Central Park Cellars — Restaurant in Melbourne

Our evening began with a frantic attempt to navigate through the Winter Glow event at Central Park. Finding a carpark was near impossible, setting the tone for a night filled with challenges.

Originally, we hoped to dine at Grazia Italian Restaurant, but fate directed us to Central Park Cellars next door. Seated outside, we were promised a heater that never arrived, leaving us to endure the cold. Our McClaren Vale Shiraz was top notch when they eventually arrived at our table.

The staff, clearly overwhelmed by the unexpected influx of patrons, struggled to manage the crowd. This was evident from the start when our entrée, Charred Octopus with nduja romesco, arrived cold. We requested sharing plates from an older gentleman on staff, but after waiting fruitlessly, we had to fetch them ourselves.

The mains didn't fare much better. The homemade gnocchi with slow duck ragu was served cold, adding to our growing list of disappointments. However, the Cape Grim Striploin with jus and salsa verde was a rare highlight, emerging from the kitchen as the best dish of the night.

In conclusion, while Central Park Cellars had the potential for a pleasant evening, the chaos of the night overshadowed its promise. The overwhelmed staff and poorly executed dishes left much...

Will never dine here again. We loved our starters but the service was very slow and we were overlooked the whole time. Our mains were very poor (the gnocchi was far too overcooked and the steak was well over cooked and not pink at all and couldn’t be broken down or swallowed) and we didnt eat them mostly, and before we were even finished a bill was plopped down on our table without anything said to us. We planned to have a bottle of wine and some more starters to make up for the horrible mains. We tried to give feedback and gave plenty of it about the mains but were told by wait staff that the chef was in a “very bad mood” so she would not be passing on any feedback, our plates were also taken when we hadn’t finished eating and the girl asked us multiple times with attitude if we planned to move the plates on our table or eat faster so that she could put another plate down. No offer to work anything out or speak to a manager was offered. Just thought we’d pass this on in case there is someone in the business who wants to hear feedback. We first messaged on Instagram because we were all so disappointed and wanted a chance to hear from them but since we haven’t had a reply we thought we would...

I don't know what happened here but it wasn't good.

I came with my gf and order steak + tacos with the clear directive we only had 45 minutes. I know that's tight but they seemed confident with it.

Anyway, since this is a one star review you already know they didn't meet the time requirement, which caused me to be late to my next appointment.

The tacos were good, but pricy. The steak meanwhile I did not enjoy. I thought it was strange that the waiter didn't ask for my preferred doneness, so I brought this up to the waitress who said "oh it's usually medium rare, that ok?". Non-standard but that's fine with me. Anyway, I'm not a steak expert, but so you decide from the pictures, but I would say it's closer to medium well than medium rare - whatever the case, I didn't enjoy it, and the side salads I ordered were pretty whatever too.

Finally, when I went to pay the bill, I brought up the issue with the timing and my opinion on the doneness. The waitress just said "ok". That's fine that they don't care, but I ain't coming back here and...