Balaclava Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

What a fabulous and surprising rooftop venue atop the Balaclava Hotel!

We hosted a luncheon for a few dozen people on International Women’s Day for our Divas of the Round Table event and all our expectations were not only met, but truly exceeded - across the board.

We arrived up the lift and stepped out to a space that lends itself to the perfect private function away from the hotel vibe downstairs. I’d say its a bit of a hidden secret of Melbourne.

The menu options were perfect and the attention to 'food detail' for quite a large group of our women (with more then half a dozen who had rather particular dietary requirements) was perfect! It was all so intuitively thought out for each individual. Your kitchen chefs and crew are to be thanked and praised for a wonderful selection and generous portions - no matter what the dietary requirement we had put forward. I can honestly say that factor ended up being quite a conversation at our table at the time and there was not a person at our event who didnt comment on how pleased they were with the food and options on all three courses.

Also - we cannot thank Lee enough for his exceptional service from beginning to end for our event. It's not often we find someone who goes that extra mile these days, but the service factor we received definitely puts this rooftop venue and the team at Balaclava Hotel now at the top of our list for future options for further events.

Thank you to all the team - they all made the day perfect for our event.

Delighted is the perfect description... Highly recommended for a private function on...

Manager was incredibly rude to us. We thought the roof top area was open so headed up there for lunch but was eventually told come back downstairs as it was closed, which we had no issue with. After finishing our lunch (more on that later), I realised I left my jumper in the outdoor area upstairs. I asked one of the Waiters if they would let us up there (as it was now locked) and referred us to their manager who rudely told us to wait 30 minutes while he ate his lunch in-front of us and would not let the other staff help me despite the place being almost empty... Despite saying I had to leave now he showed no empathy and bluntly kept telling me to wait there for half an hour for a job that would take him 2 minutes. The lady at the bar was incredibly kind and understanding though as said she would grab it for me as soon as she could, apologised that she wasn't able to help me and that I could come by later on to pick it up which I did a few hours later. In terms of the food, it was below average for the price we paid and the options on the menu are quite limited. Would not recommend coming here for food. Only good thing about my experience was the very friendly lady who served us our food and helped me...

Getting service in this pub appears to be a local joke. Standing for well over 5 minutes watching Zain make coffee, while I want to order 4 meals, 4 minutes in another fellow joins the wait wanting to buy a bottle of wine, further minute in a fellow comes in wanting a jug of beer. I’m having a bit of a chat about the appalling service and a lass sitting behind me points out the bar man chatting with god knows who, saying our chance of service is nil to none. Finally I am served by Zain, make our order, food fabulous! While we are digesting our meal, finishing our wine, our apparent bar tender walks by, picks up forks from another table and tosses them in the box on our table. Why? It didn’t serve any purpose, the box needed everything not just forks. This felt like an act of apparent aggression. We had not actually interacted with this person. Nothing in our behaviour until that moment could have been described as anything but enjoying our night. We visit Balaclava every 3 months or so, love this pub but guys you need to lift the...