there’s not table service provided. We sat and waited for the menus, but no one approached us. I went to a guy dressed in black who was focused on a laptop. I stood right in front of him giving him time to finish what he was doing, he wouldn’t even look at me. I said hi in a friendly way, but he wouldn’t even look at me ( I was standing at an arm distance from this person). I said excuse me again to have this very rude person telling me off as if I was another team member who was trained in the restaurant! He told me that if I wouldn’t have sat by myself, someone would have given me menus. I tried to explain that a lady told me to sit there, but this man went ahead to keep talking over me and pointed to the counter so I could grab a menu myself. On my way to my table, he was going on the laptop talking to the lady who told us to grab the table. I came closer to tell him about the lady, he did an annoyed face and completely ignored me. My kid was having a good day and was very hungry so I decided to just enjoy the nice day. We waited for over 15 minutes to have our order taken, no one came to us. Another family sat on a table near by, they ended up cleaning their table with napkins by themselves. At that time I decided to walk to go to the restaurant in front of us.

We were welcome by a team member who had her hands full of dirty dishes, still she had a lovely smile and was quick to show us to the menus and the...