Canberra Labor Club — Restaurant in District of Belconnen

Update 24/07/2025: the gas heaters in the smoking areas still don’t work. They’ve had new electric heaters fitted and they seem to work intermittently but when they’re working they’re completely ineffectual. They’re too small and they’re mounted too high up on the ceiling to provide any warmth but this isn’t surprising given how the place is managed. They’ve changed the music. It’s not as dreadful as previous. Bistro is still terrible (quality/value) based on the last couple of tries. Update 20/12/24: banal, excruciating & overly loud “background” music. Dirty smoking areas - floor sticky and often no ash trays Very expensive food of poor quality Staff generally good Update 15/11/24: still playing the same terrible teeny bopper “music” playlist on repeat from ~2pm for the enjoyment of non-teeny bopper members. Still a good selection of ear splittings poker machines amongst less raucous ones to eventually force you to move if you care about your hearing. Restaurant - flavour/portion size dwarfed by the prices.

Update 21/9/24 : heaters in smoking area still not working, no real change Update 8/8/24 : change machines no longer display notice that multiple notes are accepted.

2024 August - Majority of staff are good and friendly with a minority acting like they don't want to be there and dislike customer service. Lot's of broken stuff - pokies with no sound (fixable but never fixed (1322, 1106, 1107)), change machines that reject notes very often, change machines marked as accepting multiple notes that in fact do not, main smoking area with only two heaters that don't work usually, other two smoking areas have heaters but drinks are banned from them. Music volume is often ridiculously loud in parts and the mix of music types is discordant. Combined with some poker machines that default to ear splitting volumes the place can be headache inducing and just a bit off. No apparent desire to elicit customer feedback from members via "let us know what you think" style forms. Nearest competitor, Canberra Southern Cross Club Jamison, doesn't exhibit pretty much any of the above issues.

2023 August - The restaurant is pretty bad - small servings of non-fresh/frozen 'product' at restaurant prices. Just a bad deal all round. Good range of pokies but many are ridiculously loud, as in ear splitting. Suggests poor management and disregard for customers. Staff are pretty good and friendly. They need a few signs like...

Nice club and well priced bar but Selections Bistro really brings it down. In a big way! Pricing and portion sizing is fine but the service and quality of food is woeful. Without a doubt, the worst club food I have ever had. We were staying a week at the Mecure and as it is downstairs, we decided to check it out. Ordering food is quick and easy enough but that's where it ended for us. We ordered the Honey Chicken and roast of the day plus a serve of Garlic bread. We were asked if we wanted the bread as the entree. We said yes. It took 35 minutes to come out and instead of looking like the photo and other photos on other reviews (sliced sideways in 2 pieces and golden brown), it was what looked like a frozen store bought one with vertical cuts into about 6 pieces. It was not cooked properly and the crust was like a rock. It was not pleasant and not worth the $8 we paid for it. My Honey Chicken came out 15 minutes later. It was cold and tough. Not even sure if there was chicken in it. The rice was just a big gluggy clump. After 1 hour from when we first ordered, we asked where the roast was. The guy at the counter went and checked. He told us they were just making it. We were fed an excuse that the kitchen had a lot of trainees. The meal came out and once again we were given the same excuse. I said it wasn't good enough. Turns out the meal was inedible and 90% of it was not eaten. The gravy didn't even help. It was just as bad as the rest. Photos show what was left behind. What a waste. We were refunded the money for the roast but my wife left hungry. We were with a larger group who mostly stayed in the Hotel across the street. They knew we were going there and asked how it was. We told them how bad it was so they steered clear. The place was only 1 quarter full. How bad would it be if they were packed???? We will be staying at the Mecure again but won't be back to the Labour Club. There are plenty of othere eateries within...

The bistro has gone downhill. They used to have really good chicken kievs but not anymore. It is off the menu. That was a big disappointment. I ordered instead the Mongolian beef. It was served to me lukewarm (which I sent back and had replaced) and the portion size was small. It was the quality of Asian take away food you get in a food court, but at nearly twice the price. I then ordered a sundae, which was just three scoops of ice cream, some topping and a cherry. That's ice cream and topping, not a sundae. A sundae is supposed to be extravagant. Three scopps of ice cream and topping is not extravagent. For the $12 I paid for it I should have got something much better. In fact it is misleading for them to call it a sundae. I left after my meal still partly hungry and very disappointed.

I wasted my money. I shall not be going back. I can get the same quality food at nearly half the price in a food court. Lift your game Labor Club and put chicken kievs back on the menu. Improve your quality and don't label a dessert one thing when it is actually a lesser something else.

I see also mine is not the first review saying the bistro has gone downhill. Overall the Labor Club rates 3.8 in the reviews at the time I'm writing this. Anything below a four says there is a problem that management...