Micawber Tavern — Restaurant in Melbourne

My partner and I visited Micawber Tavern on Friday for a special date night. The venue holds nostalgic value for my family, and having just moved back to the area, we were keen to make a night of it. To mark the occasion, we purchased a voucher that afternoon through their website, taking advantage of a 30% EOFY discount.

Unfortunately, the evening got off to a rocky start. Upon arrival, our booking couldn’t be found. We showed the confirmation email to the waitress who greeted us—recognisable by her blue hair and noticeably frosty attitude. Unfortunately, she wasn’t wearing a name badge, or I’d call her out here. Without acknowledging the booking, she sighed and said, “That’s fine. I’ll seat you anyway,” as if we’d turned up uninvited to a private event.

We were placed in the bistro, a cold, dimly lit space with all the charm of a corporate training room. At 5:30 pm., we asked about happy hour. “It’s from 3 to 5,” she snapped. Odd, considering both the menu and the website listed it as 4 - 6 pm. We pointed this out; she glanced at the menu, blinked, and said, “Oh… yeah.” That was it—no clarification, no correction, no apology.

Hoping to salvage the occasion we asked to move to the bar area and were directed to Table 22. I went to order drinks at the bar—no table service—and again found myself waiting for the same waitress, who spent several minutes moving chairs, lighting a fire, receiving other patrons, and pointedly avoiding eye contact.

When I was eventually served, I asked for a glass of their house red and a beer on their happy hour. When asked if I wanted a large or small, I specified large.

She poured the drinks and then casually let me know they would be full price ($35 for a glass of pinot and a pint of Carlton) as only small drinks are included in happy hour. This wasn’t written anywhere. When I politely questioned why she hadn’t mentioned this earlier, her response was, “I thought you’d know that.” LOL.

To top it off, our freshly purchased voucher couldn’t be used either. “It can take up to 24 hours to activate,” she told us cheerfully. It was hard not to feel personally victimised at this point.

My partner encouraged me to breathe and stick it out, even though I was ready to head across the road to the rum distillery (which, for the record, is excellent and very welcoming). We decided to stay, hoping the food would turn things around.

Then came the final twist. Just before our meals arrived, a second waitress approached to let us know our table would need to be cleared in 15 minutes for the band to set up. Yet again, a detail that had been missed when we were seated. At that point, we regretted not trusting our instincts to leave earlier.

The meals arrived—we ate quickly. The food was just fine. Edible, but nothing special.

By 7 pm., we were back in the car, unsatisfied and baffled as to what we might have done to offend the blue-haired waitress. We called the venue across the road and asked if we could pop in for coffee and dessert. Not only were we welcomed with a smile, but we were seated immediately and treated like guests. It turned the night around.

Micawber Tavern does have potential. The location is lovely, and it clearly has a loyal local following. But our experience felt like a string of miscommunications, avoidable oversights, and a lack of warmth or care—especially from one particularly disengaged and discouraging staff member.

We’d like to believe it was just an off night, but the pattern of service suggested otherwise. Unfortunately, we won’t be back—and we’ll be seeking a refund for the...

Awesome pub with lots of potential.

However, I have been here twice now, and both times, the service has been terrible. Staff seem very lost and lacking solid leadership and management as well as having extremely poor communication. Every staff member you talk to tell you something different when it comes to ordering food and booking tables. For example- last time we were here we tried to get a table for lunch (around 2pm) but were told by one waitress that the kitchen isn't accepting food orders and there's no bookings available. However, my partner decided to try and call to make a booking once we stepped outside and were told that we're welcome to walk in and they can accommodate us for lunch. Which we ended up doing relatively easily (after having to decipher how they wanted us to order our food). The same cannot be said for the previous experience.

