Johnny’s Green Room — Restaurant in Melbourne

Utterly disappointing experience from start to finish — largely due to the security guard, “Frank.”

I arrived late to join my group (who were already inside for a booked reservation) after finishing work, only to be stopped by this security guard who insisted I stand outside — alone in 31-degree heat — for ten minutes before being allowed in. He refused to let me go upstairs despite confirming my booking and despite the fact that my friends who arrived earlier were let in immediately once they said they had a booking?

While I stood there sweating and uncomfortable, several groups left the venue, and I was left by myself in that alleyway while random men stared. I felt unsafe and humiliated — all for simply being late to my own booking.

When my friend came down to help (she had to run up and down a couple times down the lift - as he told her the first time she came to try help me up that she needed manager approval to let me up) eventually she had to plead with him just to get me inside. Because even after the manager approved me, he claimed he “didn’t have his phone” to receive the message from him and tried making her run back upstairs again to bring him personally. It felt like a power trip rather than any legitimate procedure.

Once inside, staff seemed well aware of his behaviour — they rolled their eyes when told what happened, which says a lot about how common it must be.

By then, my night was already ruined. The bar service and acknowledgement was just as poor — people pushed in front, staff ignored who had been waiting longest (they really just avoid looking at you at all 🥲) , and ordering a drink felt like a battle. I left the venue within the hour without ordering anything substantial.

Completely unprofessional, unnecessarily difficult, and hostile atmosphere. The way “Frank” treated me was demeaning and unsafe, and no one should be subjected to that kind of unnecessary intimidation at a hospitality venue.

Never coming back. Didn’t want to spend my hard earned money at a place like this just to leave feeling like absolute crap when I came in excited initially.

Just to note as this wasn’t necessarily directed at the serving staff too much - when finally getting one of their attention to order my drink - they were lovely. Just extremely difficult to get any service as they looked under the pump and therefore completely unaware of the crowd as a result (and can only guess how long my friend tried to get their attention to try help me when I couldn’t enter into my own booking. Like thank you to my friend who was the only one trying to help me get in)

I don’t like leaving bad reviews but was the first time I was moved to the point of needing to make sure I’m heard this time as I felt absolutely invisible and humiliated by Frank who didn’t seem to be professional anyway if he had to send my friend to act as middleman messenger just to forget his phone for communications with the manager and basically toss her back and forth efforts down the drain, to try get her to run around under his orders. I hated watching it happen and felt so upset seeing her resort to begging in which he finally let us in to our...

had a large booking for my boyfriends 18th where most of the attendees were over 18, there was his brother and a few more that were still 17. we arrived to the venue and were happily seated with no problems only to be greeted by another staff a few minutes later asking for ID’s, and then was told anyone under 18 is not even allowed in the premises. i thought it would’ve just been unable to drink or be near the bar which is fair and fine, but not allowed even in the building without a guardian present. i thought this was unfair as we were not told this when we first entered, and it is also only stated on the very last page of the bookings information PDF in small writing, i thought this was very sneaky. when booking the table on opentable, there was no tick boxes to approve that every guest was 18, or no large visual warnings of this rule which only showed that they tried to keep it as secret as possible. we asked if we could get a refund of the $45 payment that we had to make when booking as it was for a large booking, but were told that is not able to happen. i thought this was unneeded as the under 18’s got kicked out and couldn’t even eat the food they had payed for, the establishment are just trying to earn more money. eventually a guardian did arrive and everyone was able to eat, but the food that came with the $45 banquet menu was questionable. appetisers of almonds and olives, entree’s of bread and meat were fine (bread was delicious) but the main was salads and pizzas. the pizza crust tasted delicious, but the pizzas were served uncut, and the middle of the pizza was soggy and wouldn’t stay on the base, made it really hard to share between a large party having to cut semi-even slices ourselves, which left many with less food to enjoy. the “salad” consisted of rocket and lettuce with a vinegar type dressing. i would hardly call a chunk of green leaves a salad. i appreciate that it is not the servers fault for telling us about the under 18 issue, as they only need to get the word across, but i find it extremely shady that the owners or managers have posted almost no where of this large issue with guest attendees. i would recommend making it more clear both online and in the restaurant to avoid this issue...

I rarely write negative reviews, which is evident from my Google profile, but I feel this experience was handled so poorly that it warrants honest feedback.

I made a reservation two weeks in advance specifically for Open Lounge Seating. I arrived on time for my booking, expecting a smooth experience, only to be taken to a high stool table instead. When I politely pointed out the mistake, the waitress dismissed my concern, saying, “Sorry, we’re fully booked,” and “our manager is away” — which left me confused, as I had reserved that exact table well ahead of time.

I explained again that, due to my profession, I suffer from chronic back pain and cannot sit on stools for extended periods — especially not for dinner. The staff seemed uninterested and made no effort to apologize or accommodate me. It wasn’t until I pressed further that they found an available table in the Open Lounge — the very one I had booked in the first place. I still thanked them + apologied regardless, and was happy to move on with my night from there.

What was most disappointing, however, happened later. After dinner, my friend politely asked the same waitress about moving to the bar for a drink. The waitress, rather than responding professionally, made a rude and sarcastic comment referring to my back issues — something along the lines of, “You might want to check with your friend considering she has back problems.” I was stunned by the pettiness and complete lack of professionalism.

It’s incredibly frustrating to be treated with such disregard after doing everything correctly — booking in advance, arriving on time, and communicating respectfully. I hope management seriously reflects on the behavior of their staff, because no guest should be made to feel like an inconvenience for simply expecting what...