Entrecôte — Restaurant in Melbourne

This is how Entrocote treat their customers.

What should have been as simple as calling to make a reservation turned into me having to read fine print and contracts and because I never I was told I was in the wrong and every issue was caused by me. Thanks for that Erica glad to know how you see your customer base.. The setting may have been nice but the service during the meal was sub standard and the food wasnt nothing special. I wouldn't dine here again even with a $200 voucher.

This is the letter I got from Erica who responded to my email which is included in the text. Hi Martin,

I believe we have been very patient in receiving your feedback and making changes to payments and vouchers at your request.

However the confusion in all of this has been caused by you.

Allow me to spell it out for you responding to your written words.

Seven Rooms charging for champagne

ME... It makes no sense that Seven Rooms is processing charges for champagne unless they are making some form of profit from this sale. Why was this charged separately at the time of booking, instead of simply being included on the dining bill?

ERICA ... This is an option that is set up through our on-line reservations platform allowing guests the option to add a pre-paid upgrade to their reservation to hopefully add to the reservation. As mentioned this is an option, it is not compulsory. It is clear that this is a pre-paid upgrade. As that is what it is called. This is very common in restaurants with an online booking platform.

We did not trick you into purchasing or pre-paying you simply didn’t read or pay attention to what you were doing.

Voucher adjustment Me... As explained, I was told by staff that the champagne had already been charged and I would therefore receive a credit. Yet this “credit” was then effectively cancelled out by deducting the same amount from my voucher. This makes no logical sense and leaves me worse off.

ERICA... Yes it had been charged because you selected a pre-paid upgrade. That is what that means, pre-paid. Then you can see the amount is applied off your bill because you had already paid for it. As this confused and upset you, even though it is something you actioned Lara happily refunded the pre-paid amount through seven rooms at your request. So know someone had to pay for the Champagne that you drank so the amount was taken from the voucher.

You are not worse off you have simply paid for what you ordered.

Service failure on the night Me... To add to the confusion, the champagne I had specially ordered in advance was not presented to me upon arrival as expected. I had to inform the waiter in front of my guest that I had made a special request, which was embarrassing and entirely defeated the purpose of arranging it beforehand.

ERICA ... This is the only point of yours I can agree with. The service was not up to scratch in this area, flutes should have been on the table and we should have poured the Champagne as you were seated.

Me... Altogether, this shows a lack of coordination — the left hand does not seem to know what the right hand is doing. What should have been a seamless and enjoyable dining experience has instead become a frustrating and unprofessional ordeal.

At minimum, my voucher balance should be reinstated to $135.07, and I believe a goodwill gesture is also appropriate given the repeated oversights, confusion, and poor handling of my booking.

ERICA... I am happy to offer the voucher back to you will a value of $200. If you do wish to dine again.

This has never been a confusing process, the only reason this is confusing is that you have made is so. We are trying to accomodate your...

Terrible and discriminatory service with mediocre food

I recently went to entrecôte with 2 other people after hearing about the rave on their steak. We made a reservation at the courtyard as it was the only availability that day.

Excited to try out this place that was supposedly a cozy environment with good food I was left feeling disappointed and upset.

Firstly, right after we were placed, not a single waiter came up to us to hand us a menu and greet us. Finally after about more than 5 minutes we got the drink menu. After awhile, we wanted to take a look at the food menu and again, had to wait fairly long to get any of the waiters attention. When we finally did, we asked for a food menu and we received a snarky reply of “um we usually order drinks here before giving the food menu, that’s how it works here”. I’m sorry, but is asking for a food menu that heinous of a crime. And what if no one at the table was interested in drinks?

After ordering our drinks, we got our food menu. At this point, we were contemplating just leaving bc we felt so horrible about ourselves and my biggest regret my whole trip to melbourne was staying at that restaurant instead of giving them a piece of our minds.

