Captain Baxter — Restaurant in Melbourne

To start, I had called one day to ask if I could book a table outside for dinner. The lady told me that they weren’t bookable but could be offered on a first come basis if we arrived early. I ended up making a booking for the earliest time when they opened, 5pm.

When we arrived there was 5 people in the non booking queue, and none in the booking queue. We were warmly greeted by the host and she began taking us upstairs to our table and on our way we asked if we may move to an outdoor table as it was a beautiful day. She said as we have booked for dinner we must stay at our booked table. I asked do they not allow dining outside? She said yes but if you make a booking you have to sit inside. I asked what the difference where we sat was? Her tone completely changes, into so much attitude. She says because “200 people tried to make a booking tonight and couldn’t so you have to sit inside”. Still confused, as we are still dining and haven’t cancelled, she goes to ask the manager if we can move our table. She comes back with a reply of “No, it’s a nice spot here though.” We just sat there confused. She then asks if we’re okay, I said I’m fine, she then said “If you would like to cancel your booking and lose the $30pp you can go back outside and line up to try get an outside table.” We we’re so shocked at how rude we were being spoken to for asking a simple question. We were literally the first in the line. Surely somebody from the line would prefer an inside table in this 30 degree heat? We agreed to sit inside and just watched people come off the street and line up and be seated outside to their many many tables.

The two of us ordered about $200 worth of food and drinks. 10 minutes into our seating we heard a couple ask if they could sit inside. The host told them no, you must have a booking. She then came up to us all happy and said girls if you like you can sit outside. We knew it would happen, why was there such a previous fuss?

We moved outside and enjoyed the sunshine, thanking them for the offer. In the process I accidentally spilled my full drink, and another waiter came and kindly wiped it up for me however didn’t offer me another (paid or unpaid). Our host returned to give us the bill and offered me a replacement drink which was nice, her tone from then was a complete 180 and lovely the rest of the night, however we were still left with a bad taste in our mouths.

Now for the food. The cocktails were average at best, Caprioska and French Martini’s too strong, Apple Spritz tasted purely of apple juice. Fried chicken wings - Tasty but very soggy and oily, we couldn’t eat them. Cauliflower - I don’t know how to put this nicely but the presentation is horrible.. it literally looks like dirt and maggots on top. Although it tasted amazing. Tuna Sashimi - Delicious. It was all in one piece which I haven’t seen before and don’t think I prefer. Both the ginger dumplings and pork wontons were great! Then there was the $50 duck. This dish was meant to feed 2-4 people. Maybe children. Tasty although definitely not worth that price tag, also the greens it came with were inedible and the pancakes were like eating paper.

Overall, the food was tasty but not worth the price tag. Seems they are back to their old pretentious ways and the only thing going for them being the location. The service we received was definitely not nearly what we expected after a long covid break, being from a hospitality background I place service above food. The host said “see you next time” on our exit, we thanked her but I will...

Our lunch yesterday was a very memorable experience unfortunately. One that we hope remains as vague as possible in the future. The gentleman, who appeared to be the manager, was extremely condescending. When asked if we may be seated outside, he appeared to panic and said that was not possible. We noted several empty tables, but he assured us there were not enough chairs. I pointed to approx. six chairs some ten meters away, but he apparently, accidentally did not hear what I said.

Outside appeared relaxing and aesthetically pleasant. Inside resembled a retirement home and was uncomfortably noisy. The patronage was predominantly young. Clearly anyone older would not want a repeat experience at the Captain Baxter. When we sat down our guest pointed out four glasses that were covered in lipstick and moved them aside thankfully. Then we noted the sesame seeds stuck to two plates. When my daughter poured our glasses of wine the manager ran over, silently grabbed the bottle out of her hand only to resemble a flamingo as he demonstrated how to pour the wine in a professional manner.

Our lunch was terrible. I was offended at the size, look and taste of my swordfish. $7 at the local fish and chip shop would have brought me a more enjoyable serving of fish. The oil it sat in was terrible. My daughters’ meals were the same. They were extremely disappointed. One person at our table enjoyed the pork belly but could not bring himself to take more than two bites of his salad. The scallop crudo appeared to have one sliced scallop in the entire dish – that’s one expensive scallop. The remaining staff were extremely pleasant. Captain Baxter provides its clients with $20-$40+ meals that would be better cooked in a kindergarten and the profit it is making on the cost of ingredients per serving price is appalling. $65 for the bottle of Cab Sav was a joke. Thank you for the awful experience. We certainly will go somewhere else...

I hosted a bday lunch over the weekend - venue and atmosphere was great but the service I experienced was quite poor and was pretty disappointed - a week before the event the planner had told me that we were in the palm room and that we’d be close to alive dj as there was a boujee event (at that time I didn’t think much and was like great) however when i arrived and saw what it was - I was disappointed that I was not given that option when the set menu and boujee lunch was very similar but a difference of $9 for the boujee meant a bottomless lunch as opposed to having to organise our own - the events planner as well as the host for the day both had the opportunity to let me know this but both did not advise this - upon paying the bill I raised my point and all I got was “I’m sorry this happened this event was new .....” as I said there were two instances where they could’ve advised me but didn’t - food was also quite slow in coming out and one of the dishes that was meant to come out for the guests with dietary restrictions never came out til I followed up on 2 instances but the table next to us had already received this.

Hi - thanks for coming back to me - by multiple do you mean 4 out of 15? The boujee brunch had a vegan option which would’ve suited two of the guests and the other two guests would just forego the sashimi given they were pregnant - again it’s the lack of transparency and communication that made the experience...