Oriental Teahouse Melbourne CBD — Restaurant in Melbourne

Visited the restaurant on Valentine's Day having made a booking online prior. Booking experience online was easy and there was no delay upon arriving at the door for us to be seated in the upstairs area. Unfortunately, that is where the good experience ends. After being seated and asked whether we would like sparkling or still water, our water arrived at the table. We then had to wait another 42mins before anyone would return to take our food and drinks order. This was despite many many many attempts to get the attention of the staff member stationed maybe 10 metres away from our table. I'm absolutely confident there were many moments where our eyes met and a subtle hand gesture was made, indicating I'd like service, however it appeared that lighting candles for tables with nobody at them was far more important than taking our order. Eventually our order was taken (set menu) and drinks ordered. We soon began to think it was odd that a table behind us, who had arrived much later than us, had started receiving their food already. When a staff member appeared from the kitchen carrying several steam baskets, he asked us to confirm the items. Thankfully he asked this because it was all completely wrong. He then proceeded to walk to the table behind us to give them the food only to be turned away as they had already received theirs. A quick conversation between the staff member carrying the food and the staff member stationed upstairs (the one taking orders) took place. It was clear based on the interaction between the two of them, that the table numbers must have been mixed up and the table behind us had received our set menu (more expensive). The staff member who originally took our order walked over as if nervous to have to say what he was about to say. We were then told that the kitchen has a rush and so our food will be delayed by up to 20mins. We accepted what he had to say as we were confident we knew what was going on already and did not want to make a fuss. By this stage, the night had already reached roughly 9-9:15pm. Suddenly, only maybe 5-8mins later, our table began to be bombarded with dishes. So much so that there wasn't enough room to place them all. We ended up stacking dishes/plates on top of one another just to make space for us to even eat from our primary plates/bowls. The original staff member taking orders then re-appeared letting us know that he'll be progressing us on to mains. We increased the speed at which we ate to compensate for this. When the mains finally arrived, the steamed fish was tried and left almost in its entirety - extremely disappointing, the steak and fried rice was fine. The same staff member returned shortly after (maybe 15mins after receiving mains), letting us know that the kitchen would now soon be closing and so if we still wanted the dessert dumplings, they'd have to come out now. We agreed as this was specified back when we initially ordered our food for the night. Overall, the food was fine and I don't have any real complaints about that. The service however was disgraceful. The time we were at the restaurant (8pm - 10pm) was not really even that busy. I'd hate to see how the staff member stationed upstairs would handle himself otherwise! Amazingly, the same staff member handled our bill at the end of the night and actually asked whether we'd like to leave him a tip. No thanks! This was my second time at the restaurant and I must say, I think...

We had a company team meeting lunch here. As the group is bigger than 8+, we had to order a feed me menu which we were okay with at the start. The options on the menu are slightly limited and you can't choose whatever you want on the list. We opted to go with 8 dishes and the option we have to select 2 items from the stream section and the deep fry, 3 items from the main and one dessert. None of us eat Asian dessert so we asked to swap it with something else and you can only pick from the stream section to replace dessert. You can't just choose dumplings and Dim Sim for all 8 dishes. As we had all the food details sorted before the day, we were expected a little quicker service than we received. They especially advertise the feed me as unlimited feed that can reorder as much as you can eat in 90 minutes (8 dishes for $56 per person). The first set of stream and fried dishes didn't get to the table until 22 minutes after we seated. Then when we finished all the stream and fry dishes and tried to order a couple more dishes, we were then told we can't reorder anything until all the dishes on the lists have arrived. All the mains and the rest of the dishes arrived at the table after 45 minutes. The staff took some reorder items then. Not all of group like eating the same things so we all reorder want we want to eat and the item I reorder which is a prawn and shallots wonton didn't arrive until 70 minutes into the seating time. All the reorder dishes also go down in size, for example, the veggies spring roll has 6 pieces in the first serve, but only 4 in the second serve so when we thought one serve will be enough but then some people had to miss out. To finish it off, they still manage to put through wrong charges of 10 dishes at $68 per person at the start after spending 5 minutes going through the 8 dishes to confirm our order. Overall very disappointed with the group...

The worst dining experience in Melbourne with no service and tasteless tea. Other people's reviews seem good, so it could have been one off time. For me, it was such a disappointment :(

Incorrect booking: Made a booking for a group to celebrate World Dumpling Week. I didn't pre-book a special menu so others could order a la carte. When we arrived, the hostess thought we were all getting a special menu. I had to re-explain and ask for the regular menu.

No service: Apart from ordering a drink, literally NO ONE stopped by our table of 7 for 15-20min. I had to get up from the table and ask someone near the bar to take our orders.

Missing order: Oolong chicken and steamed rice didn't come out. Again no one was checking our table. I had to get up again and go to the bar section to follow up on what happened to the order. Later the person said the order didn't go through and whether our table wanted to order. We cancelled the menu because it was too late to eat after finishing other food.

Below par special menu: DO NOT ORDER world dumpling basket. It was overly seasoned and not fresh. Not worth the money. Also, the front of the house couldn't explain which dumpling was which 🤣

Why ask for a tip? I hate leaving a negative review because I also work in hospitality and understand how things can be hectic.

Still, when you neglect your duty to look after a table, you don't ask for a tip. If the venue is understaffed and a team member is not trained, you explain the situation and apologise. To me, it was shocking how our table was left out for so long when the venue wasn't busy and I had to keep getting up.

Even for the bill, our group was waiting then ended up walking to the counter and paid.

From beginning to the end, it was really bad... microwaving frozen dumplings and making my own tea at home was much nicer and had better service than paying $54/pp at Oriental...