Half Moon — Restaurant in Melbourne

We came to eat and enjoy drinks in restaurant today at 7.00pm on 20th of Feb. We ordered two main dishes plus drinks. Somehow, we did not receive our drinks until the other table reordered their drinks for second round and they had their second drinks. When we approached the staff and asked at the bar, the order was there but he couldnt believe that we still havent got our drinks yet. Without any explain,we waited for another 20mins, food came out but still no drinks. When we re asked the waiter, he just left food on table and nothing was explained. No one came to explain. Then, when I had to walk up to the front counter asked a man who was serving whole dinning table, and looked like in charge of the internal restaurant, he said “ the bar staff lost your docket that is why” and said “ it is on the way”. The drinks we order came served in wrong way too. We asked for tab beer like the other table had one in a long glass. Beer came out sadly with mug cup sized short. Then after, when we almost finished food, the staff shirt man came back to our table and said finally “ sorry for the lost docket happen,” when we were just eating food with unsatisfied face. Food was great but the atmosphere and service that we had to go through was definitely not meet up the standards where we didnt have to go through with these unexplaiend situation plus no apogies at all at the start. He just blamed docket was lost. Whatever the staff lost the docket, isnt it basic standard to observe how customer sitting at the table without drinks for 20-30mins ? Not even checking nor ignored. I felt it was a bit racist where all the table were pretty much got served and checked at least few times. Just our table was the only asian. Even we booked for the table, the service that we received tonight was just...

Pub food at fine-dining prices. That pretty-much sums it up.

My now-wife and I had our first date at Half Moon 12 years ago, so it's become something of a semi-regular pilgrimage for us. In recent years, however, the overall experience has become nothing short of disappointing. It's not that the food is bad, it's just that it's not terribly good either. And certainly not for the price you pay.

First of all, the menu has deteriorated considerably, and has now been largely reduced to a selection of burgers, parmas and other such pub staples. The "proper" meals did not, to my palette, taste anything like what was advertised. If the wellington had proscutto then it was so low quality as to be undetectable, while the mac-and-cheese side contained "pancetta" that tasted like ham and "gruyere" that tasted (and stretched) like chedder. The lamb shank tasted like...well, lamb meat. Nothing else. The treacle tart was badly burnt around the edges, resulting in a bitter, unpleasent finish to the meal. And as for the $36 "half lobster tail salad" consisting of 3 small morsels of lobster...there is a reason why nouvelle cuisine has never made a resurgence since the 80s!

I know there are serious challenges facing the hospitality industry at the moment, and I hope that Half Moon are able to overcome them. Going forward though, it seems there is a choice they need make: either be a pub that serves pub food and charges pub prices, or be a fine dining restaurant that charges...and, more importantly,...

Having been here a few times for business functions and wife being a bit tired , I suggested we go to 1/2 Moon for an evening out . loWhat a disappointment. I ordered Swordfish and my wife a cavitina pasta with Calamari for my wife . First bite by my wife and she says :” I can’t eat it it’s awful ” I said can’t be that bad , let’s swap and I must agree with her , Calamari was cut up in 3x3 mm pieces and scattered around sauce and pasta , pasta pieces were thick and chewy ( n.b . Not Aldente ) AND all tasteless . Not even a Parsley leaf as decoration , just a Black and Brown Mess. As for Swordfish it was suffering from 1.shrinkflation , max 100 g of fish And because of this 5 mm of thickness makes sure a very dry piece of fish , in my opinion Swordfish needs to be atleast 15 mm thick for juicyness . Same here : not a single leaf of Parsley for decoration. Came with an eggcup full of Chickpeas in some kind of Mayo. We put plates on the side as a message that we were finished with our meal and GOD……. Did we have to go through the worst interrogation ever to explain what was wrong with it ….. it was that bad that all I could say was that it was awful and they kept pushing and pushing for an answer , while I just said that usually it is enough to say just once …… I counted 7 times … at first waitress and then ””” MaitreD”””. We did not have to pay for food. I was told by M.D. not to come back as if it was not obvious to him that I was very unhappy after telling them 7...