Coombe Yarra Valley - Wedding Venue, Restaurant, Cellar Door, and Tours — Restaurant in Melbourne

I feel really upset and disappointed by my experience at Coombe. I had called up the Cellar Door and booked for my birthday a week prior. I explained that I was looking for a winery where I could book an outside table (not in a restaurant setting) where my friends and I could sit in the sunshine, drink some wine and have some platters. I was told they could definitely accommodate this (which was a relief because I'd called a number of wineries who didn't really have this sort of offering) and I subsequently booked in for a 1.30 wine tasting with my friends (pre-paid) plus a table for drinks and nibbles afterwards. Once we arrived, we had a lovely table outside in the gardens and everything was going great. A man from the Cellar Door began our wine tasting and was lovely. Once he arrived with the last of the wines from the tasting, he handed us the menu and let us know that if we wanted any of the wines or food on the menu, to just come inside to order. A few of my friends/family members went inside to order and 30 seconds later my brother-in-law came out and said "Hey Emma, you might want to go inside and talk to them. They've just told us that we have to leave as they've got a wedding". I was SHOCKED. Not at any point had I been told there was going to be a wedding at the winery that day, not during booking, not during the follow-up confirmation phone call the day prior, and not when we had arrived. I had made it abundantly clear from day one what my expectations were for the day when I had called up and booked a week prior. Not once was I ever told there would be a wedding, nor that having a wedding on would affect us. We all went inside to see what was going on and a woman was telling my friends about how we could move on to the brewery down the road. She seemed to be using the fact the weather had turned so they needed to move the wedding inside as a call for sympathy from us, but I still have no idea why that would even affect us staying on the outside table, nor why that excuses never having told me about the wedding at all. It was also made out like we should have KNOWN we weren't able to get food because they needed to prepare for a wedding, despite the fact that we had been offered food by the man who held the wine tasting 5 minutes prior!! It was an absolute mess and I felt like there was no acknowledgement from the Coombe staff that they had just done a pretty crappy thing to us, kicking us out by 2pm, and leaving all of us stranded. As we were on our way out, the woman made a number of comments like "120 people vs 12? Which one do you think is more important?". I honestly felt embarrassed that all my friends had made the journey out there from something I had organised and we were getting kicked out after some of them had only been there for 10 minutes. I thought I had done the right thing by calling around to different wineries and not booking in if I knew they weren't going to be able to offer what I was after. We ended up at the Brewery which, while very accommodating and polite, was nothing much more than a basic pub (not exactly the place I would have chosen to spend my 25th birthday). It's also not easy to show up to a place with 12 people and expect a table so I'm grateful for their help but we were out in the rain, flies buzzing around, sitting on uncomfortable, dirty tables. This was a situation I should have never had to be in, because Coombe should never have taken the booking with me when they had a wedding booked - or at least have been honest with me about what I could have expected so I knew to book elsewhere. Coombe is a beautiful place & I would have had an amazing birthday if it had actually gone as we had planned with them. I really just wanted a lovely day in a nice setting with friends, and instead my birthday was a...

I spoke to Coombs 3 hrs prior to arriving as I wanted to ensure they had a table available before heading there from Melbourne with my parents who were down for the weekend from interstate. They stated we would be fine to get in. If we couldn't get a table inside, there would be tables outside. All good so far, but that’s where it ends.

We arrived there at 2.30pm, 15 min early. Met front desk staff who I believe would have been manager / maître d and was told an inside table shouldn’t be long and we could have one or we could sit outside. It was a beautiful day outside and we saw a spare table so decided to sit there. Once we received the menu’s, we realised it was a cut down version of the larger and glamorous inside menu, missing all the larger dishes. I returned inside to the front desk and told our waiter (who was behind the counter with the manager) that we would wait for the table inside instead after confirming that it was a different menu outside. I asked the question if we were fine to just get a drink while we wait for the inside table as we were told again it was still going to be around 20 mins. Answer was no problem at all. 25 mins passed so we grabbed the waiters attention to just remind her we were still waiting in case she forgot, as we knew the kitchen was closing very soon at 3. Said she would check again to see if table was ready but never returned to answer the question. Another 15 min went past, so we asked yet again (keep in mind we had to flag her down both these occasions as well). She said she was unsure and didn’t know if and when we were going to get a table. So we started getting frustrated as we believe we had been forgotten and there would be no table. She was frustrated as well as it seemed like a hard conversation for her. Not long after this, the same woman we dealt with at the start came out to inform us we had been crossed off the list because we had sat outside. We made it very clear that we had spoken various times to our waiter including the trip back inside to the front counter once we discovered the different menu and clearly a very large communication problem had occurred between her and the waiter. I am still confused as to how the manager could not have heard me originally say we would sit inside when I returned to change tables, as she was standing next to our waiter! She was apologetic, but that wasn't going to solve anything as they had let other people who turned up without bookings in instead, leaving no tables available. We asked if we could have the inside menu outside seen we had been stuffed around and now had no booking or lunch, but the answer was no to that one for whatever reason. The kitchen was closed now as well just to make it all worse!

