Bistro Elba — Restaurant in Melbourne

Such Disrespect!

My elderly parents and I had our most shocking experience here on 18/11/2018. The first half of our lunch was excellent: our waitress was warm, friendly and attentive, our 3 entrees were all tasty and we loved their most delicious in-house bread with the soft crust!

Then our experience took an unexpected nose dive. Not only did we have to wait over 30 minutes for our mains when they were not busy, the 'boss' (identified by our waitress earlier) was so rude to me when I asked him to take a photo of us! Later when he asked us for feedback on the mains, Dad said the chicken was salty and Mum couldn't eat the garfish because of all the fine bones. He dismissed both their comments with such disrespect!

We were appalled by his behaviour, especially because he appeared to interact with other white patrons with such a pleasant demeanour! When I addressed his behaviour at the end of our meal, he gave me some lame excuse. It was obvious he could not care less.

Shame on you! We will never be back.

@ REPLY To Owner's Response (4/12/2018): Since there isn't a space for me to reply to the owner's response, I've added it here to my original review.

Hi Matthew! Thank you very much for your considered response and detailed explanation. I have adjusted my rating from 1 star to 2 to acknowledge your thoughtfulness.

If Michella is the kind and most attentive middle aged waitress serving us that day, she is an asset to you and your business! My parents and I loved and appreciated her and her service!

I cannot be sure whether it was Murray the waiter whom I referred to as the 'boss' in my original review. When I was leaving, I gave our waitress the feedback of our disappointing experience. And then the same guy (waiter or manager?) who offended us walked up, so I also asked him directly about the photo taking incident. Just to be clear: there was not a third person involved. He also told me he was called to the kitchen in that moment but that reason did not excuse how he interacted with me.

I totally understand anyone can have an off moment or an off day, but this guy's disrespectful behaviour towards us seemed consistent throughout the second half of our lunch (we assumed our friendly waitress was on a break) and yet he was seen chatting, laughing with other nearby tables of white patrons.

In fact, after my mum & I walked out of your restaurant, my 85 year-old dad remained telling the guy who offended us a bit of our family's story in the attempt to convince him he should not have treated us with such disrespect.

All three of us left your restaurant feeling terrible about the way we were treated. Here are more details of the 3 offending interactions we had with the guy:

When I asked the guy to take a photo of us, he looked as if I'd just offended him. He reluctantly took my phone, snapped a shot without a word and SHOVED it back in my hand! I had never in all these years experienced such behaviour at a restaurant!?

When he asked my dad how his main dish was, my dad replied: "To be honest, it's a bit salty.' To our disbelief, this guy said with a sneer: "No. That's how I like it." and turned and walked off!?!? We were all shocked that he would dismiss my dad's feedback with such disdain!

Later when my mum told him there were too many fine bones in the garfish that she found it difficult to eat. He replied: "No, it's easy. No one else has an issue with it."

As I said, we can all have an off moment or day. The issues we had with the two main dishes were minor compared to how we were treated. And just because the guy said certain things with a manufactured smile, it doesn't mean the passive aggressive sentiment wasn't received in full.

We are usually a gentle and polite family but this experience also reminded us to address issues when they arise.

I have taken the time and effort to offer you a full review in the hope that we can all learn from...

Let’s start with the looks.

It was a cold day and the family and I need to do a quick shop for winter day. The looks we received because we were “under dressed” was rude and very unprofessional.

Waiter coming to our table and saying, before you read more of our menu left me tell you our specials. He had our full attention. One special was the zucchini flowers with goat’s cheese, yum. Let’s try that.

We ordered a hand full entrees and asked if there was a kids menu for our boy? He advised there was only the baramandi that it’s a kid’s favourite from the mains, no other kids menu!

We recived our “rosemary roasted bread with olive oil” to only get Turkish bread with bitter plain oil. (Chef, import olive oil is best and maybe add some balsamic, it works)

When the fish came out, The waiter new this was for our five year old boy. The fish came caverd in parcly, pomegranate and swimming in lemon oil sauce. Completely not what a young kid wants.

As we were waiting for our entrees and had two glasses of red, it was an absolute disaster of a cook on the plate. Honestly this was disgusting!

Green bitter grassy mussels with zero flavour, looking like green vomit on a plate, to only taste worse then it looked. The amazing zucchini flowers with goats cheese, was only one flower. I looked at the plate with disbelief. I asked the waiter. Sorry is this a mistake, does this only come with one flower?

He said and I quote. “ yes only one, don’t worry it’s not expensive” at this point I realised this restaurant is acting to be something it’s not!

The rest of the food was just…. I won’t comment on the over cooked microwave broccoli and missing items, We left and paid $50 at the local fish and chips up the road, this had better service and food!

Don’t eat here, it’s not restaurant quality. It’s a fake restaurant trying to be a high end, but lacking the knowledge of flavours, communication and services.

I’ve been a chef for over a decade and this...

Myself and my partner ate here and we have to say that it was quite the disappointment, firstly Mocktails - we had sparkling water which had more flavour than the two mocktails we ordered. Hmmmm...

Entrees - $20 for Quail which is a small bird as it is, but the dish was with Walnut's, Grapes and Olives and yet it still was small for a $20 dish. The Quail was overcooked. Sadly this was one of the better points of the night. The Rosemary Bread with Olive Oil was as expected.

My partner had the Nicoise Salad - $33 for a Nicoise salad which looked like an entree serve, the dressing was subpar with very little flavour, potatoes were undercooked. Trout was just heaped into the middle of the plate and looked like there was no care nor any pride taken when plating the dish or even cooking it. Furthermore, everything was separated on the plate making it appear as if the chef just put all the individual ingredients on the plate, dumped a bunch of fish in the middle and called it a salad.

Seafood Pot Pie - The Pot Pie wasn't as terrible but it was under seasoned, there should also have been a garden salad or something with the Pot Pie given that the price charged was $30 - and the appalling part was that there was more in the pot pie than there was on the $33 Salad.

The only endearing part of the dinner was the dessert which while nice, didn't quite make up for the rest of the meal. The Cream Brulee was pleasant and minimalist, it could have used more than just the fresh fruit. As for the aptly named Pannacotta, it was standard and not quite as flavoursome as it could be. Though the tuiles were pleasant and...