What happened??

I’ve been at Matilda 4 times over the last few years and the 5th time last week will be my last time dining there. The restaurant has become terrible in many aspects, but especially the service.

For a restaurant where you’ll be spending $200/per person, service must be top notch. If you’re understaffed, then just limit the capacity for that night and don’t take in guests you can’t handle! Firstly, we waited at least 10 minutes just to be seated when we showed up on time for our reservation. I heard one of the chefs yelling “service please” at least 3 times but no one came. Then the entire service, from getting our food menus, getting our orders taken, were all extremely slow. We showed up at 8.15pm and didn’t yet have our main course by 10pm. We finally finished at midnight 12am. It’s not that the staff was rude to us, but they definitely do not qualify for a fine dining restaurant, they were not attentive nor happy to serve us.

Then I went to the bathroom which was dirty and one toilet had empty toilet paper rolls. There were wet toilet paper all over the basin area and on the floor. What was disgusting was they put a toilet paper roll next to the basin for you to dry your hands. If I’m in a $15/per person cheap restaurant, that’s fine. But this is a fine dining place! You’re supposed to put proper napkin towels and I remember this was the case the previous times I came to Matilda. Empty toilet paper rolls indicated that no one had checked that bathroom for hours, if not the whole night! Just days before dining at Matilda, I went to a steakhouse in South Yarra that’s at a similar price point, you should compare your bathrooms to theirs.

Food was hit and miss, with most being miss:

Excellent: Cocktail, the apple tarte tatin, duck

Terrible food: Lamb ribs (basically fat covered with sauce), Sirloin (not edible, it was so tough, my overcooked eye filet at home tastes better), pork chop (cheap cut of meat and dry).

Mediocre: Brussel sprouts and the Stracciatella with charred vegetables

As if the above wasn’t enough for a terrible night, we discovered that our knives were very blunt after having such a hard time to cut the duck and steak! When we touched the knives, it was true that they were all soft. We asked for sharpened knives that the staff accommodated for. But why did we have to go through this?

Overall it really gave the impression that the management of this place is falling apart.

We didn’t complain that night – because what’s the point? It’s not like we didn’t want to pay. And why complain about the sirloin just to get another of the same sirloin? I’m writing this review to let other diners know that there are LOTS of other restaurants that are much more worth your time and money.