The Arbor — Restaurant in Fremantle

My wife and I (in our 50s) and our two teenagers travelled to The Arbour for a meal and drinks on Sunday 17 April and were rudely denied entry for a bizarre and arbitrary reason. So be prepared.

We rang beforehand and told it wasn’t busy, there were no bookings and it was just walk-ins. We went to street entrance at 5pm where the door lady asked us to show our vax cert - which we all had through the ServiceWA app so showed that and were fine. Normal.

We we then asked to also show a photo ID and be photographed by a camera at the entrance (like at an airport). I didn’t have my photo ID (the other three did) so the door lady asked for one of her colleagues to come to the door. A fella arrived who told us it was the law to show our photo ID before entry. My wife said we have never heard of this requirement before for everyone - at a restaurant or a hotel - and why do we have to do this? She was a bit exasperated given we had called, had the right Covid ID proof, I am over 50 and we hadn’t had this additional hurdle before. The fella then snipped that “It’s a legal requirement. I was willing to let you in but now … I’m not. Turnaround and go. Next!”

So rude. Even if it was a legal requirement, the fella saying to us he was going to let us in and then decided not to when we questioned it, showed disregard for any supposed rule anywhere and a lot of arrogance .

We left and went to Sandrinos where we were welcomed by friendly staff, a nice atmosphere and spent $250 bucks on a lovely meal/drinks.

We get it that everyone is understaffed - but that wasn’t the issue here. He made us feel embarrassed and unwelcome. There are a lot of choices for families to eat out in the area and this guy pushed us to spend it at one of those and...

Very dark inside, unable to read the menus unless you use your phone torch or put your menu under the bar where there is a light that you can just manage to read them with. There was only a few choices in the mains to choose from and after we ordered they told us the 2 choices we had chosen were unavailable 🤦. We were a small party of 4, all ordering our food at the same time. 2 ordered parmis, which were served hot 👍 with chips and a green salad that had 2 cherry tomatoes cut in half with it. ☹️ These arrived about 7 minutes before one of our friends meals arrived. 1 ordered a pizza that took 7 min longer to arrive and the other who ordered fish came about 20 minutes later, and by this time we had finished our meals and she had to eat hers after we had all finished. Apparently it takes longer to cook fish 🤦. Sorry, not good enough. There was not a lot of customers on the Monday evening we went, so we found it hard to believe we couldn't get our 4 meals served at the same time. Then the drinks 🤦, my husband asked for a beer the barman, said "sorry sir, I don't have that one here. I'll see if there's one at the other bar" Ok no problem with that. Then I ordered a LL & B he said no can't serve that we have no bitters.🤦 So I chose another drink, no he didn't have that either 🤦. But while he went to get the beer, my husband saw the bitters in his fridge, and told him where it was when he came back. Yes I did finally get a lemon, lime and bitters 🎉. Besides all my gripes, the staff were friendly, but honestly we won't be...

Catching up with freinds? Layed back atmosphere? Then The Arbor Bar is where you want to be!! Being welcomed like an old friend, with an easy menu, and great service. Whilst parrusing the menu, the weather started to turn form a pleasant day, to a gloomy threatening storm brewing, it was impressive to see the automatic retractable roof spring into action. Turning a questionable occasion into a pleasantly warm dinning experience. Starting off with 6 oysters that were fresh as can be, and absolutely delicious.. The Thia Beef Salad, and my customary Parmy, were the order of the day! The Beef in the salad was served Rare, (just so it doesn't catch you by surprise!) Now don't let that put you off, because it was so sumptuous, and perfectly done! In terms of Parmys, I'd rate this one a solid 9! Now there's several factors that warrent that score. For me, I like certain things to tic my box's. Now the serving size, moistness, crispyness/crunchiness of breadcrumbs, and last but certainly not least, the fries must compliment the main.. The tomato sauce on top was just the right amount of sweet and sour the ham was the right thickness and size to cover the Parm, And pleasingly the cheese wasn't over/under done! For me I'm not a stacked Parmy guy, but, one takes them as they come!! Overall A great place to have a casual get together, or make it a date for two or a group! Thoughroughly recommend!

Will be back...