The Meat & Wine Co Adelaide CBD — Restaurant in Adelaide

I made a booking here because of the previous experiences of my guests.

When we arrived the front of house staff were very professional and friendly and as we were being lead to our table the decor was impressive with tables given a level of privacy from curtains and the like, but that you didn't feel isolated.

What concerned me from the outset was our waiter's lack of knowledge of the wines they served. They claimed to take pride in their wine list and knowledge. This was the first problem that I had this night.

One of my guests wanted a glass of Pinot and there were three choices on the wine list. I asked the waiter to explain the differences in their styles, but he couldn't. If he couldn't, I would have expected him to bring three small tastes of the wine but he simply recommended the most expensive of the three.

I then asked for another recommendation and he simply showed me the section of the wine list but didn't make any suggestions or recommendations.

For an establishment that claimed to take pride in their wine, this staff member didn't exemplify it. If they didn't have the knowledge I would have expected them to get a member of staff who could answer those questions.

The food was pretty good. We had a range dishes including prawns, beef tartare, boerwurst, and different cuts of steaks.

I've certainly had better steaks but don't know the quality of meat available in Adelaide to elsewhere. There was a sweetness on my meat which wasn't mentioned on the menu and I didn't enjoy. I had expected the meat to be put onto the grill and had they done that it would have been better for my palate.

We didn't have time for dessert which was our fault. We knew we had a limited window for dinner (2 hours) and we had wasted time talking rather than studying the menu. The staff constantly reminded us of that time limit which at first was a handy reminder but it became a constant reminder which became annoying particularly after we had acknowledged it each time.

They did offer to seat us elsewhere if we wanted dessert, but by that stage we really just wanted to leave. We kept talking about how they couldn't answer the questions about the wine and the constant reminder about time.

When we left we continued to discuss their service. My friends apologised for their recommendation. I said that they shouldn't judge a restaurant from one waiter but I will try other restaurants before I...

Booked 10th August 2024 Private birthday party 17 guests. Elephant room. Set menu - 88pp

Food was good. Noise in the space was good and not overcome by the talking chatter of others. Table service was ok, our main server was lovely and accomodating with good service. However, drinks ordering and delivery was not top notch and the wait time was average, which pulled the overall rating down.

Their booking system and booking rules are borderline ridiculous. It made this place a difficult decision as someone has to manage money, numbers and surcharge because they don’t split bills. A table of 3/4 different families coming together and just offering sparking water and not telling of the charge is poor form as some people aren’t accustomed to that 6 bottles later at $10 a bottle. Now let’s mention the drinks again, you cannot order at the bar and pay on the spot, you have to manage a table of guests and their individual orders. Now the restaurant offered us a 4 card payment option and cash. However, this option only meant we could pay with 4 cards. The bill is not itemised by seat or placement. We had to fumble over a receipt selecting and ticking off what was ordered, not what I expect at this kind of establishment. Now let us talk the surcharge. On arrival of the booking and the pre set menu of $88 per person I paid in full before guests arrived. I was then informed that the surcharge of 10% is applicable for the entire table orders. So I paid $1500 for the food expecting to pay $150 surcharge so it was done. Nope not enough, the surcharge was applicable on the total bill, which was $1880 so the surcharge was $188 on top of nearly 2k. The hostess was visibly getting annoyed at us congregating in the foyer while the bill was sorted. A suggestion on your part to accomodate a moderate functional split bill payment is on your part. Do you think we wanted to stand around like being in a maccas line? Because of this situation the whole experience was left bitter and our party of 17 had a consensus of ‘the food was good, but the bill payment stuff and the rules are...

The garlic bread we were served had no garlic or parsley on it, just parmesan (not only couldn't taste it but couldn't see it, so told them and they made another at their suggestion and 2nd one actually had garlic and parsley on it u could see and taste aroma when just put mouth over bread to take a bite, after arguing with us that chef said all garlic breads that night were perfect and all went out properly)!!!! The tuna tartare was brown grey colour, not orange pink colour that fresh tuna is always as well didnt even taste like tuna, which says tuna wasn't fresh at all.......... The rib plater had both pork and beef, but beef weren't cooked properly coz meat wouldn't fall off bone as ribs cooked properly are supposed to do and seemed tough whereas the fatty pork ribs seemed dry and were very tasteless which is so rare for pork ribs and didn't even come with 2 sides, could only get chips or an attempt at a salad that was just mescal leaves with no dressing to speak of!!!!!!! The entree that was supposed to serve 5people only had on it 2bitrs of pork belly strip, 5 pieces of calamari, 2tiny bruschetta and 3chipolata sausages which no way can feed 5 people............ The roast pumpkin side dish sounded so flavourful having maple and miso, but it was most tasteless thing without even any maple or miso or even pumpkin flavour to taste in any mouthful!!!!!!!!!! The cocktails were very similar and couldn't be distinguished what flavour they were supposed to be, couldn't taste lychee, nor citrus, nor Berry, nor lime, albeit couldn't taste a bit of alcohol....... For a restaurant that charged such exorbitant prices for such small serves, you'd think they'd be more consistent with serving flavourful food and getting it right everytime, but obviously that's not their priority here, but performing prevention!!!!! Kitchen staff need to try the food when making it and then they wouldn't serve it to paying customers if they knew what they were actually serving...