Mind you , the table next to us (also another Asian group as if they wanted to lump us all in one corner AND they were plenty of empty seats in the front) got treated quite badly as well. The tables were relatively small and when the waiter arrived with their food he looked at the plate in front of them indicating for them to move it aside, when they didn’t quite understand him and asked him to repeat, he stared at the plate once again and ROLLED HIS EYES. The entire dinner, all the servers spoke to us like we didn’t belong there and didn’t understand the concept of dining this way.

At this point it felt like the only way to get employed as a server here was to have the face a fulll grown adult but an attitude of a pre pubescent mean girl. Or maybe they got mixed up and thought they were working at Karen’s diner. Also, not implying anything here but the 3 waiters who were rude (one lady with short hair, another man with a man bun and another young man maybe with slightly curly hair) were all Caucasian. It also important to note we observed the way they treated other tables that had Causasian people and as expected, it was all smiles and welcoming service.

Anyways, now onto the food. Here is where I hoped I would get some redemption but nope, almost as disappointing as the social skills of the waiters. Steak was chewy, sauce could have had more flavour, I will admit the scallops were enjoyable but mains, nothing to shout about.

I’ve had bad dining experiences before but this was truly on another level. If there was one restaurant I had to pick to NEVER step foot in and make sure no one ever goes there again it would be this. I have also worked in the service industry and can understand how tiring and overwhelming it can be but never have I ever treated someone this way.

I don’t know who these waiters are and what happened in their lives where they decided to choose a line in the service industry just to bully people to feel a superiority complex, but you are terrible people and I say that with my chest.

I hope I don’t sound too dramatic but I really have never felt so ridiculed and demeaned at a restaurant before. Let alone a fine dining one where half the cost goes to the “service”.

Anyways, do yourselves a favour and...

Worst dining experience ever—beware!

I recently visited Melbourne with friends and, unfortunately, had the most appalling dining experience at this restaurant. From the moment we arrived, it was clear that this establishment was not concerned with providing even the bare minimum of decent service.

To start, my friend made a reservation for Thursday night, and no one asked us whether we preferred the à la carte or course menu. When we arrived, they seated us at the very back, conveniently right next to the only other group of Asians in the area—worth noting since we are a group of Asians in our early 20s. The atmosphere already felt uncomfortable. Then, without so much as a greeting or explanation, we were handed the drink menu. After waiting a few minutes without any acknowledgement from the staff, we had to call someone over to ask for a food menu. The waitress responded with attitude, saying that their process was to serve drinks first, then bring out the food menu. That’s fine—if someone had bothered to explain that at the start. Why was it such an issue to simply bring us the food menu when we asked?

When we did receive the food menu, it was for courses only. Since we weren’t that hungry, we asked for the à la carte menu, only to be told, in an incredibly rude manner, that because we were seated at the back, we were restricted to the course menu. It felt like they were deliberately pushing us into a more expensive option without regard for our preferences.

Then came an incredibly shocking moment—I went to the women’s restroom, opened the door of what I thought was an empty stall, and found a man peeing inside. I rushed out, obviously shaken, but not a single staff member cared to check in or offer assistance. How does something like that even happen in a place that’s supposed to offer fine dining?

As for the service overall, it was nonexistent. We had to repeatedly flag down waiters just to get our glasses filled. The tables at the back were so small, I saw a waiter ask a diner to help him move the plates and when she didn’t understand him, he very obviously rolled his eyes at her. When our food finally arrived, no one explained the dishes to us. We had to ask another waitress for confirmation since we’d ordered the same dish with different temperatures, but the lighting was so poor we couldn’t even tell the difference between the meats.

The food itself? Disappointing. The entrees tasted good but the portions were small. My steak was slightly chewy, and the plate was mostly filled with chips. Definitely not worth the high price. Please note I am normally fine with paying high prices when it is worth it and when I know what I am paying for.

All in all, this was the worst dining experience I’ve ever had. The service was abysmal, the food mediocre, and the atmosphere made us feel completely disregarded. Do yourself a favour and dine...