Bridie O'Reilly’s — Restaurant in Melbourne

This is the worst dinner experience I have ever had in my life. These are the facts: 1.We had a booking for 6 people. When we arrived our reserved table only had 2 chairs. There were no other free chairs to take and we ended up having to ask the kind security man to help us source chairs and he took 3 from tables who hadn't made a reservation (but why was that even his job? Where were the circulating staff/floor manager?). As a result we ended up only having 5 chairs total and 2 of the ladies had to uncomfortably squeeze onto one chair. We ordered our food just before 7:30pm and it arrived at 9:23pm. Please make this make sense? I have never waited this long for food to arrive, especially at a pub venue. I should also mention that we were not informed at the time of ordering of the enormous wait time (which I would expect if they had been short staffed in the kitchen or something). The food was also expensive for the portion size/quality. My chips were undercooked and my friend's lamb stew filled up less than half of the small bowl - I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it, and she was understandably still hungry afterwards. My chicken tenderloins came in a cardboard box because they must also not have enough plates? Honestly, it was like getting a meal from the footy except it was more expensive and I had to wait nearly 2 hours instead of 5 minutes. Also, I don't understand how the prices are justified when money is saved by getting guests to order at the counter and then given a buzzer to also pick it up themselves - it is not like we are paying for the service of wait staff. Of the four ladies' toilets only 2 had working locks. It was also not clean. As someone who has worked at a pub before I was in disbelief at the service/food. I will not...

Let me start with I understand that we as Victorians are in a unique / new place.

Overall my experience here was postivie, great bar staff and great drinks for reasonable prices.

What I didn't appreciate is the high energy staff member who was very confrational with myself and mate. To be clear we had spent over $100 on drinks, were not treating it as a library etc.. He came at us like it was the third time telling us to leave as we had spent too much time there. At no point prior had an expectation of time limit been set with us.

I can understand if a business has to adapt to our new life, but please consider their patrons. If clear communication has not been provided and patrons are not abiding by what you expect either improve your communication up front or have conversations before being aggressive and telling people to leave mid drink.

The other staff were fine and what would I expect but the last interaction really affected my experience...

The kitchen can't seem to get their act together. I went on a Friday, the kitchen meal tickets got mixed up but the customers were not informed. I enquires about my meal after an hour. The lady took my order again and said she would bring it to my table. After another 1/2 hour, I went back to the kitchen and asked. My meal was sitting ready on the rack. I was handed my meal and I asked how long it had been there, she said "it had only just come out of the cooking area". I went to eat and the steak was dead cold. I returned to the kitchen, they then cooked me another meal. So after "helping" the kitchen 3 times I got to eat. 2 hours after placing my order. Tonight I returned for the Sunday night roast special, the place is close to empty and O have been waiting an hour already since ordering. Enquiring once already as to when my meal will arri. Oh, it just got here... Looks nice... Will...