Mr Curtis — Restaurant in Melbourne

This is a mixed review because so many elements were fantastic; the food and local wine, the view of the bay, the main waiter was unassuming, friendly, knowledgeable and really looked after us. But I left feeling the need to glance sideways at my wife and weigh up whether sharing my gripes was going to be a bad choice of conversation, or she was going to agree wholeheartedly that the wait staff were masters at staring forward and not noticing your flailing attempts to be noticed and served. “Why was there no music? weren’t we too close to each other? Do they really not serve dessert or was it hard to see on the app?” I guess it’s a combination of having been there pre-pandemic for a quiet lunch and being served a classy and delicious meal where attention to detail was obvious. The thick layer of dust and pot plant dirt on the cookbooks I flicked through waiting for the toilet wouldn’t have been missed before. Or the lack of bin in the toilet giving that pub vibe of toilet rolls and rubbish was new. There is also the new anxiety of sitting so close to people maskless that is hard to shake. This time I sat there watching seemingly newly trained wait staff continuously walk past with tunnel vision ignoring my efforts to get their attention so we could order; it was hot and I was thirsty and I hate sitting there wondering if I should get up and go to the bar myself. A simple glance and “I’ll be right with you” acknowledgement is all it takes. When we were finally served they apologised for forgetting our existence and everything came fast after that. I left with mixed feelings because like I said the food and wine were great. I’ll have to go again. And you guessed it, it was a bad choice of conversation...

I recently visited Mr Curtis, and unfortunately, it was one of the most disappointing dining experiences I’ve had in a long time. While the restaurant presents itself as a trendy hipster fusion spot—and does have a genuinely cosy, aesthetically pleasing atmosphere—it falls far short where it actually counts: the food.

The portion sizes were shockingly small. One of the dishes we ordered was described as four mushroom sausage rolls—what we received was clearly just a single sausage roll, cut into four bite-sized pieces. Yet it was priced as though we were getting four full servings.

Across the board, the food was more like overpriced finger food than proper meals. The tapas, for example, came as two tiny bites with one or two prawns. The menu was misleading, giving the impression of substantial dishes. There were no pictures in-house, and the online photos made the food look far more generous and impressive than what we were actually served.

We were a group of four and spent $103, but left hungry and disappointed. While I understand that gourmet food can sometimes come in smaller portions, that only works when the ingredients or preparation justify it. Here, the ingredients were cheap and poorly cooked. The stuffed zucchini flowers, for instance, sounded exotic, but they’re inexpensive to make—and were badly executed and heavily overpriced.

To be fair, the service was polite, and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming, which is what drew us in. But the whole experience—from the online presentation to the menu to the food itself—felt misleading.

Unless you’re happy to spend a lot of money for very little (and not very tasty) food, I’d strongly suggest...

Had a shocking experience with a big group. Wasn’t told in advanced about ‘feed me’ menu which is $38 each and you’re forced to share food. Lots of us didn’t want to (mostly because of the price) so we paid for ad ons which staff didn’t love. No print out menus, we asked, they don’t do them, everything is QR code and forced to be on your phone. Worse still, I ordered fries and my brother watched them be plonked on the desk and 4 staff, including the manager ate from them, then he watched them pick up the basket and bring to me. He was furious and demanded new ones. Maria the manager was furious at being caught out and openly lied. We didn’t like our experience, the food was really average and very expensive. Forced to be on phones to order, very little staff interaction and the whole forced shared menu really turned us off. Absolutely would not return under any circumstance.

EDIT: Wrote this still here at dinner and Maria the manager just comes out right before we were serving the birthday cake to our birthday guest, she was so incredibly rude and aggressive, “umm I’m just reading this review, who wrote this?!”. Before she continued we told her this was incredibly unprofessional and rude and we wanted her to stop and serve the birthday cake. She backed down and tried to apologise which was absolutely not what her intentions were. I am SO disgusted by what’s just happened, there are no words to describe her disgusting horrible energy and how this ruined our groups experience.

The flooding of 5 star reviews by friends and family since this review is...