Fibber McGee's — Restaurant in Leederville

Food was amazing. Our table ordered several of the koji aged steaks that were all perfect. Could not be faulted.

One star lost due to service. Seems to be a lack of training for the restaurant staff. I'll detail a few memorable points below.

1. Asked for additional bread for the dips we ordered and were happy to be charged more if necessary. Was stared at like we'd just asked to be served the severed leg of an alien from area 51. After heading off to check how such an outlandish request could be accommodated, our wait staff returned to inform us that we'd have to buy a whole other trio of dips. Seemed a little unreasonable but we were fine with it. Then, 10 minutes later, we were told our mains were arriving so we couldn't have the additional bread as there would be no room. Again, we were fine with that. Only mains didn't arrive for another 30 minutes. In that time a different wait person dropped off some bread. It felt as though they simply didn't want to fulfil the request but ultimately gave in due to the ridiculousness of the situation.

2. Ordered a bottle of one of their more expensive reds. When it was brought to the table it was quite warm. We were concerned the wine had not been stored properly and may have been damaged. Staff offered to put the wine in a ice bucket, which despite the good intentions, highlighted the lack of understanding behind our concern for the status of a wine that had been kept at such a high temperature.

3. After declining the ice bucket the staff left us with the wine. Unopened. Cork in. After 15 minutes we went looking for staff who could open the bottle, 3 staff attempted opening the bottle. The 3rd succeeded and plonked it on the table before promptly leaving. Apparently no need to allow us to check to see if the bottle was corked (high probability given its storage temp) and certainly no need to pour anyone a glass, of course. Only a $95 bottle of red. Just pour it yourself and hope for the best, I suppose. Luckily the wine was still in good condition.

4. Mains served. Food was awesome. We asked if we could use a nearby vacant table for our order as it was a struggle to fit everything on the table we were seated at. It was 9:20pm, the restaurant was half full, so we figured that was a pretty reasonable request. We were told that wasn't a possibility as the table needed to remain free for walk ins. OK, fair enough, maybe they get a high volume of late walk ins. That is, until my last point came to be.

5. Mains were finished at about 9:40pm. Wait staff began clearing the table. We asked if we could see the dessert menu. We were then told the kitchen had closed at 9:30pm. So multiple issues here. 1) we were told at 9:20pm that we couldn't utilise extra table space because of walk ins. Even though, it turns out, the kitchen was closing in 10 minutes and the restraunt was only at 50% capacity. 2) no notice of the kitchen closing to a table who had bought wine, entrees, 4 of their top priced steaks and 2 other mains. No offer of a dessert menu to a table clearly ready to spend money. 3) we were seated at 7:30pm mains ordered by 8:15pm and served at 9:15pm. Apparently being seated at 7:30pm is too late to be offered the full menu on a Friday night.

In summation; the training of the front of house staff is letting down the talent in the kitchen and the earning potential of the business itself. If I owned Fibber McGee's I'd want to address that pretty quick. On one table there was easily a potential for $200 more sales that simply didn't get the opportunity.

Edit: Given the tongue in cheek response from the owner, good luck to future patrons. I hope your wine is opened, and I hope you get the opportunity to have a complete meal. It's apparent zero notice is taken of genuine...

Went here tonight to have a quiet celebration of birthdays with family. Ordered the Koji ribeye, 600g, medium rare, $76.

What arrived looked like a coles steak. Thin. Mostly inedible, fatty, gristley, like chewing on an anaemic rubber band ball. Several mouthfuls I spat out due to the rubbery horrible texture. I dissected the steak as best I could, cutting through the gristle to the small medallion of viable meat surrounded by trash.

When a waitperson arrived midmeal to ask if we were happy, I brought to her attention my displeasure with my half eaten steak. I stated my above concerns with the quality and size of the cut, which was far below what is expected of a 76 dollar, 600 gram steak. Especially in comparison to some of the clearly premium steaks I was seeing around me. They took the steak back to the kitchen as requested.