The time before: we made a booking ahead of time, but decided to go in early for some drinks. We told staff that we had a booking for an hour later and were happy just to sit in the bar area until the time of our booking which seemed fine until it was time for us to go to our table. We tried to order some drinks and starters from the bar, but were told that it was table service and that they'd send someone over. After waiting for approx 15 minutes, i waved down a staff member and asked to order. The staff member told me that they'd put my order through to the kitchen and then took off. After 10 minutes, i received no drinks and then asked another staff member who told me to "order the drinks from the bar" and also that they'd check my food order as well. They then told me my food order was never processed, and i had to order from the bar. I then went to order from the bar and was told again i have to order through a waiter, but after telling the bar staff i was told to order at the bar, they then tried to let me order at the bar at which point the eftpos machine apparently stopped working so i gave up on trying to get starters and asked to be seated at our reserved table- at which point we were told our table was given to another couple and they then attempted to shove us on a table with another group which I declined, and when we finally managed to get another table -we were shoved outside (in winter) on a table booked to another group with no patio heaters running and were quickly forgotten. There were 2 other groups on the patio, and we all got talking over how cold it was, so we attempted to try and start the patio heaters. After turning on the heaters, the heaters quickly ran out of gas and myself and a gentleman from another table attempted to get staff to come take orders and replace the gas bottles (as everyone out on the patio area were freezing) we then waited atleast 30 minutes until a staff member reluctantly came out and replaced the bottles and then proceeded to ignore customers on the table as we tried to order food.

One of the other groups just left, and we were left to again try and order from the bar when we were finally awarded a lovely waitress who quickly apologised for her colleagues' mistakes and was accommodating.

The whole experience was extremely frustrating and largely negative.

If this place was given a strong, experienced manager to guide the staff, it could be a really awesome Irish pub. But until then , don't expect...

Can’t say a lot positive about the service at this place, then the food was a close second to the service so it made for a pretty poor experience. Which is a pity because this has always been a great pub until now.

We walked in on a Thursday night here for a drink and meal in this iconic pub of Belgrave. As we stood for about 5 mins to ask for a table, we noted a number of staff in green shirts standing around and talking. On one noticing us they indicated to another who then looked at us and with some effort asked if we had a booking. We said no but were happy to wait and grab a drink.

We were told to stand next to a table there and the guy walked back to the group of staff talking. Whilst waiting I ordered drinks which I had to explain to the girl at the bar what a Sauvignon Blanc was.

When we finally got our drinks we continued to wait where the guy said until about 15 mins when one of the staff in green asked us to move. We responded with we were waiting for a seat and were asked to stand and wait here. She said there are no seats and it’s unlikely that any would be available.

I looked around and there were more empty tables than full with some reserved prior to and well after our time here at 1800h.

We moved to the corner of the bar to finish our drinks and go when another one from the staff came to us and asked if we were eating in. We said we had planned to but were told that there wasn’t a table likely so we were going to finish our drinks and go. She then said that there was a table free near the pool table.

We took our seat and was told that there was table service. We waited for another 15mins and not one server has attended our table. I went to the bar and ordered another round of drinks and stated to order our meals when the bartender said that’s nothing to do with her, so I asked the gaggle of green shirts if we could get served at the table as we’d been sitting for about 25mins now.

One of the girls in the green shirts then walked behind the bar and I went back to our seat and waited. 10 minutes passed and I asked again if we could be served. The girl in green huffed and went over to another girl who was serving a table of 10 and after about 10mins that girl came and served us.

Kate was great and loved a chat, took our order, had us pay immediately (obviously a learning) and went off serving other tables that were slowly filling.

We waited for our meals for about 20mins and when they came out they were pretty ordinary in flavour and seasoning.

We got up and left overall disappointed in the service and food quality. We actually won’t eat here again and none of us finished our meals. For the price and service (lack of) it was very disappointing and pricey for what we received. The salads were warm and meals were cooked awfully.

As someone who has run a restaurant and bar in a major centre, my advice is employ someone who has been in the hospitality game to assist your teams as it’s very apparent that they lack the basics of customer service and hospitality skills in general.

Done and dusted with here and my advice is not to eat here and don’t...