Farmer's Daughters — Restaurant in Melbourne

We had dinner at The Restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

While we don't normally eat tartare, the smoked Terramirra venison was such an enjoyable start to our gustatory journey. It didn't taste gamey at all and was perfectly complemented by the pickled mustard seeds and kohlrabi.

One of the courses that piqued not only our appetite but also our interest was the baked Noojee alpine trout with mountain pepper cream and trout caviar. It had a lot of dill but somehow not a lot at the same time. The dill was present but not overpowering. It delivered an adequate amount of herbaceousness that cut through the richness of the cream. By itself, the dish was already outstanding but it was even more special with the soda bread with butter and honey. The bread had the perfect consistency to soak up some of the cream and was absolutely the best accompaniment to the trout dish.

If I was told that the only sald I could have for the rest of my life was the grilled Koo Wee Rup asparagus with heirloom zucchini, brie, and black garlic, then consider me a happy person. That dish was outstanding! As our wonderful server pointed out, it was a break from the proteins we had earlier, presumably because it did not have any meat. And I do not think it needed any. I would give that salad a medal if I could, but I ate it, so I couldn't even if I wanted to.

Before our mains were served, we were offered the options for additional courses. We chose the free range milk-fed goat with mash over the steak because we knew that the main was going to be beef anyway. Variety is the spice of life after all. Not turmeric. Not paprika. Not even chili flakes. Variety. Now, the goat dish. Delicious is a given. But more than that, it was very though-provoking because it almost tasted like ham and not just in taste but also in texture. How was that possible? Thought-provoking, I told you. I am glad we decided to have it as an additional course, and what a perfect additional course it was.

Speaking of perfect, let me tell you about the main course which was the grilled O'Connor beef with roasted red and golden beetroot, pepperberry, and rosella. I could easily eat my weight in that dish and it wouldn't even be a challenge. It was the bomb dot com in all aspects: presentation, flavour, and texture.

And last, but not the least, was the ironbark pavlova with marshmallow, smoked citrus, and lemon balm. Word of caution: make sure you do not have a perfect bite because a mouthful with all of its components will take you to another world wherein you wish you could stay. Don't believe me? Try it.

During the course of our dinner, we also enjoyed a few cocktails which were all dangerously easy to drink. If you can't decide which one to get, let me help you and offer you a suggestion. Two words: Farmer's Collins. You're welcome.

Overall a wonderful gastronomic experience. My only other suggestion, if any, is for staff to communicate better considering the background noise. Sometimes it was hard to hear what they were saying, as in when they were describing the menu, and I had to ask for repetition a few times. The noise is unavoidable, so it might help to speak a bit louder and...

Our entire night was ruined by the next table, what made it worst was the restaurant did nothing to the discriminating/racist;

Being a trendy restaurant, we noticed immediately there were no other children. Didn't want ours (7&9) to be too disturbing (the two are a happy bunch), I gave them my phone (& ear piece) and said they can watch YouTube until food arrives (I usually don't) They were watching Salish? and were giggling (but quietly, I couldn't even hear it from across the table). We had two tables, us (5) & and another party (7)... I ordered some beer and brought to the other table and upon return I caught the lady next to ours were starring at my girls and rolled her eyes, I couldn't see how her friend react. When our food arrived I took back my phone. Halfway thru the meal, the same lady (blond, middle aged) leaned over and said something to my mother in law; turns out my younger daughter was rocking her legs (being her legs were hanging from the chair). I ask her why the scolding and she immediately said we should eat at McDonald's instead. She said other demeaning stuff, but I decided not to argue and got a hold of our waiter and asked him to take care of it... which... he turned and left... completely disregarded me... I understood the other table are paying guest as well... but still... 10 minutes later I asked the waiter again and he brought over the hostess/manager. We explained we were just keeping to ourselves and we had to deal with this? I said the 2 people should be kicked out or at least move to another table... I guess she did what I asked... and moved them to another table, but that was it... Nothing else was said, no apology, no nothing, like it never happened, sorry but I felt completely insulted, by how the restaurant acted... I feel the two set off thinking they were right... After I paid, we didn't even get a thank you for coming... Oh did I mention we were the only Asian there that night (at least on the ground floor) and lady seemed completely fine with all the other tables that were getting louder and louder (the restaurant had a good vibe)... Except us it appears...

Food-wise I ordered some bread and beetroot to start... The bread was a joke... the waiter suggested I order 4, but I only ordered 2... came 1 slice of bread, cut in 2. Beetroot was good, but again laughable portion. I guess a Farmer's Daughter don't share food. Main we ordered chicken pie, crumbed fish and lamb. Chicken pie was your average baked goods served hot... Crumbed fish was completely tasteless, it came with hollandaise and ketchup (huh?) The lamb... the exterior was burnt to cardboard texture, but the inside was very tender... But again the meat was tasteless (not gamey at all, which some will like), I added the separated sauce, but it didn't match the meal and it was cold. We thought about dessert, but it was either white chocolate, something chocolate, chocolate brownie or cheese platter... Which after a dull meal, we left and bought some fruits along...

I have been to FD before and loved it, but Sat night was such a disappointing experience I won't be coming back. We booked dinner as part of our work Christmas party, with my colleagues having flown down from Sydney just for the night. The service we received really soured our visit and our night - it was really hurried and blunt. Each visit to our table was rushed, the server didn't have time for any niceties at all, just the bare minimum and he was off again. We tried to engage him with some light conversation in case he was just anxious/nervous, but he was jittery and abrupt, unable to even crack a smile. We only had mains (no entree) but still he sped us through dessert, which was offered as "you've got 20 minutes, do you want dessert?" By the end of the meal we felt like unwanted guests who were being rushed out the door. Before we left I asked to speak with the manager, as I don't like to leave negative reviews without giving the business the chance to handle it internally, and the service had over-shadowed our whole meal so I thought it was worth saying something. She (the manager) was polite, giving us the standard "we're sorry you've had that experience, we don't want any guests to feel like that, we'd love to have you come back again", but on the way out for a cigarette afterwards my colleague overheard her (the manager) speaking to the server who we had just provided the feedback on, say to him "don't worry, she just doesn't like men". If that is true then WOW - you have a much bigger culture problem then just rude/abrupt staff. I was very nice in how I provided my feedback, then to receive a comment like that is completely unacceptable, as well as incredibly sexist. There are a lot of incredible restaurants to choose from in Melbourne, and when I booked several months ago I could've picked any of them. There is no need for our fun mood on a night out celebrating to be impacted by rudeness and un-professionalism like this! Disappointingly, in chatting with a friend last night about our experience, she said she also had awful service when she visited a few months ago. Such a shame, because I've really enjoyed your restaurant...