Lower Plenty Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

Really disappointing experience here last week. The pub was very busy when we arrived for a 6pm booking - it appears that everyone had booked in at the same time. Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency near our table there was a delay of around 1 hour before we were able to order our food. I ordered a Linguini marinara and my mum ordered a senior's schnitzel and tried to order a chocolate mousse. They had run out of the mousse so she ordered a fruit salad instead. We were then advised that there would be a 30 to 40 minute wait for our orders. This was ok with us, we weren't in a hurry, so we just had a glass of wine and waited. Finally, our food arrived and the linguini was really bad. Massively overcooked pasta and the marinara sauce was so watery and completely devoid of flavour. The seafood consisted of a couple of medium sized prawns, with a bunch of those tiny little tinned prawns, some sad looking mussels and a few bits of calamari completed the seafood content. Actually it was nothing better than you would get in a marinara mix from your local Woolies. I added some lemon from my Mum's schnitzel and a bit of salt and pepper to zhoosh it up but honestly nothing could help this sorry excuse for a meal. I left two thirds of it. Mum's schnitzel was ok she said. Her chips were good (I ate some of them). Anyway, I thought, although rarely a dessert eater, I will save the day and order a Creme Brulee but when I went up to the counter, they had run out. That's ok I said, can I have the chocolate hazelnut pudding? Nope, they'd run out of that as well. I just gave up. Back at my table, one of our neighbours had ordered the roast of the day - but guess what?? They had run out. My Mum finally got her fruit salad 1.5 hours after ordering it after having to ask twice. They hadn't run out but it was from a can..so maybe better if they had. Honestly, I have had some really good meals at the Lower Plenty Hotel and I can't understand why last week's offering was so bad but it has me reconsidering a future booking. I wonder if it was simply that they were caught short with a massive number of late bookings that day and had under catered. I...

. I am writing to express my frustration with the handling of our recent 18th birthday celebration at your venue. If you're considering hosting a family event that includes adults, young adults, and children, I strongly advise you to think twice. We were met with unprofessional behavior, security interrogating guests at the door, and management threatening to remove people—all because of miscommunication and incorrect information provided by your team during the booking process.

When we booked, we were crystal clear about the nature of the event. We explained that it was an 18th birthday with a mix of family, 20 young adults, and some 17-year-olds. We were repeatedly asked if there would be adults present with the 17-year-olds, to which we answered, "yes, we and 60 other adults will be attending." We were reassured that as long as the 17-year-olds were accompanied by an adult (not specifically their legal guardian) everything would be fine. This was confirmed multiple times. We were told to sign a form to say each minor would be accompanied by their legal guardian. When I questioned this form before signing it I was told as long as the adults and the 18 year old parents were supervising there should be no problem. Hence we proceeded to sign the form.

However, on the night of the event, everything changed. The birthday celebrant was approached by security and told that all of his under-18 friends had to leave, as their parents had already left. This was completely different from what we had been told during the booking process, and it resulted in a ruined evening for both us as parents and my son, the guest of honor.

I would advise anyone planning an event here to proceed with extreme caution. On a positive note, I must commend the waitstaff, bartenders, and kitchen team, who were fantastic. Without their professionalism and hard work, the evening would have been an absolute disaster. But the experience with your management and communication was, frankly,...

I booked a table for 12 in the bistro for my birthday dinner. When I arrived I was told that there was no booking under my name. I said that I had definitely called and a friend I was with confirmed this as she heard me on the phone. The two ladies at the desk started getting angry with me, looking up my name and saying that I’ve been a ‘no show’ before. I told them that’s impossible as I don’t live in the area. They started getting more rude with me. They asked me if I put a deposit down as they always take a deposit for a table over 10 people. I said no, some young girl just picked up the phone and took my booking. The two staff were then saying that I was basically lying and waving there hands in the air and trying to make us all leave. They told us to go and have a meal in the bar section which I refused as it was my birthday and I had 11 other people with me. I finally got them to make up a table for us in the outdoor little section of the bistro. It basically ruined the start of the night. Then I ordered a chicken Parma. All of our 12 meals came out within 15 mins which we thought was strange considering the bistro was extremely busy. My chicken Parma looked like it had been defrosted in the microwave as it was just leaking water. The chips were thick and hard and not cooked properly. The meal really had no taste at all. A few of the steaks on the table weren’t cooked the way they wanted and most of the meals were just average. The best part of the night was a cheesecake that was most likely supplied from a cake shop. The bistro then was trying to kick us out pretty early as a lot of people had already left and you could tell the older rude staff just wanted to go home. Overall, I would not go back as the rude staff ruined my birthday night but starting off on a really bad note....