A short time later I was appoached by another waitress, I imagine the manager or senior waitress, who asked to hear my concerns again. I repeated my above concerns with the size and quality of the steak. She quickly retorted that she and the chef had inspected the steak and found nothing wrong with it. They had also weighed the remaining cooked steak and determined there to be only around 200g left, which meant I ate more than the half of the initial 600g weight of the steak. Because of this they would not offer anything close to a refund for the barely eaten meal (didnt touch the 2/10 sides).

The decision to weigh the steak before talking to me raises several questions. Firstly, is steak not sold by raw weight? the cooked weight of a steak is significantly less. This is doubly so when the steak is extremely fatty (which it was) and renders off. So it was not 600g when placed on the table (if it ever was to begin with), and implying 200g of remaining steak means i ate 2/3 is simply dishonest. Secondly, did you also weigh the two large globs of gristle I had to spit out, or the other chunk of gristle that ended up on another diners plate? I dont imagine so. Thirdly, why bother hearing my concerns if you clearly came with a 'gotcha' and prepared denial of my complaint anyway.

The steak was bad. It was the worst steak I have had all year. I tried to raise my concerns politely and instead of hearing them, you came with your mind already made up and were extremely brisk about it. Weighing the steak to argue about it was dishonest and showed a disdain for the customer that will have me actively steering people away from this establishment.

Sure there may be some good steaks here. But when they serve a bad one, they take no responsibility, and then take a terrible confrontational approach to dealing with it. As someone who worked in hospitality for nearly a decade (including steak restaurants), sharing a table with people with similar experience, I was embarrassed by the way the staff handled my concerns.

There are better, less cramped, less smelly steak establishments with far better service in the inner north.

A very large thumbs down from me. The opposite of excellent.

Just look at the owners responses to complaints to see the self righteous attitude of the owner! Expect the same...

UPDATE: Tried again.. Nothing changed..

What happened a year ago: Just got a phonecall from the owner where he banned me from the restaurant because of the review and threatened for consequences if I didn't take the review down. That is a way of managing bad reviews. Very professional.

Where do I begin?.. I went eating with a friend on the 7th of November. We wanted to book a table and called in since we were in an area with bad reception. When we called in the person on the other side of the line rudely said they only take bookings online. We looked for a wifi area and we booked in our table at 8pm. We arrived at fibbers McGees at 7h40pm, ordered two beers at the bar and were sent to the back yard to have our beers while we were waiting on our table. When I kindly asked if they would inform us when the table would have been ready that same woman who was told us over the phone they only take online bookings (who turns out to be the manager!?!...) rolled her eyes. When it was 8h10 pm we went to have a look ourself and the table appeared to be already ready but that manager didn't even bother to come and inform us the table was ready. Also, the backyard where we were sent to was just a mess.. The long table was full of empty plates of a group that left some time ago and around the 2 high tables there were too many seats. All signs of bad management.

When we got to the table we ordered some good steak and a bottle of red. In total we've spend with the beers from outside a 194 aud + a 10 dollar tip because the service was good since it was taken over by the other workers who did a great job. The only interaction we had with that manager was her throwing the food on the table, asking half a question and heading off.

I do understand the pressure of working in hospitality. It's hard and an undervalued job. But don't put people as managers who don't know the basic principles of hospitality. I know there are not a lot of people around to fill in these positions but putting the wrong people in a management position will take the whole business down. I've been there given I've been in the hospitality business for over a decade.

To end my review I must say that I'm disgusted about the reply my friend received on the review she left about the fact that they rejected booking a table over the phone. They just denied that we weren't able to book over the phone, then they assumed that we didn't came over to eat and than they say he has to take down that review. Au contraire my frere, get your business sorted instead of ignoring there is a problem.

I, neither my friend won't be bothering anymore. Neither we will refer people to Fibber McGee's.

What we will do is spread our experience over the platform so other are...