Macelleria Moonee Ponds the butcher that cooks for you — Restaurant in Melbourne

6pm+ Sat11Oct25 ...

... I've been wondering about this "Restaurant" for a while now Whenever I have previously passed by, there have been hardly ANY diners (i regularly drink&eat at TheCellarDoor not far from it) Decided to give it a try last night Well, i found out WHY it is normally DEAD! A VERY!!! disappointing experience indeed!!!

Basically ... ... Walked in Easily seated 3 other diners/couples Politely received menu Ordered drinks - Bottled Mineral Water; large glass of CabSav; & a side glass of ice Moments later, waitress returns with: "ready to order?", in the most uninviting, blandest tone!?! - to which I firmly replied: "No. I'd like to receive my drinks before ordering?". Apologies I did not end with "please". I was simply taken back! a tad!!! by her uninviting tone! Drinks arrived VERY soon after that Placed my order: ScotchFillet Medium Small GreekSalad 2 Sauces Did not realise chips were not served with the steak. Incorrectly assumed there would be. It would have been nice! for the waitress to advise me that. No suggestives of extras whatsoever. So by the time my VERY visually bland steak plate, etc arrived - I just wanted to get the hell OUT of the place. The ScotchFillet - average. Take it or leave it. No passion put into the dish or presentation of the dish at all. It was certainly eatable. Simply very uninviting!!! Finished my meal within 15/20mins. Plates taken. I was then asked "is everything all right?", by the VERY! unenthusiastic waitress. I replied: "Lovely! Dessert menu please?" Response: "We only have Tiramasu" My response: "Bill thank you"

What I have described above is of NOOO exaggeration WhatSoEver!!! And you wonder WHY??? your "restaurant" is close to EMPTY! majority of times By the time I left, your restaurant was 3/4's full of people ... ... With "service" like the above - I'm seriously surprised you are still trading

Mon13Oct25 ... ... To the Manager/Owner - thank you for the prompt response to my feedback re. my recent experience. It gave me NO joy whatsoever to give such negative feedback to a dining experience. And I agree, to be trading for a good 6yrs? now (wow - your business survived CoVid), you are obviously doing something right, in such a competitive industry. I wish you continued success, and greater/more passionate service staff. ...

While the first review was about my experience via Uber Eats, I was contacted by the owner/manager to dine in and rate that experience, please read the whole review below

#1 via take away (1 star) Have to say this is very disappointing and not worth it. Purchased the cheese steak and it was flavourless, oily and makes me wonder what it was slow cooked in since I couldn’t taste a thing. Even the sauce doesn’t save it, maybe if there was more onions since that’s the only thing I could taste. Yes the meat was tender but that doesn’t matter when it’s tasteless. Also purchased the Parma and I can’t see the eggplant while it looks like a supermarket product. They look so much better than they taste that’s for sure. Very disappointed but glad I didn’t spend more money

#2 Dine In experience Was very happy to experience this restaurant dining in, from walking in I could tell it was a very popular restaurant. Half of the venue was full and bustling and by the time I ordered the rest of the restaurant was full on a Friday night. Was only 2 wait staff on the floor but they managed to handle a full restaurant very well with empty dishes being collected in a timely manner and tables being waited on when needed. The restaurant was very clean and well maintained with a glass section near the chefs full of sausages. With the bar fully stocked and a great drink’s menu. I opted for a cocktail which was delicious and very well made. Ordered the wagyu streak cooked medium rare, it was juicy and pink inside and very tender which did melt in my mouth. I did order a garlic butter sauce on the side but felt that it really wasn’t necessary as the steak was full of flavour. My sides were the tomato and mozzarella which was simple but well put together and seasoned perfectly and the arancini with mushrooms, probably a little more darker in colour but the centre was creamy. Also enjoyed the sticky date pudding, unfortunately it did have more of a fluffy cake texture than pudding and the sauce had odd clear jelly like clusters.

Would definitely come back here to enjoy the steaks and cocktails again. Thank you to the owner/manager for allowing me to come and experience your restaurant after my...

Disappointing to say the least. Went as a large group, spent a heavy chunk of $$$ to be left feeling hungry and unsatisfied. Wagyu steaks definitely does not taste like Wagyu and we've had our share of different types of Waygu in the past so something wasn't right. Oddly steaks are served on their own and they charge for every little thing for sides. Their Sausage Platter - which they claim will feed 3-5 people is a joke - its 5 sad sausages on a plate without anything else at all. You'd think they'd serve it with something or make the size actually reasonable to actually feed people but nope. You could probably feed yourself better at bunnings. they at least have bread and sauce. here you'd be paying extra for both of these things. They charge extra for every thing including tomato sauce which you definitely need as theres not a lot of taste to most of the food and their tiny gravy which they charge $3 for really doesn't taste right. Dishes overall are very small in portion size and costly, nothing special with the taste in any way. few small cubes of tasteless meat on skewer and a tiny little salad (which mostly consists of salad leaves) is somehow served and charged as a full meal.

We don't mind paying extra for good quality food however this just wasn't it. Neither the taste satisfied nor the size filled your hunger. The set up of the place is also not great they don't even have a bathroom inside, you have to go out into the shopping center for it.

Having said all that, staff were friendly and their halloumi salad was decent. But thats not enough for us to...