Grill'd Burgers - Chadstone Centre — Restaurant in Melbourne

Grill’d, to me, is usually a solid 3 out of 5 — decent when it's good. Unfortunately, the Chadstone branch fell short today and felt more like a 2.

When I arrived, I noticed leftover sushi wrapping near the self-serve kiosk, placed on top of a menu. Not a huge deal on its own — it could have been recent. Then I sat down at Table 7 and found crumbs on it — something I’d expect at a messy fast food chain, not at a place positioning itself as a higher-quality alternative.

Staff: if you see any mess, even if it’s not yours, please clean it up. From a customer’s perspective, a dirty dining area can imply other things behind the scenes — like unhygienic food prep, or worse. That might sound hyperbolic, but those are the conclusions people draw.

What made it look worse, from my perspective, was the time: this was at 10:40 a.m. — 40 minutes past opening — and the place wasn’t even that busy. It made me wonder if the mess was from the day before. Not a good look. Plus, there was no one at the front counter when I arrived. Again, all of this just looks bad from a customer’s perspective.

Now, onto the food. Grill’d exists in this weird space — not quite fast food, but not quite restaurant dining either. I ordered the Summer Sunset with an extra beef patty, plus a bottle of Pepsi Max. Total? $26.50.

For comparison: I gave Fonda a 3/5 for being expensive for what you get — and I’d say the same applies here. Grill’d is generally better than McDonald’s or Hungry Jack’s, but it’s also significantly more expensive. The Summer Sunset alone is around $17. Add a $5 patty, and you’re paying $22 for a burger — more than many local burger joints, and definitely more than a Big Mac (roughly $7 AUD).

To me, Grill’d is “franchise good,” not “restaurant good” — and definitely not $22 good.

The burger was fresh-ish, but tasted simple. Despite leaking juices and oil, it somehow still felt dry. The patty may have been slightly overcooked, and the whole thing could have used more sauce to balance it out — especially with the extra patty. The pineapple was a highlight: sweet and fresh, but overall the burger felt flat and uninspiring.

Grill’d markets itself as a step up from fast food, and in many ways, it is. But it's still franchise food. For that money, I’d expect more flavour and uniqueness. I’d probably rate Schnitz higher just for overall taste and quality in comparison, even though it's similarly priced.

The overall experience wasn’t terrible. Just ho-hum. [Edit] Also disappointed to see the cleanliness issues being raised by other...

This establishment is nowhere near as good as Southland’s, with incorrect orders galore and no care from staff.

The staff are quite blunt and not at all the same level of hospitable as the one’s you’ll find at any other Grill’d location.

The great thing about Grill’d (note that this isn’t exclusive to the Chadstone location) is that you can order entirely online, meaning minimal interaction with the staff here who don’t really want to talk to you anyway.

Chadstone Grill’d is getting a low rating due to the fact that they served my burger on a traditional seeded bun (see picture) when I ordered it on panini. Considering I ordered this through the app - leaving no room for any miscommunication between myself and a server - I find this quite baffling. While this may seem like a first-world problem to most people, I’d like to point out that sesame seeds are a common allergen, and a mistake like this could be extremely dangerous to patrons who do have an allergy to this.

Thankfully, I was able to eat my burger (and I do have good faith they would swap it had I said anything), but it was still mediocre. Grill’d can be a hit or miss on most days, but considering this location is still very new, I would be taking greater care in making the meals taste a little better - and making them correctly would be a great place to start.

As you’d all know, you’re spoilt for choice at Chadstone, whether you want a burger or anything else, meaning you don’t need to settle for poor service and wrong orders at Grill’d. Whilst I ordinarily prefer sit-down, restaurant-esque experiences like the one offered at this Grill’d, I would actually recommend heading down to the food court. While the atmosphere is a touch more chaotic and sometimes it’s a battle to find a seat during peak periods, some of the food there is unmatched, and will certainly satisfy you more than this petty little...

Literally the worst grilled i have ever been too, we usually love getting food at grilled but normally go to Fountain gate which are great! We were shopping here & decided to get dinner last minute ($70 worth of food) after ordering at the table QR code & waiting 45 minutes for our food to arrive, I went up to the counter asking how far off & they said we had ordered at the wrong restaurant.. we of course thought the QR code was for this restaurant without even thinking & as we waited no one thought to check. After having no time left to wait as this is an hour at this point we asked for a refund knowing they hadn’t even started cooking our food yet.. they refused & had an awful attitude, did not help us in any way. We then called the restaurant the order actually went to (Heatherton) spoke to 2 girls before the manager, once we got onto the manager it was all sorted, refund was no problem, super quick & all the ladies we spoke to were lovely, they were also shocked by the behaviour at the Chadstone grilled & said they will be mentioned to HR once she puts the refund in as she has names. Said they chose not to do it & they easily could have, just being stubborn & thinking...