Mitcham Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

We went early on a Saturday evening when the pub was busy but not full as yet. We ordered quickly to ensure we got our meals asap as we had our 6 year old with us. The playground was much smaller than it seemed on the website and didn't have the fun pictures of animals painted on the windows. Our food arrived just as I got back from the bar with our drinks - that's not to say the food service was particularly quick, the bar service was blindingly slow. There seemed to be a few staff around that weren't doing much and the manager taking food orders eventually came and helped serve drinks. The food was meh. My husband had deconstructed nachos that would've been much better had they simply been constructed - the toppings were cold and difficult to get out of the tiny dishes they came in. I had the fish and chips with salad - the fish was scarce and the salad consisted of a chunk of old iceberg lettuce, one wedge of unripe tomato and a few pieces of dried out radish and cucumber. My son's chicken schnitzel was overcooked and had a gouge in it. The desserts were better but since they were bought in cakes, the hotel staff do not get credit for it. We had the Malteser cake and the New York Cheesecake both of which were delicious. I ordered coffee to have with the cakes. Again, the bar was understaffed and the one girl making coffees kept stopping to serve cold drinks - if a first come first served process was used like everywhere else, we might not have had to wait 30 minutes for 2 coffees. Instead, she would stop the coffee making to serve beers, leaving coffee to go cold, which was how ours arrived. Another disappointment was that there are pokies in the pub, right next to the front door, something that is not mentioned anywhere on the website - I guess Melbourne officially has no pubs without pokies now. My 6 year old son saw the shiny lights and immediately wanted to go in which is specifically why my husband and I don't go to places with pokies. An all round disappointing and...

I had a very disappointing experience at Mitcham Hotel on 20 September 2025. A staff member (Millie) was unnecessarily aggressive toward my friend and later shouted at me when I tried to calm things down. When I asked to speak to a manager, another staff member (Alanah) claimed she was a manager but was dismissive and laughed with the staff involved, which felt very unprofessional.

I don’t want anyone to lose their job, but I strongly believe staff should be trained to treat customers with basic respect. If they struggle to manage busy shifts, perhaps they could be placed on weekday rosters instead of peak weekends to avoid situations like this.

What concerns me most is the lack of service mindset shown. I honestly wonder how staff with such attitudes are able to represent the hotel in customer-facing roles. If they were the hotel owners, it might be a different matter, but as staff, they have a responsibility to uphold the reputation of the business and treat customers with respect.

By the way, we have been regular patrons here since 2017, after moving from Bulleen—not just at Mitcham Hotel, but also at Manningham Hotel. Until recently, our experiences were always positive, especially with a very good lady who used to work here before she retired and moved to the Gold Coast.

However, we recently had problems with two staff members we had never encountered before. While other staff are usually very nice, this experience was disappointing and has affected our trust.

In the future, we would prefer to go elsewhere. You have lost loyal customers who have supported your venues for years.

P.S. The Hotels side is not just a “nice add-on” — it’s big enough to materially impact overall performance (positively or negatively). For EDV to succeed, the ALH/Hotel operations need to remain robust, which means good management, capital discipline, and risk mitigation around regulation...

This must be the 4th time i have edited my review over the years 😅 Definitely worth a visit for the food, used to be quite pricey but after not visiting for some time due to said prices and boring menu I was so happy to see a refreshed menu and refreshed prices. I made a visit with friends and was blown away by the menu! I couldnt believe my eyes as the menu was just littered with great options! Was so happy I promised myself I was going to come back and polish off many more items off the menu, especially eye balling the full rack of ribs! I then come back only a couple of weeks later dragging my friend back saying how amazing it is again at this place.... I sit down.... look at the tiny menu in front of me and think there is some kind of mistake.... but no the mistake is mine! They just changed the menu only a few days before! It's now the boring old menu you would get at any local pub 😭 i couldnt believe it. I have given everything from 4 stars originally, back to 2, then back upto 4 , but now I think il settle on 3. I personally won't be going back until I see the menu return again , but there is worse pubs out there.... I'm just so sad that recent menu didn't stay, I would definitely have returned to being a regular. Hoping to change my review once again in the future. I will give a shout out to the waitresses who on my 2 recent visits...