The Duxton — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

Hahaha, so apparently, my review from 3 years ago was accurate.

16 dollar schooners and stale urine on offer.

Went again, hoping for better (I've been back a couple of times since NYE 21... once, it was so loud I literally had to put ear plugs in --- that was the night that we ordered at the same time and all of our food came out at different times .... didn't have the burger that time bc another time, I tried the burger and it was one of those patties that you get from Aldi's, just not enjoyable).

So anyhow. 26.01.2025 -- why we subject ourselves to this place is beyond me (convenience and one member of the party likes that, is my best guess). Overpriced everything. And the toilets -- can't speak to the men's, but the ladies. OYOYOY. You know that 5 day old stale piss smell you sometimes get in a council toilet after a long weekend and the cleaning was skipped?? Yeah, that's on offer at the duxton. Oh, and the watered down soap was a nice touch -- I just move l love getting a little tomato sauce on a finger, trying to wash it off and still smell it. Guess it's one of those complimentary things you get with a table that has been cleared (prior to our arrival) but not wiped down -- as my forearm discovered... hours old tomato sauce just hanging out at the table (it was sticky as).

But this review is more to warn patrons tossing up between the Duxton and somewhere else to go to the somewhere else. The somewhere ende probably won't serve a limp side salad with unsalted chips (the schnitzel was actually pretty average so by my Duxton food experiences, pretty good). The somewhere else probably won't charge 16 dollars for a schooner of ice, lemon and a splash of ginger beer. Yep. That's what has brought me back to my review. 16 dollars for an icy draught, 4% beverage. Literally the most expensive thing on tap -- and no, there were no drink menus available for the tap options (there is one online which is how I know it's the most expensive tap option).

Ugh, this place has so so so so so so much potential and fails so hard.

31.12.2021 - I'm sure tonight doesn't reflect normal times at The Duxton.

Ladies, make sure there's toilet paper before you sit. They weren't happy...

Just a word of warning for people who wanted to hosts their wedding event here, please read down below about the issues i had encounted before making such a big decision.

Poor service from the bar staff, we had two young ladys working up in our funtction area both provided unprofessional service one of them put one of my guest in tears while i had multiple complaints about the same person from multiple of my other guest about her poor attitude and the treatment they where receiving.

Broken lift- we specifically went here due to the easy accessibility for the elderly people that where arriving on that day. On the day of the function the lift was broken and provided no reasonable solutions for the elderly people we had that day.

Undercooked food- as you can imagine food platters are not cheap when you pay such a large amount for food you expect above average quality not undercooked food that had to be sent back.

Unwanted bar tab- a $200 bar tab was apparently put down for my self and my wife that neither of us ask asked for ( we where paying for our own drinks the hole night) we then get told at the end of the night we had to pay for that bar tab. I am sorry if i am wrong here but most places you go to if you put down a bar tab you normally pay before hand not after let alone having no knowledge of such things in the first place.

Auxilary cord - we paid extra for a auxillary cord so we could still play music at the end of the night after the band left, the cord we received was faulty and broken and their where no forms of replacements.

The manager we dealt with at the start i will not mention names, but was lovely when we came to pre planning it all but afterwards when complaints needed to be heard about the horrible service received it was just chucked under a rug pushing the blame.

Take my comments as you like belive them or do not. But if i had my chance of doing things again i would definitely not reccermend this place. Invest in a nicer place that can provide a better service would be my advice or take this place at your own risk, this is just the experience i...

Honestly not sure where to start. I would read this through if you are deciding to come here or not. This was probably the worst dining experience I have ever had. I’m not sure if this place is usually good, it looked quite busy for a Wednesday night.

The only redeeming thing about our dinner here were that the waitress’s were friendly and apologetic about the delays.

This was the first time I have come here. I wasn’t sure if it was table service as we had waited a long time for someone to come take our order, I got up and asked the wait staff where I order she said she will come right over and take it. We ordered the scotch fillet, Margarita pizza and the salmon($39)for my 1 year old daughter because the kids menu is an all fried food which we don’t like feeding to her.

Ordered drinks with our dinner 15-20 minutes later still no drinks. I went to the bar to get another lot of drinks as I was tired of waiting, the waitress was there and the owner?/manager? She said “your drinks were up next” I said no dramas I’ll just grab them the wait staff look very busy.

There was a particularly long wait for dinner as well, when it came out we cut my daughters dinner up to discover the middle of the salmon was cold. I took it back to the kitchen and asked them if they could cook it more. They did so and also brought out chips for undercooking the salmon.

I decided to go to the bar this time to get a drink instead of ordering it from my table. The guy behind the bar said are you sitting over there? I said yes I am he said it’s table service. I said it’s ok I’ll just grab it here less of a wait. He was very hesitant to serve me the drinks but I insisted.

I then went to pay for our meal ($125) which isn’t bad valve if you had a good meal and a nice evening. I wasn’t asked how everything was tonight however I was asked to select if I would leave a tip or not before putting in my pin. Honestly I feel bad for the waitresses they appear to be new or not trained very well possibly under staffed? Was a night I’ll never get back left a lot...