Bistro Guillaume — Restaurant in Melbourne

I have to say this was extremely disappointing! Guillaume has staked his reputation on both his food and his restaurants and if he was a customer at the time when I was served up my two courses and wine, he would have been appalled. I was seated outside which a had nice aspect overlooking Southbank. The service was friendly and efficient but you don't pay big money for service you pay big money for good food and good food this was not. I started off with the french onion soup and this should have been an opportunity for the chefs to demonstrate how skilled they were. Alas this wasn't the case. This soup was overly sweet and unpleasant. The other flavours were muted if they existed at all. The dish was bordering on inedible. I put this aside and looked forward to a tarragon flavoured kitchen dish which again had a sickly unpleasant flavour which was difficult to stomach. The chicken was cooked well and the mash was acceptable. The tarragon flavours however overpowered the dish which had no balance, I was asked about the soup and I provided my feedback. The waiter said he would tell the chef but I heard no more about it. When I was asked about the chicken, I said it was no good and I received a laugh and no further inquiries. I had a 375 mm carafe of Shiraz for $53 and it was very ordinary and something you might get for $20 a bottle. The wine I had at the meatball & wine bar two nights earlier was much better and cheaper also. The highlight of the night was definitely the bread and butter which didn't come for free like it should have but was still very nice all the same. I would normally get desert but was so annoyed, I walked out. When I paid the bill, I was asked if I liked my dinner. I replied in the negative and was shown no further interest in the matter. I have had pub meals for a third of the price which have tasted nicer. I think Guillaume better get his backside back into that kitchen and find out what's going on because at this present time, its pitiful. He has certainly dropped the ball because 12 months ago it was much better. If these so called chefs made these courses on "My kitchen rules" or 'Masterchef', they would have been eliminated in the first round or would not have even made the qualifying rounds! What does...

Christmas ruined! Appreciate restaurants inflate their prices on Xmas day but this was ludicrous: $250aud per person. The food was just about ok but the service was dreadful.

We turned up at 1240 for our 1245 booking. Immediately got our glass of champagne (no alternatives other than coke/sprite/lem.lime bitters for non alc drinkers). We waited 25 mins for our entree (two of the smallest blinis ever seen) let alone any bread. Another 25mins before our starters arrived (a basic scallop ceviche type dish). Note that neither of these first two dishes needed cooking so I don’t understand why the long wait. In this time, nobody came to refresh our drinks (we had to get our waiters attention after waiting patiently with an empty table). Our main course didn’t arrive for another 40mins after our starter plates had been cleared.

A very basic cheese plate was served immediately after our dishes from our mains were taken (the waiter now seemingly understanding how bad the service has been up until this point).

The cheese plate was literally an inch chunk of brie with a dab of honey, two crackers and some dried grapes.

After cheese, a pastry was served for dessert and I asked for a coffee to go with it. 20 mins later, the desserts were finished and the coffee had still not arrived. We asked the maitre d’ about this and she simply said the coffee makers were backlogged and gave no real apology for it. We got up and left before waiting any longer for the coffee.

We’d paid $250pp up front for this set menu and the drinks were extra on top (other than initial glass of champagne). After complaining to our waiter, management agreed to take the drinks off our bill.

A thoroughly disappointing Christmas Day experience considering the price we paid (don’t even pay that at any of Melbourne’s famous good restaurants). Crown should be ashamed to have this under its name.

Truly gutted. The whole meal took up most of our afternoon despite only one dish actually being...

Went here and tried a steak. The type of steak which they recommended me was too fatty and not that good. It comes just with a slice of lemon. I chose to have the béarnaise sauce with it. This béarnaise was cold, kind of gelatinous and not really saucy at all so I didn’t like it. I think they just make a big batch and keep it in the fridge or something. I also chose to have the French fries with it on the waiters recommendation. As you can see they are served in a huge portion and seeing as I was dining alone, he should have at least told me how big it is so I could choose the salad instead. The béarnaise sauce is nothing like it looks like in the picture on google maps which has been uploaded by bistro Guillaume themselves.. in the picture it’s a freshly made actual sauce that looks quite nice. Oh and by the way they’ve chosen to not serve the steak with fries and salad (like it should be served) but to serve it by itself and charge you to add fries ($8) and a salad ($10+) as extra. And in doing this they’ve only made the steak which used to come in a set, $3 less! It’s just to make it more expensive and that is all. The waiters were friendly and nothing bad to say about them really and they kept topping up my water glass when it was nearly empty. The complimentary bread that they serve you is good and it’s warm too which is a bonus and it melts the butter. The restaurant is quite a nice space and if you’re outside you can see the river and busy footpaths near to it. The wine list is very steeply priced even for most wines by the glass. They even have Penfolds grange served by the glass on the menu for $250. I think the menu is designed like this knowing that extremely rich high rollers who are staying at the crown casino hotel will come and blow heaps of cash here...