I then did the right thing and went to pay for the bottle of wine we had rather than just walk off like I believe others would do in similar situations. This took forever just to pay for in itself. Was standing there for another 5 minutes just to pay for a bottle of wine. Was served by the same manager who I would have thought possibly might have again apologised and perhaps even discounted or even just given us the $30 bottle of wine for free to assist with the bad service. She didn’t even know what we had and had to go looking for the waiter before asking me what we had in the end. Just another thing yet again to show how un-organised everything was.

Overall, it certainly was far from a positive experience. Customer service is certainly lacking at this place and frankly is absolutely appalling. I have never written a complaint in my life about a restaurant, but this did really leave me in a foul mood after driving from Melbourne with a confirmed booking for lunch. Thanks to this place, we didn't even get to eat...

I feel rather sad having to give a low rating because this place is special to my partner and I. We recently had our wedding there on 1/10/2016. We loved the amazing ground staff, always friendly and attentive. We have been going there regularly on weekends and thus the reason why we picked it as our wedding venue of choice. Our perception of Coombe has slightly strained due to this experience, however we feel on the whole Coombe is a great place for weekend brunches & lunches.

Upon booking Coombe as our wedding venue, the pre-Sales / booking aspect was great with her, as well as the majority of the planning that had been handled by the lovely wedding coordinator Sarah. We had an amazing night and the staff, venue and food was all great. We had a few things we were not happy with (bridal table service mix up, wedding favours mix up, plunge coffee service not what we expected as the barista style coffee is served at normal service we assumed its this kind of coffee not plunge, bride/groom not offered service and had to hunt for service myself) on the night but overall it was a great night. Unfortunately what transpired after the event with one senior staff member Georgia was not pleasant at all. On the night Coombe staff had mistakenly packed their candles in with our stuff which we unknowingly took home with us upon pick up the next morning as it was buried underneath the rest of our items/ packing boxes (we had 12 people brunch there post wedding as well). She had given us a deadline for when we must return them. Due to our work commitments (9am - 5am) in the city and impending honeymoon we were unable to meet the drop off demands and stated the date we could. Given Coombe staff made the mistake in the first place and we did not have sufficient time we suggested they come and pick them up from us. We were threatened with a 5 week invoice payable to the supplier if we didn’t drop it off. No other options were offered by her, we felt the post communications were abrupt, inconsiderate (given we have been so exhausted from the wedding planning and night) and definitely not customer service oriented at all which left us feeling that her tone & attitude had changed post sales. The emails quickly became quite petty, we were accused by her of disregarding other people's property, potentially ruining other couples weddings due to the lack of candle jars etc and I quote: "I'm disappointed that I’m even having this conversation and you are both showing such disregard for something you have taken that is not yours."

Given the small fortune we had just spent at the venue (and the dissapointments we felt re poor service on the night & service and favours mix ups) the candles mistake was made by both sides with packing (staff packing/ us picking it up by mistake) we felt it was very petty that two dozen glass candle jars was worth ruining a customer's perception/experience of Coombe we were left regretting having our wedding at Coombe. Eventually she agreed to have someone pick them up off us from within the city but the events ruined what was overall really a great experience for us. We really enjoyed going to Coombe (regular weekend customers) and had a real sentimental connection with it which we were hoping would continue into the future as it is a great venue with great food and staff (as well as it's the place where we got married!!), however the post wedding events with the one staff member have tainted that for us. Deeply disappointed by...