Melbourne Public — Restaurant in Melbourne

Booked in for my engagement, lovely telephone service, 4 weeks in advance for booking. Got there and they came up and put a reserved sign on the table and said remember you have to be out by 6pm as the table is booked for 6.30pm... thought to myself 'kick us out before weve even all arrived' but whatever left that. When we asked for the rest of our chairs we were told that they never guaranteed us that many seats, which obviously I wouldnt have booked my Engagement if not everyone would be able to sit. They also forgot to mention that the times I had booked for there was only a snack menu available so my guests and I were all waiting for the other menu to come out. While we were there a wedding showed up for their reception, I now understood I was low priority so werent treated like we were spending any $. They offered to find us more chairs but by this point my guests, my partner and I were all getting a bit over it and made do ourselves. The food was medium cost for small serves, and the food was the best thing about this place other than location. The customer service was inconsistent. I would go there again for a spontaneous lunch but I would never book an event there again. Super unreliable and all bookings are important so should be treated the same, it should never be clear to a customer who is spending more money based on their...

Zero out of five! We decided to have dinner at the Melbourne Public last night before our comedy show at 8pm which was being held at the Plenary Theatre next door in the exhibition centre. They had a “pre show express menu” so we made sure we ordered meals from this menu. At the time of ordering the app said there was a 30 min wait time on food. It was 6:45pm when we placed our order for 2 chicken parmas. By 7:40pm we still had not received our meals even though other tables around us that had been seated and ordered after us had received theirs. I went up to the counter to check on our meals and advised the staff that we had a show starting in 20 mins and needed to leave soon. The response I got was “do you want to cancel your order?” To which I replied “no, I want to eat, we’re hungry!”. By this point there was another 4 tables in our exact situation going to the same show with no food as yet. By 7:50pm the staff told us they couldn’t guarantee our food would come out so I asked for a full refund and we left hungry. The show didn’t finish until 10:45pm. This pub ruined our whole experience and evening. Do not eat here before a show, we thought being a Wednesday night it wouldn’t be a problem,...

I went here twice both on Friday after 5 (after 4:00PM on Friday you could enjoy some $10 cocktails and $1 oyster). It could be a little crowded and you could not find your sit. But I think it's worth it. The drinks are good (I tried Pornstar Martini and Espresso Martini, I love these), cool atmosphere (noisy but not club type, enough noise for the heat but still good for conversation, would be idealistic for small group of friends but alone is just fine), the music is hype but not the EDM type, more like upbeat and fast tempo pop type, and the oysters are fresh eaten with a red sour sauce that I believe to be red vinagar (even taste better than fresh lemon juice but they will give you some lemon wedges with you more a classical ), the light is not too bright (you could still read a book here if wanted but dark enough to feel relax and float with everything happening), good price even without happy hours. They do take reservation for tables and parties with different areas for your choice. The location is perfect: right next to DFO South Wharf. What could be better than shopping and end up with some booze? Even though I mentioned cocktails but I find that many people enjoy a large glass/bottle...