Cunninghams Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

My husband and I have been customers of Cunningham for 10+ years. Gale always looked after us and the food was great. Since the new owners have taken over service is slow & poor. 45+ mins for a salad to come out. Entrees served at the same time as main meals. Kids meals came out after everyones main meals. Meals have increased in price but decreased in size. If you read the other reviews there is a common theme with the male owner and maybe he needs to take note! We'd gone for my mum's birthday. I had rung& booked an inside table for 4. When we got there the man (owner and Rhonda's husband) started arguing with me straight away saying I'd booked outside. I said I hadn't as it was hot & my 75yr old mum isn't good in the heat. He continued to argue the point & on seeing the place was empty, I repeated we want to sit inside. He called a young kid over to show us to the table & then very belittlingly told this kid off for something else in front of us. I finally figured out that my sister had rung to add 2 more people to the table as a surprise & the 'lady on the phone suggested outside' & changed the booking. My mum ordered a drink at the start of dinner & I didn't realise till the end of dinner that it never came (she didn't say anything because she doesn't like to cause a fuss). She ordered a Parma with gravy & the gravy didn't come out till we reminded them. My sister ordered a Caesar salad with anchovies telling them she was a vegetarian so no meat (she's pescatarian but most people don't realise what that is so she always reiterates no meat). I ordered the Caesar with chicken & no egg as it makes me sick. My Caesar came out with an egg on top. We pointed this out to Rhonda who rung her hands until my sister said she'd just take my egg & put it on hers. It wasn't until she had a couple of bites that she started to feel ill & realised hers had bacon. Looking at her meal properly she then noticed a big black hair in it. We called Rhonda over again who completely ignored the hair & instead pointed out my sister said no chicken but didn't say no bacon. We pointed out she said no meat as she's a vegetarian & we're told we weren't clear enough because she asked for anchovies. Rhonda then asked what we wanted her to do (this is where she should have apologised, taken the meal away and brought the correct meal back, with no hair) and waited till my sister said she'll just have some chips with gravy. When everyone else had finished dinner my sisters chips came out without the gravy. After 5 mins we reminded them. The young kid brought out my mum's cake with candles lit & a knife & plates, etc to serve. He was very polite & trying his best. When we finally went to go pay I noticed the bill was more than I expected. The male owner argued with me that it was correct. That my other sister had paid for hers & her two children & this was the remaining amount. I could see the bill & said that the Caesar with anchovies was returned as it had a hair. He argued that had been taken off the bill. He wouldn't listen & kept arguing until I got flustered, thought I must've been wrong & paid. When I went out my niece said he was wrong as it cost 90 for 2 meals and a bowl of chips. I decided to go back in and ask for the receipt. The male owner continued to argue, was belittling & condescending. I eventually turned to speak to Rhonda as she was the one who took the meal away & explained the issue. He continued to exclaim 'listen here'& 'come back here' & clearly didn't like that I'd gone to his wife for help. Rhonda then sent me back to him saying 'he would sort it out'. He finally printed out the receipt& got the table bill & marked off each item until he realised he'd made a mistake. He made no apologies & just said ' so I owe you $26' & handed over the cash. Then he made a flippant comment that us having a split bill made it confusing (10 years of split bills with Gail and she never had an issue). Rhonda then asked if all was happily resolved as we...

Well Well Well. Faulty towers meets Benny Hill. Who would've thought that such disorganisation and chaos could lead to such a memorable night. We begin with the ordering of meals. Table numbers didn't matter, and gluten free was at "your own risk" as flour was in the air, according to the health department. No guarantees here. The die was cast. The orders were spread over 2 paper dockets. Some on the 1st, and the remainder on the 2nd. Same table. Same time. Drinks were then ordered. The scene was set. Back to the table we all went. The (I assume) manager then comes out after approximately 10 minutes to advise that they had run out of chicken schnitzels... a pub.. in Australia... running out of their main food source... it actually had its own menu. The night rolls on. Table 79... Table 72... Table (unsaid).. we won.. our table was called. The last 2 meals ordered were delivered first. We ate. We laughed and laughed as the others waited for their meals. Approximately 90 minutes later, the pub nearly empty and being the final table in service, the 1st docket orders arrived with a waitress barking out loud "Who ordered the steak with the jug?" Our reply was "a jug of what?" She said "if you don't tell me, you ain't gettiin it". We suggested it may have been the pepper sauce. She replied "yeah that might be it". The orders continued to come out until, finally, the last plate arrived being the entree. After all said and done, the owner came out and apologised for the inconvenience and having to wait so long. We thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. The staff were characters. The signs around the place were hilarious and the meals turned out to be pretty good in the scheme of things. Great place if you're not in a hurry. Those that are GF or OCD should...

1 star is too high. The positive was that the staff were really super nice albeit disorganized. Which makes this review difficult as I really did not want to complain about what passes as food in this place as it this is a management issue not a staff one. I started with a pot of guiness which tasted NQR. I think the lines needed to be cleaned. I then had a burger. What a mess. The meat has to have been the lowest grade possible. It was so dry that it actually crumbled. It's only flavour was the burnt bits. On top of that was some cheese that was no doubt plucked out of a packet of kraft singles...or more likely Savings brand. It came with a small bowl of tomato chutney. It's hard to make a bad burger. Yet somehow they managed and I have to say it ranks as the worst burger I have eaten. My mate had a schnitzel burnt to a crisp. He had had to put some muscle in to it to cut it. He was utterly depressed. The ploughmans platter was ok in part. Some nice cheese in there to hide some other lower quality olives, artichokes and other additions. It took 45 minutes at lunch time for the food to arrive. We had to remind them 3 times about a dessert one of us was silly enough to order. Prices are high for really, nasty low quality food assembled by someone who obviously hates their job or has no clue. I am stunned the reviews are so positive here. Either we were here on a really off day. Or the reviewers never travel out of this town. One thing for sure, if you are a foodie and think let's try this cute little old pub. Drop the clutch and travel as far away as possible. This place is an utter dive at least patch up the holes...