Chancery Lane — Restaurant in Melbourne

Short version of what happened: A cockroach dropped onto our dinning table in the private room, and the manager seemed to not care about the incident at all. Dismissive management response made us extremly disappointed and concerned for the restaurant's standards of cleanliness and customer care. We hope management takes proactive steps to rectify these issues for future patrons.

Full story: My friend booked the private room at Chancery Lane for her birthday celebration. We had high hopes for a pleasant evening with good food and service, but our expectations were not met.

The service was very slow, with each course taking an unreasonable amount of time to be served. By the time dessert arrived, nearly three hours had passed. While our waitress was kind, it was evident that the restaurant was severely understaffed.

The most distressing incident occurred when a cockroach fell onto our table from the chandelier. As a group of seven girls, we were startled and scared. One of us had to be brave and managed to catch the cockroach in a napkin, and we sought assistance from the staff. However, we walked all the way from the private room to the bar counter but didn't see any staff around. We had to approach the bartender, who then fetched a person we assumed to be the manager. Shockingly, the first question posed to us was whether the cockroach was dead or alive, rather than an immediate apology or action to address the issue.

Despite our discomfort and concern, there was a glaring lack of communication within the staff. It seemed like the incident was not relayed to our waitress, as evidenced by their nonchalant behavior when serving subsequent courses. My friend got very upset and started crying since she felt her choice of booking this restruant left everyone an upset expeirence and a ruined birthday dinner. We were gonna just leave and not come back to the restaurant ever again. But I felt I needed to express our disappointment and look for an resolution. So I went back to the restaurant to talk to the manager. Explained how having no reaction to what happned was not what we expect from a restaurant like Chancery Lane.

When confronted, the manager's response was dismissive and lacked accountability. Instead of acknowledging the seriousness of the situation, he attempted to downplay it by suggesting that encountering bugs was not uncommon. This attitude was unacceptable and left us extremely disappointed.

I had expected more from a restaurant like this and am dismayed by the lack of professionalism and care exhibited. I hope that the management takes this feedback seriously and implements measures to improve the overall experience for...

We arrived quite early and were luckily shown to our table immediately which was nice. The setting and feel of the venue is superb. Has a very polished feel. Cocktails were excellent but I found the warmth from the Host when we were seated was lacking. I put it down to a single one-off event due to a busy staff member. We started with oysters and scallops with fingerlime. Oysters were quite good but there was certainly no fingerlime in the diced scallop. They were still enjoyable and again I chalked it up to a one-off miss. From this point I noticed staff and the Host had zero warmth - not just to us - but in general. No smiles. No cheers. Very flat and robotic. As the food rolled out it became very noticeable as food was dropped in the table without comment and plates were cleared without comment. We ordered a few glasses of Chablis and as I ordered the porterhouse for mains I mentioned I’d like a glass of the Crozes-Hermitage to accompany it. Despite my Chablis being untouched they poured the CH and left it on the table taking space. I commented on the two drinks and he snidely remarked it was to allow it to breathe which was odd and it was presented to me as double decanted. The red sat there while we at through the entrees. I decided to provide feedback to the staff on the lack of warmth and overall poor attitude towards the service and was met with the only smile of the night. We always order sweets but decided against it as we couldn’t imagine wanting to remain in that environment any longer.

While the service was poor at best, the food was actually quite nice. The flounder was good and the porthouse was excellent. Lamb brains, steak tartare, oysters and scallops were all very nice but perhaps not terribly original.

I discovered this morning they had comped the glass of CH which was nice but I’d have preferred someone tell me on the night and offer up even the most basic of apology for what was clearly poor service.

I provided this feedback to the staff last night and I truly hope that think about how their attitude can swing the experience for customers from a good one...

It’s been our second visit to Chancery lane (first one was sometime in 2021 when they first opened and we had a very similar experience, so I felt it’s adequate to give out a review (back then the then manager; prouncing around like a proud pony, whilst a fantastic waiter made our night and did all the work; when asked about a recommendation, described the ceviche (probably the most iconic Peruvian (generally available in most of South America) dish as “European Sushi” .

Onto our last experience.

To start with, the lady that seated us when we entered was exceptional. Big smile on her face, made us feel welcome, it was a fantastic first impression. I genuinely cannot say a bad thing about the service, they all worked hard and are great at their job.

The problem was the food.

To start with:

Ordered the “German salami” - I’m born and raised Austrian and grew up with it. What was served was discount supermarket quality at best. Paid $12 for 5x1mm slices with 3 cornichon and a few crackers. Bad start.

We ordered fries as and could not even eat 1/6th of the tiny serve as they were so salty, they were inedible.

I ordered medium rare steak and it arrived medium-well. I also had to scrape off the sauce as it was so salty my eyes got watery. Same for my wife’s dishes.

That was generally the theme throughout the night. Everything was incredibly salty, to the point of covering up any other flavour. We had to chug the wine to get the flavour out of our mouths.

We tried 8 different wines. Most were ok, but not up to par compared to most other restaurants of the same price range / category. We really tried to like it but despite the absolutely lovely service we received from the staff, it was a really bad meal.

To sum up, great service, hence why I’m rating it 3 star, overpriced and underdelivered food, which being a restaurant is pretty much the top priority. We eat out at lot at similarly priced restaurants and we felt...