FAT CHEF Keilor East — Restaurant in Melbourne

Never Again!!

I really don’t like to run a business down, but if I have to choose between saving someone else from eating there or these guys profiting I’ll choose the first option . I have not one positive thing to say and that’s awful . If you take the negative reviews on here and roll them into 1, you really do get the most accurate picture of what you’re moneys about to be wasted on. I booked this for a 50th birthday through the dreaded Facebook messenger which is their requested method . This wasn’t an easy process and at times I felt a child was replying to me as my questions were met with the thumbs up or down emoji lol .

After a few days and several requests as I need to book for 13 and due to restrictions could only book for 10 , so manager finally called me days later and I suggested booking 2 tables next to each other for 6.30

So we arrive it was a surprise party but on arrival my booking has mysteriously vanished or my name was there with the wrong guests numbers eventually he worked out someone has scribbled over my booking but he remembered my guest arriving so he believed I had the booking .

On being seated I noticed there was no covid safe procedure and for all the drama I had our tables and all of us were seated together . It took about 25 minutes for anyone to come to the table and I requested a drink menu as none were on the table . I ordered a $16 cocktail missing the cream and most of the ingredients served up by the rudest waitress I think I’ve ever met . This woman wouldn’t even lean across to help me take my own drink off her I pretty much ended up on the table standing on the bench seat to get it . Just so grumpy and so rude ! No other drink menu or person yo see if we needed any were to appear again that night . The dinner menu is a joke honestly it’s not the way their Facebook page makes it look not at all . The choices are basic and limited to be understated about it. One main came out within 5 minutes of it being ordered and half way through eating it the rude waitress appears to tell me niece off for eating another tables meal like it’s her fault ???? It was their mistake she’s not bringing the food out after all .

Most of us ordered the open souvlaki because honestly there’s not much else aside from ginormous parmigianas or a platter they of course were out of ( read other reviews ) This souvlaki I can get for 1/4 the price at my fish and chip shop and it’s better quality too . One piece on f tomato , 3 tiny skinny onion rings ( I’m serious I promise lol ) lettuce and a handful of the fattiest toughest grisliest cheapest cut of lamb I’ve ever had ! Rip off and awful . Two others had the sous Parma which for $40 left a lot to desire . No sauce , very dry undercooked chips . It took over an hour for our meals to arrive which took the time to almost 7.50pm . Suddenly I’m approached by another waitress who tells me we need to hurry up as our tables booked by another group in 20 minutes….I kid you not the audacity of trying to throw us out after it took you guys an hour to bring any food including entrees ( they finally showed up with the mains ) and I still had a birthday cake to go??? I was pretty upset to be honest this was a 50th, the first time family had been together due to lockdowns and the service, food staff just ruined it . She then walks off but return with the cake on fire so I figured we were either leaving or in trouble didn’t even start to eat the cake when said waitress returns and starts removing everything from the table telling us either leave and find another table to sit at or please leave the restaurant this table is about to arrive . I could’ve cried I was embarrassed , angry, hungry and minus $$$$ For two of us with 2 drinks no entree 2 mains it was $117 for basically fish and chip shop menu food . If you’re not fussy, don’t care about how you’re treated or paying a lot for food you can cook better yourself then you might be ok here . Oh desert we weren’t allowed to order any so no...

This is more to be constructive. No intent to bring down and hopefully help the team to improve the quality. I and my partner came here for our anniversary. We came here because I had lots of advertisements on Facebook and the food looked really good. Now again my feedback here is meant to help.

When we arrived we walked in and were distracted by how busy the restaurant was. We were greeted and asked if we had a booking. We had the booking on Monday at 7pm. For five minutes the person who greeted us and the manager seemed to struggle to find the appointment. A table left in front of us and they quickly wiped it down and sat us there. Not a big problem. They problem solved that well. But we realized they must have lost our booking when the person who greeted us again came and asked for our names after us sitting for 10 minutes at the table.

Our waiter that took our order was really nice and friendly. He seemed to remain calm. There was also a girl with red hair running around that seemed very calm and keeping her cool also. There was also another young girl who served us at one point who was really nice also, but I think was a little wet under the gills because she didn’t seek what we asked for. The mention of this is important because the chaos myself and my partner saw is why the rating is a one star.

First let’s talk the food. The entree we received was the calamari. Very nice and tasty. My partner had the steak which looked really nice and he said it was. Now I had the Parma. I ordered the 500g Parma. But I got a 1kg easy! Now when we paid I paid for the 500. But I feel like that could be a loss of revenue for the business. Secondly I didn’t finish my meal (also wasn’t asked if I was happy with the meal while I was at the table because of the ensuring nightmare happening around us). Reason being is because the chicken started tasting weird the closer I got to the center. It tasted like that artificial meat glue to cut costs on meat production. I didn’t feel well after that.

Now that’s our of the way I feel like my issue was more with what I could see happening around us. I felt very uncomfortable and that’s not good. The ambience near the bar is quite dark and the lighting was quite cool toned. I don’t know how the staff are meant to see with such dim lighting. The clutter around the bar area was insane. Kegs lined up around one of the bar benches and mess. We could see the staff basically climbing over each other in such a small space. Now one of the people who looked like the manager seemed to be under a lot of pressure. Things were going wrong and people were complaining, and we could hear it all. The issues were quite public. Now those staff that I mentioned before seemed to remain quite calm and diffused the situations as best as they could. And I will go as far as to say they were quite lovely. The confusion from the other staff make me feel like there may be a lack in training. No one seemed to be on the same page.

I counted 5 complaints last night. We were there no longer than 2 hours.

When we went to pay, a woman pushed in and refused payment for their table because of the poor service. The man looking after us who was one of the waiter who looked after our table looked absolutely defeated. The reason this is the one star is because as a patron, I felt uncomfortable. For the customers, for the hard working staff. I would love to see improvements in the future. But at the moment this is not a place I feel like I’d...

Food was nice, good portion size for price and cocktails were strong. The service was extremely slow, we had to flag down the waitress after waiting over 20minutes, then when told she would be right back we waited again and in the end resulted to a desperate measure of ringing the store for service as she seemed to forget about us. The server who came to serve us was rude and slammed the drinks down when it came spilling coke out of the can. After we paid our billing the server confirmed she felt disrespected for how we got her attention and we said we should have raised our hand. When we pointed out we did and was told she would be right back and then proceeded to go serve other tables we had to get their attention some way as we were hungry and wanted to order. Had she raised this at the table with us when she came to serve I wouldn’t have had a problem and would have apologised for making her feel that way however being told that we were rude and disrespectful while she had friends standing at the counter just chatting and laughing was not appropriate. We were told she was training 2 other staff that night which is sad if this is how she is going to train staff to deal with customers. She was happy to yell at us and tell us that we were being rude however when we said something back she said we were raising our voice which we didn’t and accused me of being rude in the service industry for 20years. I dont like that we made her upset that was not our intention but say something to us when you were serving us so we could sort it not after we have paid the bill and in front of all your friends who shouldn’t be standing around the counter talking when you are meant to be serving. She continues to rant at us after being asked by another server to put a pin in it, we were still waiting for cake and couldn’t leave she continued to rant and was asked a second time before she stopped. Food was good would have went back but service...