Oh Loretta — Restaurant in Melbourne

We went for dinner on Saturday 20/04/24 and we had such a horrible experience. Service and food were both lacklustre.

Service 1/5

-Started poorly because the waiter did not respect personal boundaries and decided to reach across the table and touch my partner on the shoulder when taking our drink order (seems to be a recurring theme from the other Google reviews). -We ordered wine but was subsequently told that it was an old menu and the waiter proceeded to pour different wines without any explanation. When we questioned the waiter regarding the wines, he simply proceeded to say that they are similar and left. We were also not provided with a new menu or run through any difference in the food and drink menu. Later through the night, we noticed that a different waiter poured the wine that we originally requested. When we discussed the matter with the waiter, he went to check the wines and reported that he could not find it twice . We had to specifically describe the label on the bottle to have the wine originally requested. He did apologise but did not provide any solutions to the previous mistakes as the wines we received prior were different blend and of inferior quality. -Long wait time before our food order was taken; ~20mins after we receive our first drink. The restaurant was not even full at the time we were there. -Long wait time between our first dish and the next dish; ~1 hour. We had to follow up personally as none of the waiters followed through. We were offered a free dessert but the waiter did not follow up as well. We've had enough by then anyway -The waters were topped up twice during our time there; ~ 2 hrs.

Food 1/5 Food was poor in terms of presentation, quality, price tag. -We ordered skewers that were meant to be done over a hibachi but they came out overcooked, not charred or smokey and seems like they were done in the oven. Different skewers from what we wanted to order as it was an old menu. -Lamb Shank was dry, lacked seasoning -The bread was the only redeeming factor of the night.

Overall, we would definitely not recommended this place. For the location and price point, there are so many better places...

BEWARE THEY ARE ATTEMPTING TO NOT HONOUR GIFT VOUCHERS:

A friend bought me a $100 gift voucher for this restaurant in February and I was very excited to try it out as it is local to where I live. Went to the restaurant and ordered plenty of food and wine, totalling $160.

The food was great and the service was good too. However, the whole experience was soured when I went to pay for my meal. Upon presenting the (1-month old) voucher, I was informed by the owner that they were no longer honouring these vouchers due to a change of ownership. I was quite shocked as, in my limited knowledge of consumer protection laws, a change of ownership doesn’t invalidate a gift voucher. The owner then launched into a spiel about how the change in ownership had been messy and the old owner had “done the wrong thing” - this is all info that is irrelevant to customers, who just want to get what has been paid for.

I pushed back and eventually the owner agreed to honour the voucher, however the whole interaction was bizarre and a surefire way to make sure I never return to spend more of my own money. I feel bad for customers who might accept what the owner says at face value and end up...

The 3 stars is for the delicious food!! However our experience was a huge let down due to one older 60 something year old man (possibly manager) who made a group of us 3 women extremely uncomfortable. Your tone and overly direct sexual manner is not welcome. Please do not touch my back as I go to sit down and no my friend does not want you to “cuddle her” to keep her warm. One of my my friends left early and very nicely paid for our bill on the way out. We were told as we went to pay it must have been paid for by my friend and no payment was showing up outstanding. We left the premises and got chased out by the old man waiter and demanding we call our friend to confirm payment was made in full and told us to wait till he confirmed it. He was extremely unpleasant to deal with. Once he made a fool of himself and realised no payment was outstanding he sent out a young waitress to tell us. Couldn’t bare to face us after. What a disgusting and disrespectful man, we will never return...