Mount Erica Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

So I don't write bad reviews. This experience has compelled me though. I was excited about the renovation and apparently rebranding of our local. It used to be your typical tab not much to recommend it. The introduction of Spanish was welcome. I was excited.

On to the reality. Menu reads well. There are specials in chalk. $60 feed me menu. Sounds great to sample "the best items of the day" said our scottish waiter.

Now the food. White anchovies with picked fennel on slivers of biscuit. As advertised. Mushroom croquetta, filling was slightlt claggy but again passable and as advertised. Piquillo pepper, stuffed with vegetables, I really enjoyed this dish. So far Spanish enough. These were tapas.

Special of the day. Prawns $23. King prawns. 4 prawns. Not the freshest prawns, you could see the tinge of black just above the legs in the front and halfway up the side of the head. Excuseable. Not the best cooked prawns but I like sashimi so undercooked prawns are not an issue. Served with aioli and two green cress leaves. How is this Spanish?

Steak. Rump Cap. Was introduced by the waiter as flat iron steak. The two are actually slightly different. But okay. 4 pieces. Let's say 200 grams. (I'm being generous [this becomes relevant later.]) Served with pearl onions and confit potatoes. Spanish? Side salad of leaves vinegerette and hazelnuts. Spanish?

Dinner intermission. Field mouse in the dining room. We didn't draw attention to it. Some lovely ladies further down the end attempted to let it out. Waiter informed the ladies that they come from the car park. Again benefit of the doubt. (I have never seen a mouse in a dining room [I have seen cockroaches thank you China Bar Russel St])

Dessert. Creme a la cassonade. I actually really liked this dessert. Honey tinged in flavour with freeze dried raspberries and blueberries. Slightly thick custard but enjoyable. 2 Mandarin segments on top. One had a pip. Again acceptable even with the pip.

So let's get to the part I have an issue with. We get the bill. Service is mediocre but not an issue. I walk up to pay. I inserted my card. Was given the usual instructions and as I was punching in the pin was asked "how was everything?". I responded with. "It was okay". "Okay? You didn't like it?" Look at this point I'm annoyed. I vote with my patronage. Don't push for feedback. "It was fine" "what didn't you like about it?".

So at this point I had done the mental calculation. 2x anchovies 2x croquetta 2x peppers 1x prawns 1x steak 1x salad 1x custard. $7+8.4+9+23+36+13.50+12=$108.90. "your pricing is a bit odd. The individual items don't really add up on the feed me." To which our Scottish gentleman responded "You got double portion steak". This part makes me angry. I had already effectively paid. Don't push for feedback and then try to tell me that 200g of steak 3 potatoes and 2 pearl onions is $72. That is beyond a joke. Seriously. I have not complained about your "Spanish" food. Your mouse. Your mandarin pip. You are a joke. Cheers....

We went for a Fathers Day dinner. I’ve been other times for a cheese platter & a drink or 2 & had a great experience. Last night service was stretched, the male server who greeted us (not really) & seemed to be in charge (I use that term loosely) didn’t crack a smile all night & was strange. Menu promises a lot, prices are high for a pub, so you expect the dishes to be good. Drinks came out in dribs & drabs, 2 cocktails from a tap straight away, a hand made martini, then a wait for a beer. Prosecco had to be chased up, & eventually arrived. Starters were the best part of the meal, but we had to enquire about our bread after starters were finished. The sourdough is classified as a starter so all were ordered together. When enquired we were told there is a wait on the sourdough, 4 smallish pieces for $7. Our server brought it as fast as she could after chasing it up & apologised. We were given 5 pieces. Mains were mostly ok. The Eggplant Parma was tough around the skin & bitter. How do you make an eggplant tough? Pub Classics on a menu should just remain pub classics & not try to trick them up. The Chicken Parma was voted ok but had better. Dad liked his duck so yay! Mr Happy the male server brought a glass of Shiraz to the table and announced as he approached ‘SHIRAZ!’ No pigeons were released, no smile was seen. After dinner we eventually flagged down one of the female servers & asked for our bill. They still seemed stressed & I felt for them. They had tried all night & seemed stretched to look after the room. Mr Happy arrived with the EFTPOS machine, didn’t ask how everything was, just wanted the money & we wanted to go home. This pub could be a great local, great space & could be so good. Let down by a tricked up menu, high prices & patchy in its’ delivery with overworked staff. Management should realise that Fathers Day is going to be a busy night, seems to me they are just interested in the $$$. The kitchen is probably as overworked as front of house. Mr Happy has no idea what hospitable in...

The food was nice but the service was quite poor. When I first arrived (with a booking) the others in my party had already arrived just before me and were seated, I went to the front counter (where it says wait to be seated) and told the older lady with short blonde hair (I think the manager) that I had a booking and the others were seated already, can she please point me to the table. "Have you looked for them?" she asked. I said no, having not ever been there before I felt a bit lost and asked her to please look up the table she assigned under my booking and show me where it is? "Just walk around and look for them." she said and turned away. Not a nice welcome to this apparently friendly neighborhood pub!

Four of us on a tiny square table and knowing we would order a number of share plates and drinks, we asked the waitress when we saw a bigger table come free if by chance we could move, she said she would check and let us know. She went to the woman with short blonde hair and asked. While we watched on she scoffed and said NO WAY, like we were some kind of joke to her. A simple "no, sorry we are full" would have felt a little friendlier, no? Aside from that, a booking of 4 shouldn't be assigned to a table that is meant for 2. We had to put our water bottles etc on the floor and knocked things over trying to eat. It wasn't comfortable or welcoming.

The wait for drinks after ordering them was up to 20 mins and table service was less than pleasant. Overall pretty disappointing considering the food, although nice, isn't anything unique to run back for. Pub's rely on the service and convenience being good enough for people to want to come back and sadly in our opinion it was close to $500 we would have preferred to give to another business and definitely will on our next monthly...