Chef David — Restaurant in Melbourne

Our first experience was very good with the Wine Tasting Event. Service was excellent and food was nice (accept for some, but overall still ok). This time we came back for a friend’s birthday dinner, service was far worse than terrible. No one attended the front reception, we waited and had to go around looking for staff who could assist to sit us down (we had booking). The waitress who served us has a speechless attitude.

First, this place is not fine-dining, they serve whatever food that is ready to be served, no matter if it’s supposed to be a starter or main course at any other restaurant. No one explained this policy to us. We were given a big main course before everything else arrived, no explanation, not a word, and we said we wanted to wait for other entree dishes before we could go ahead with the heavy main course. (I do dine-out quite often, and I don’t usually mess up my appetite)

** Neither a fine-dining, nor a casual drinking place, what is your business model exactly? It was very hard to get attended, service bell doesn’t work, waitress never looked at the customers, only tried to walk pass quickly. We could hardly order 2 round of drinks which we had to spend most of the time trying to look for the waitress and get her attention.

• Our booking is 7:30, waited to find some staff, seated at 8pm, 9:30pm the waitress came to tell us “your session is finished, you have to leave now” while we still had a big fish untouched. The last dish came out just not long ago. I asked her for another 15-20’ to finish our food. I understand the policy of 2 hours dining session, but at least let us know 15’ BEFORE HAND, not when the time is up and you came to say “your time is FINISHED, no more!” (Considering no other booking after us, for that table)

I asked her “Can we have another 15’ to finish our food? And please help me takeaway the dish that came out late.” (I gave the dish to her hands and said things very clearly in front of the whole table) She said she needed to talk to the manager about extra 15’. After she talked to the manager, she just didn’t say anything to us, continued cleaning other tables with a very loud attitude, kicking pushing other tables and chairs.

When I came to pay, I asked the manager about my takeaway food, the waitress came and said I DIDN’T ASK HER TO TAKEAWAY ANYTHING, so she threw it away, also she was kind enough to let me sit for another 15’!! (NO, I asked, she didn’t offer at first)

She was clearly TWISTING MY WORDS, screaming, yelling and approaching me aggressively. The manager stopped her from getting close to me and other staff took her away. She continued screaming and yelling in the kitchen until I settled my bills and left.

(If you do have cameras PLEASE CHECK, I’m so tired of all the lies and arguments for something I have not mistaken from my end) I WISH YOU HAVE AUDIO/VIDEO RECORD AROUND OUR TABLE TOO SO YOU KNOW WHO LIED, but still behaved aggressively rude.

Hospitality is under pressure, very short staffed at the moment, understandable, but at least keep your quality over quantity. We’re from the same industry, weekdays are the only time we can relax and the experience we had today just totally...

This place is so well decorated with the neon lights all over (but not overwhelming!), dj booth, claw machines?!, and wireless phone chargers on every table (GENIUS ‼️), it really felt like a fancy nightclub! 🕺🏻

BUT, the most important thing is the foooood omg all of them were incredible 🤩 We got:

🦐 Prawn Skewers 🍢 Lamb Skewers 🦑 Stir-fry Squid with Green Chili 🍚 Fried Rice

The spices on the skewers and stir-fry squid were incredible! 🔥 We were recommended to get the mild to medium level as they can be VERY spicy, but there was a spice powder on the table that we can add on to the dishes. These dishes went so well with the fried rice 😋

🍄 Grilled Garlic Enoki

The garlic was so full on in a good way! The dish smelled so good & tasted even better.

🐟 Sashimi Platter 🦪 Scallops Butteryaki

We could tell that these seafood dishes were very fresh, loved the smoky effect when the platter was presented! The scallops had a nice bite to them too.

🦆 Peking Duck

Definitely can’t go wrong with this one! There was a section next to the bar where we could see the chef preparing the cuts, it’s pretty cool.

🟠 Crisp-fried Sticky Rice Donuts

Last but not least, these were such a great snack/dessert to break up the savoriness & spiciness flavors between the meals.

The staffs were also friendly and attentive, they were ready to answer questions & provide recommendations if you do need them.

Overall, we had a great experience here and we already talked about returning to get those yummy skewers and to try other items from their extensive menu! 🥰

On 15 November we’ve returned to Chef David located at Level 1 of 462 Elizabeth St, Melbourne CBD ✨

This time we got: 🍹 Peachy Oolong & Blackcurrant Crush The drinks were refreshing and the fruity flavors were very prominent.

🍢 Grilled Wagyu Beef & Lamb Skewers The skewers were amazing as always! The lamb is definitely our favorite as it’s amazingly seasoned, and the wagyu was delicious too.

🐟 Tomato Sauce Barramundi The barramundi was the star of the show ⭐️ It’s an incredible dish, perfect to share with your loved ones and to eat with hot bowl of rice. The balance between sweet, tangy and savory were perfect. The fish was soft and flaky.

🍛 Black Truffle Rice with Wagyu Delicious rice dish with good chunks of meat! Good truffle seasoning, the flavor leaned towards sweet than savory which I enjoyed.

Overall, a 10/10 as always! If you haven’t been here, you’re definitely missing out and have to...

ORDERED: 🌾  Char-grilled Chinese Chives ($16.00) 🍄  Pan roasted enoki mushroom ($15.00) 🍢  Pork Belly Skewers (8 pieces) ($15.00) 🍢  Lamb leg skewer (8 pieces) ($16.00)

🐠  Sweet Sour tomato barramundi ($66.80) 🐠  Sichuan Dried chilli barramundi ($66.80) 🍄 black fungus ($10.00) 🥓  luncheon meat (spam) ($12.00) 🥚 quail eggs (13.00) 🧈 Fresh tofu ($9.00)

🦑  Salt Pepper Squid ($29.00) 🍚  Truffle Wagyu Fried Rice ($28.00)

🦆 Whole duck with 24 pieces pancake ($78.00)

It was $75.55pp.

REVIEW: Lots of food, with additional order duplications to feed our party of 10. We had a private room so we needed to hit minimum spend. With food left over, we managed to hit the minimum spend with drinks as well.

Overall consensus is that the skewers are the family favourite. Lovely fatty pieces of pork belly, along with tasty lamb chargrilled with minimal spice. It was addictive, and each portion was bite sized. Chef David has a Signature grilled fish which is new for me. A flattened piece of fish marinating in your chosen broth, with additional sides if you want. I would recommend limiting the number of sides to 3: there's limited space in the shallow pan and only so much liquid. We ordered ambitiously, and didn't end up using all our sides 😓 . We found the sichuan broth too oily, while the sweet sour tomato was great. Although the sichuan spice level could be adjusted, it didn't matter when you were just getting oil on your fish. Felt greasy and real icky.

Peking duck wasn't great. Duck pieces tasted old, and the hoisin sauce had some strange nutty flavouring inside. Wraps were mediocre as well. Old Beijing wins in this regard.

Service was lacking when we're expected to follow minimum spend. Luckily, we had someone who could speak Mandarin to help the conversation along and quickly clarify things. However, food delivery was slow. Although we had the private room, we couldn't connect to the Smart TV in the room even when the instructions on the TV 'let' you. Waitress didn't know how to, and her manager conveniently had no idea as well. At least we got to control our aircon. We walked around the restaurant, and it was glamorously decorated. It would be more worth if you went in a smaller group, and took one of their...