McLaren Vale Hotel — Restaurant in Adelaide

Well sadly I will NEVER eat in their dining room again! What should have been a nice experience turned out to be poor service & terrible meal & experience on the long weekend being 14thJune 2021. My husband & I arrived at the dining lounge at 6pm asking if there was a table for two available, we were told by the head waitress that they were at COVID capacity & only outside was available. Being a cool night we said no but said we would return as we were offered a 2nd seating at 7.30. We were asked for a phone number which we gave my husbands mobile number & said we will go into the next room where the pokies are & wait for the next setting which we did. At 7.30 we returned, we were greeted by the head waitress again whom recognised our faces & showed us to a table, that’s when it all went down hill from there.. a young waitress approached us & very quickly said there was many things on the menu NOT available as they had sold out!! ( My husband & I were staying in Mclaren Vale for our 1st wedding anniversary so we’re looking forward to a nice dinner together. ) I being a qualified cook & my husband a qualified chef we’re taken back by the waitresses abrupt approach & I told her so. We ordered drinks so we could work out what was actually available to order but the waitress was rather rude & I told her how fckd I thought her attitude & treatment was & with that she walked away to another table & left us on our own without even taking our order, when she finally returned she said there was one beef schnitzel left then walked away again. We waited for her to return so we could order, when she finally passed our table again I called her & said we were ready to order which we were then told she had sold the last schnitzel to the new other table!! I hit the roof as found this so unprofessional & told her so! Once again she walked away leaving us with no order placed. With that we had to wait for the head waitress to come take our order & express our distaste & disregard & disrespect from the waitress. We had very little choice at this stage to what food was left & available to order. We then ordered the steak, fish & chips. My husbands steak was full of sinew & both worth the $30 plus dollars they charged & my coorong mullett was 3 tiny dry wafer thin crumbed pieces with soggy chips & salad, the worst meals we have had. We paid almost $100. for one schooner & 1 pint of beer & the two meals. No fresh side bread supplied. We told the head waitress how unhappy we were with the treatment we received & the poor quality of food.. her answer was ‘well it is the long weekend & we ran out of food’ to this I asked why do they take a phone number as they could have told us this in the beginning or even rang us to explain the situation BUT instead nothing, no compassion or understanding of our situation & frustration. We paid our bill & left vowing NEVER to return & we will NEVER recommend eating there again!! What a disgrace for Mclaren Vale & SA tourism!! 0/10...

Visited for dinner 25/7/24. Have been to MVH many times before and always had a good experience. Unfortunately our most recent visit won't see us heading back for a while. Firstly, the good - the Bellevue restaurant offers a very nice space whether indoors or on the heated verandah. We shared the caramelised onion tart as a starter and it was great. Gooey and unctuous. We commented to the wait staff on how much we enjoyed it. Next, the not so good. We were keen to visit because of the new menu and both ordered the "SEAWEED CRUMBED COORONG MULLET, PICKLED FENNEL, RAVIGOTE SAUCE & FRIES". This was very disappointing - too much crumb which was dry and unappealing a gravy boat of "Ravigote Sauce" which was a bland tartare. The coorong mullet was over-cooked. The pickled fennel was placed under the accompanying plastic basket of fries (which were good) as an afterthought.

Much fanfare has been made of the new chef and menu, but I think they've forgotten the "H" in MVH. It is a pub and charging restaurant prices but serving average food is a road to disaster.

Finally, the service. The waitstaff are friendly enough but clearly young, inexperienced and under trained. It was not a busy evening but there were staff standing around chatting with each other in full view, whilst customers went unserved. A drinks order was forgotten and when reminded after 15 minutes we received a snippy response. When asked about our main course, we provided honest feedback in that we were disappointed and received the response "sorry about that, but at least it looks like you're enjoying your wine."

The market is too competitive and there are other, better dining options within...

Was told this is the only pub in town and decided to try it out after an afternoon of wine tastings around the Vale. It was recommended by quite a few of the cellar doors so expectation was relatively high. First impression was a nice facade not a typical pub look, clientele seemed diverse. One of the better Guinness pours by an attentive and friendly bar staff. Helped us book a table for dinner, explained the menu and that there will be a Thu meat on the spit which was pork. Wherever you sit you can choose to order from the bar menu or bistro menu which of course had the pub classics but also more creative affair and number of daily specials. Wine list was extensive and very reasonably priced. We have some oysters and carpaccio to start and the mussels and crispy chicken breast. I must say the quality of the dishes far exceeded our expectations and were amazing. One tip would be not to use the QR code ordering as not all dishes can be ordered so best to go up to the bar to order (unless you sit in the restaurant part of course). If you are in or around McLaren Vale this is a must visit for a meal. There’s an outdoor seating area as well which was covered when we visited and...