Burgerlab — Restaurant in Melbourne

Not impressed. Second time I’ve been here but unfortunately the last.

My first visit, I ordered the fish burger. The fish patty was still frozen in the middle.

My second visit, our whole table’s order was forgotten; we were one of two tables, the last two tables left occupied in the entire establishment. I can’t help but think that if the staff paid more attention to their remaining patrons they would have picked up on this a lot earlier. And been able to go home a lot earlier! It’s a bitter pill to swallow when you’ve worked a 10-hour day yourself, giving nothing but excellent customer service only to be disregarded when craving some good customer service in return.

The consolation you ask? When it was brought to the wait staff’s attention that we had not received our meals yet (it was just after 8:30 pm), it was quickly brought to our attention after the usual compassionless ‘sorry about that’ that the cooks would have to cook our food...wait for it...beyond the normal kitchen closing time of 8:30 pm! Well boy did that make me feel a whole lot better knowing not only would I be eating later than originally anticipated but eating food prepared by staff who simply want to clean the grill and get the F outta there! Smooth. Even for a Millennial!

I am also appalled that two of the four serves of onion rings we were served, the ones that came out in the first batch, had been sitting on the servery for ages (served luke warm in comparison to the second batch that came out molten hot) and not before they had been picked at by one of the wait staff who must have assumed they were orphan orders. Meanwhile, we’re sitting at our table staring at them the whole time wondering when the hell they would be served to us. This made me so angry.

If you’re going to employ young staff who give off the chilled vibe for the purposes of creating a chilled atmosphere, that’s fine. Train them also on how to provide a simple apology on behalf of the business they represent when things don’t go according to plan. There was an opportunity to do this whilst we were seated at our table. It wasn’t. And again, when paying at the register on the way out. It wasn’t. There were way too many missed opportunities to put things right tonight and no one in charge with the balls to officially acknowledge the mistake.

It’s Christmas; I get it, we’d all rather be on holidays. But when you sign up to a shift, focus your mind on the job you’re employed to do otherwise don’t waste my time.

If nothing else, this below average experience has helped enlighten and inform my own customer service responsibilities and will no doubt be used as a basis when training...

One warm summers evening I arrived to this establishment with my wife and dogs in tow. We stood at the sign that said ‘wait to be seated’ and a friendly young woman walked out and said …….. NOTHING. A few awkward seconds past of us staring at each other before I plucked up the courage to ask for a table.

Bets were on. One by one minute by minute they came and hounded us to order. 5 minutes later we caved and ordered mains. It’s like they had a competition of how quickly they could turnover the table.

My wife ordered a milkshake. And after about 15 minutes was presented with a cocktail (8 months pregnant). When we informed the bartender of the mistake we were again presented with awkward silence before she tutted and scurried away. When the milkshake finally arrived it came not with an apology but with a delicious side of mint attached to the inside of the glass. Unfortunately I was stuck with her as I wasn’t going to send it back again. I’d hate to imagine what would have come out the third time.

Food - generally very good. Have tried it 4 or 5 times and it is pretty consistent. The only problem with this place is the staff and maybe the music … okay definitely the music.

On another positive note the dogs were warmly greeted by staff with pats and water bowls.

TO SUM IT UP: I would highly recommend dining in for dogs. If you are human on the other hand, stick...

As a party of three adults and three children, we booked a table for Friday night dinner on 09/03/2018. When we were ready to order the waiter said, “Sorry, I’m not allowed to take any orders at the moment, we have too many”. Ordinarily I would have left but stayed so as not to be rude to friends who had made the booking. I watched for another 30 mins as the phone rang (and was answered and further orders were added to the kitchen board) before our order was finally taken. To his credit, the waiter organised a complimentary drink for each of the three adults but ignored the children. It took an hour for our food to arrive (which was nice when it did) during which time a huge string of Uber Eats drivers came and went. At no stage after having our food order taken did anyone come near us to take drink orders etc. There was no hint of an apology for the wait. At the cashier I asked to split the bill and was told that couldn’t be done on weekends, a position that was begrudgingly reversed when I pointed out that was just adding insult to injury. It used to be a good place for a bite to eat, a beer and a catch up. BurgerLab Parkdale appears to have been over run by UberEats home delivery at the sacrifice of its restaurant customers. I hope it goes back to what it was or I don’t think...