Cardinia Park Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

We’ve been here several times previously but will not return after our poor experience tonight. We had an early dinner reservation so it was still pretty quiet, and even by the time we left the restaurant was less than half full, so there was no excuse for poor service. Despite that, poor service was what was on offer. We asked for water before our orders had been taken and it never came out. Then we asked another staff member, which ended up being our server for most of the night, a female with a very long brown ponytail. As she walked past our table we caught her attention and asked if we could order drinks, then started with asking for water then she started walking off and we had to call her back saying we hadn’t finished ordering, then one more person got their drink order (which she wrote down, but hadn’t done so with the water order) out then she started walking away again even though the rest of us hadn’t ordered their drinks. She eventually took the rest of the drink orders and we all said we knew she would forget the water and sure enough she did. We had to wave down a third person to get our water. It only went downhill from there. Two of the three entrees came out fairly promptly, but it wasn’t for another half an hour (once the other entrees were long eaten) that the last one came out. It was soup of the day so would have already been cooked, there was no reason for it to come out so much later. So the poor birthday boy had to eat his entree while we were all finished and awaiting our mains. Throughout this period we had plenty of dishes and empty glasses from drinks we’d finished, but the long haired server I mentioned earlier who clearly had nothing to do as she was just constantly wandering around the tables aimlessly pretending to look busy kept pretending she didn’t notice and even when she came to the table delivering food or drinks she wouldn’t take the empty dishes and glasses away nor did she once ask if anyone wanted any more drinks. We literally had to stack the empty dishes at one end of the table, basically doing her job for her, before she would take them. We timed and the first entree dishes were not taken away for 40 minutes. And any time we wanted more drinks we had to flag staff down, as no one came to ask us. Than the mains. We were told bookings are two hours, ok, no worries. Our mains did not come out until one hour and 20 minutes after we arrived. So we had to rush our meals to ensure we were out in time, as well as because we were starving by then, and there was no time left to order coffees or desserts. Near the end of our visit, a male staff member started waiting on us and he would actually pay attention and take plates or ask if anyone needed more drinks. Unfortunately he only took over after we were just finishing our mains when we didn’t need anything else so it was a shame we didn’t have him assigned to our area the whole time. The food was just average pub food, fine but nothing special. We spent over $300 so it was a decent bill for them but we were treated like we were unimportant and clearly not valued. And the bill would have been much higher had food come out in time to have time for coffees and desserts, and had the staff been attentive to our drinks being empty. Overall it was such a poor experience, and we will...

Very disappointed!!! We have been dinning at the Cardi for a long time, from back when it was a little country pub. I booked online and stated in the booking we had a person with Walker. We were seated at a booth, not suitable for elderly! My husband suggested to a waitress, a table for 3 in the corner would suit better, she was straight away on the back foot, “no it could be booked”. He explained we are leaving a booth for 4 to a table for 3!! Then I found a waitress who was more than helpful, “you find yourself a table and I’ll transfer your table number” which we did.👌 The first waitress threw us into our seats with menus, not good enough with an aged lady. We sat for 10 mins then the same waitress (let’s call her “Miss Attitude”, brown hair in single plait) took our drinks order. Then after another 20 mins Miss Attitude came and took our food order. Nothing difficult- Cob loaf, 3 senior meals, fish & chips, squid & salad, prawn/scollop risotto. After waiting hour, my husband told Miss Attitude, we were still waiting for our meal. She came to the table and stated to us, all she could do was inform the kitchen! We told her we arrived at 12:30 and we still haven’t got our meals, there were 4 other large tables that arrived after us, that were already eating. She stated, well all I can do is tell the kitchen, but perhaps you have ordered something difficult to make. 🙄 (she was the one that took our order) She went to the kitchen, came back and told us I’ve told the kitchen. A few mins later, told us our meals were on the pass, then another waitress came to the table and apologised saying it was on its way. By this time we had waited an hour and 20 mins. Plus in all this time no one, including Miss Attitude has asked if we would like another beverage. This whole time we only had 1 drink each. My husband noted that there were a number of tables around us with empty glasses also. Finally we received our meals with another apology from ? Perhaps manager on shift, she stated we would receive a discount. Which we did, but this is not what complaining was about, we came to the pub, which we have been to many times before for a meal not a discounted one. They clearly had staff on that didn’t respect their patrons and didn’t try to please. Our meals were very average, the broccoli was raw, risotto was tasteless, no flavour/bland. The venue was not busy when we arrived, and they failed to keep an eye on their tables for food and drinks, otherwise they would have seen we had not eaten and our drinks were dead. And we were seated right outside the kitchen. Staff were coming and going past us the entire time. More staff training is required, offer drinks, people usually have more than one and we may have stayed for dessert and coffee. But lack of care and...

Cardinia Park Hotel: A Masterclass in Chaos We recently gathered at Cardinia Park Hotel for a family lunch to celebrate my mother’s birthday. While we were hoping for a smooth and enjoyable afternoon, what we got instead was a comedy of errors that would have been amusing if we weren’t the ones paying for it. Let’s start with the coffee debacle. We were asked for our order not once, not twice, but four times—which, to their credit, was at least consistent with the four incorrect coffee orders we received. When my brother, who works in hospitality, pointed out that they must have mixed up our order with another table, we were optimistic that this meant they’d sort it out. Instead, we waited over 30 minutes for another round of mistakes. After finally getting the senior waiter involved, we clearly specified four different coffees in cups, not mugs. Of course, the coffees arrived one by one in mugs, which at this point, we begrudgingly accepted out of sheer exhaustion. But when I politely reminded the waitress that I had specifically asked for a flat white in a cup, she took the mug away, only to return moments later with the same milky coffee poured into a smaller cup, complete with an unnecessary napkin underneath as if that made it all okay. If I had any doubt before, this confirmed it: they truly had no idea what they were doing. Now, onto the bill. As predicted, after enduring haphazard service, we were greeted with a hilariously inflated total, featuring at least $600 worth of extra items—likely a combination of at least two other tables’ orders. My poor dad had to sit with the cashier, painstakingly going through what we actually had, while the staff, blissfully unaware of the disaster they had orchestrated, failed to offer any sort of apology or even comp the disastrous coffee orders. To be fair, the staff were pleasant—but that’s about the only redeeming quality. If you enjoy confusion, long waits, mystery bills, and coffee that arrives via a failed magic trick, then by all means, Cardinia Park Hotel is the place for you. Otherwise, proceed with extreme caution—or just go somewhere that actually knows how to run...