Ember Sorrento — Restaurant in Melbourne

Good food but front of house was a shambles. Booked at the Kitchen Bar. Strange experience. No background music or atmoshphere. All we could hear was the head chef yelling "service" and getting frustrated with the poor front of house organisation, so we asked transferred into the main dining area.

It took 15 mins for the waitress to bring us menus (only after we waved her down). We had an inexperienced waitess who tried really hard but she wasn't ready to be serving at a "high end" restaurant. She clearly hadn't been trained propertly and was poorly suprvised. Inconsistent and random spacing between our meals. Took over 2.5 hours for the set menu and never once did they ask whether we wanted to speed up or take a pause. Had one course with no side plates. Arbitary clearing of cutlery. Waitress and servers lost track of where we were up to in the set menu and had to ask if we'd had scallops yet. I had an empty wine glass there for 20 mins and had to waive down the waitress for a wine list.

We ordered a side of potatoes with our main but it didn't come out. We had to chase the waitress who immediately reallised and blamed it on the chef. She then brought the potatotes out after we'd finished the main and they were raw. We notified her, she asked if we wanted another serve, we said to just take them off the bill. She then left them sitting on the table for 10 mins before clearing them.

A more senior waitress came over to smooth things over and offered us a free drink, so we got a glass of wine deducted from the bill. It didn't seem like she wasn't there to genuinely listen to our concerns, just to make the problem to go away. She then offered us tea, which we accepted (thinking it would be on the house), but it showed up on the bill. To top things off, there was no toilet paper in the women's toilets!

We're pretty relaxed diners but for the price point you expect smooth service that gets the basics right. The chef produced high quality food, but the poor front of house meant that place missed the mark completely and we walked away feeling like we'd been rinsed...

Do not recommend this restaurant to anybody. I went with two other people on a Friday night. The restaurant seemed nice until we sat down between 3 larger groups. The rest of the night went down hill from there. We had one waitress that was lovely although seemed to have a lack of training and some others came across rude. The food was displeasing and almost sickening at points (squid with xo and dessert). A lack of detail and attention in presentation, flavour and menu cohesiveness. I assume the head chef and restaurant manager both had the night off on the same day. The sommelier almost dropped a bottle at our table and tried pouring a wine with the bottle cap still on. He then served a Pinot noir that appeared to be off and then later denied it (although he did replace the wine for us).

The restaurant as a whole seemed unorganised, discomforting and a general lack of understanding of hospitality.

The food and service does not justify the price point. It almost felt like we were scammed, (paying over $200 per person for food and drinks) still feeling hungry as we leave. It’s like going to an overpriced pub.

I never write bad reviews but this needed to be known, I hope this was an off night for the restaurant and kitchen team and the standards are...

Great fit-out, lovely staff.. but I wouldn’t recommend it on busier nights (weekends).

There’s just not enough staff. The poor Frenchman handling our section seemed to be flitting around the restaurant at lightening speed, everyone was working hard. They were all professional and courteous..

Our experience:

Friday night (didn’t have to book in advance in the height of summer) we got a booking around 7.30pm.

Took us 25 minutes to get our first drinks, and we couldn’t order until 30 minutes. We sat trying to eye the waiters for about 15 minutes. Other diners were clearly in the same situation.

Had we not been made to pay $100 in advance we would have left at the start. In for a penny, in for a pound I guess..

Rather than order multiple courses we decided to stick with mains and sides given the initial service. The food was good, and the most expensive rump cut I’ve ever eaten. Not worthy of the price though, and comparing it to Pickett’s other establishments this was pretty disappointing all around.

This place seems to be made for older, affluent locals and events - and not very well-suited for visiting foodies.

I blame the owner. If you can’t provide a consistent experience due to staff, don’t take...