Le Bon Ton — Restaurant in Melbourne

UNBELIEVABLE OVERCHARGE + TERRIBLE Customer Service I initially booked a reservation for Valentine’s Day, which was about 9 days in advance, through the restaurant's website. The site clearly stated the price as $69 per person, totaling $138 for two. However, after booking, I was surprised to find an additional charge of booking fees totaling $140.62, bringing the total to $281.62—almost double the expected cost.

It's unusual for a restaurant to charge the full amount a week before the reservation, as most restaurants simply hold your card details and may charge a small deposit of $25-$50. I knew the restaurant wasn’t fully booked, as there were still plenty of spots available for that evening.

I immediately contacted the restaurant and spoke with a representative named Nas, who dismissed my concerns, stating it was due to the Valentine’s Day booking. I pointed out the discrepancy between what the website advertised and what I was actually charged. Nas acknowledged the extra charge was an error and assured me that she would look into it and call me back, ofcourse I never got a call back. However, she mentioned that higher management needed to review the situation, which I understood. I was okay with the refund being processed as long as it was returned to me in the same way I paid. Instead of issuing the refund, I received an email from Nas stating that the additional $150 I was incorrectly charged would be applied to a beverage tab on the day of the booking, rather than being refunded. At this point, I was extremely concerned. After several phone calls and emails, I decided to cancel the entire booking and requested a full refund. (Still 9 days away from booking) Email proof below: Respond to Le Bon Ton by replying directly to this email Hi Sarah,

Thank you for your time on the phone yesterday.

I can see that there has been a double charge on your card for our set menus. I have spoken with the management team and you would be able to use the amount of $138 as credit towards beverages on the day. I have noted this on your booking.

Thank you and we look forward to celebrating with you next Friday! Nas, Le Bon Ton | Feb 7 9:23 AM

Each time I called, I was told that "higher management" was in a meeting and couldn’t take action. I was told that only higher management had the authority to address the issue, but they were always unavailable. Eventually, I was told that, according to their policy, bookings were non-refundable.

Despite their acknowledgment of the overcharge, the representative advised that the process would be review by higher management, which was expected to take 10 days. After many calls, emails, and even threats to escalate the situation, I was finally issued a refund.

The entire ordeal was stressful and frustrating. I’ve never experienced such poor customer service, especially when the error was on their end. To make matters worse, during the final phone call, I was told I would be refunded $276 instead of the full $281.62 due to a supposed service charge, and that I would need to contact my bank for the $5. This was beyond absurd. How can I get a service charge of $5 when I have not even entered the restraunt. They claim all their calls are recorded, so there are plenty of recordings showing that I consistently maintained a polite tone while requesting a resolution. I also have email correspondence to back this up. I’m still in disbelief that something like this could happen, and it’s shocking that businesses get away with such...

I'm not sure how to give half stars but my review should be considered a 3.5. All of the below is designed to be constructive feedback to the restaurant rather than seen as a "negative review".

Firstly, I'll run through what we liked. The pulled lamb shoulder was divine. Beautifully soft, great flavour. The Mac and Cheese my husband thoroughly enjoyed also, and he mentioned that it came out nice and hot, which gave the cheese a great consistency. The lighting for an evening sitting was warm and inviting, with a good volume level from the DJ who knew to balance having a musical palette to sit alongside the dining experience without overpowering the environment.

Now to the main challenges we had. The core crux of our difficulty with our experience comes from issues with the way that the food and drinks were described on the menu. When you are at a new place, wanting to try new things that you've never had, you rely on the trust of the menu to give you an accurate description of the food or drink, so as you can make an informed decision on what you are ordering based on what you may like.

There was an incongruence between the rest of the items we ordered off the menu and what we were actually served, which really threw us off and dampened the dining experience. I ordered a quinoa salad that was described as "Macerated broccoli, smoked grapes, crispy chickpeas & buckwheat". When it arrived, the dominating vegetable was large strips of red capsicum. Capsicum is an extremely dominating flavour, so to not include it completely shifts the reality of the dish. I had to pull it all out, and even then the flavour of the salad itself was very bland and none of the key items mentioned shone within the dish. Luckily, I combined the incredible lamb and the brisket (which unfortunately was also rather bland due to a lack of fat streaking and salt, and relied on the very VERY delicious BBQ sauce), which completely changed the flavour and made it really nice, so in the end I was able to consume and enjoy the dish.

The incongruence was most dominant in the drinks - specifically their cocktail game. When you're paying $15 for a mocktail and $21+ for a cocktail, having descriptions that don't match the reality of the drink really leaves a sour taste in the mouth. The "bananas foster" includes buttermilk-washed in the description (implying creaminess), and classes the cocktail as "light, tropical and textural". The drink was very small, had no textural element, and was more akin to a heavier, thick, syrup based drink. The Le Bon Ton Frappe was even worse - it's described as "refreshing, fruity and tropical" and yet it's dominant favour palette was an aniseed based absinthe and sharp ginger, with not a fruity note in sight. Even the mocktail of the Cherry Cola Fizz, whilst being delicious, had no notes of Cola whatsoever.

It would be worth the restaurant revisiting the way that they describe their food and drinks to ensure that the most dominant flavours a- make it onto the menu, and b - for drinks, determine the overall profile palette. If the overall profile palette of these 3 drinks truly matched their taste, we would have probably opted for others, and had a better dining experience. I would say if you are visiting this restaurant, it would be worth asking for clarification on any of the cocktails or salads before purchasing. Hopefully the restaurant will look into refining their menu communication, as there is a lot of great potential for a lovely...

The dining experience was truly terrible for what it’s worth. We ordered the meat share plate, burnt ends, cornbread, mac and cheese, chilli cheese fries and oysters for the table.

Firstly for what it’s worth the portioning of the share plate is no way reflective of what the cost should provide. When it arrived at our table we jokingly said that was only half of it and the rest was going to come later which only turned out for us to be the joke. This would have been fine if the food was okay. The only edible items were the chicken and sausage. The brisket and pulled pork were drier than my nans feet which I find increasingly impossible but this place has managed to do it.

The Mac and cheese tasted stale, and the extra cheese on top you could imagine to be a layer of bottled cheese sauce that had been microwaved, leaving a layer of plastic smear. The only thing that was hot on this dish was the oven dish it was served on, quite disappointing.

The chilli cheese fries were also forgettable. There’s always excitement when ordering fries for the table, especially when they’re loaded with a house made chilli. Except it all turned to frowns when the first bite is lukewarm or even cold, quite strange when chilli’s are meant to be hot. Perhaps the microwave decided to take leave halfway during service.

There’s not much to say about the cornbread except for being dry. The whole dish of butter was necessary to help get it down. This didn’t help when all the meats served were also dry enough to have a choking hazard label. So together, even with all the sauces and butter it was still a tough swallow.

The burnt ends were a lucky dip. Some were great, which gave us hope for the rest of the meat, but as we dug in we were left in disappointment where the rest were dry and chewy. Again quite strange considering how they’re supposed to be doused in sauces and butter when they’re cooked but they sure put the burnt in burnt ends.

Nothing to say about the oysters, pretty hard to mess that up. Oysters, lemon. Good.

Le bon ton more like Le bad ton.

Best thing here was the beers. Come for the bar not...