Panton Hill Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

Incredibly disappointed with our visit today. I booked a table for 14 of my family members for our belated Xmas catch up. 6 adults and 8 kids. I booked online & requested to be seated near the kids area. I rang the pub to double check our booking had been received and reiterated that we had 8 kids with us and we wanted to be seated near the kids area. The man said we would be seated on the deck as there is a function booked on the grass area but the kids outdoor area would be accessible.

When we arrived we were taken to our table & told to keep it down due to a wake being held down on the grass area. I thought this was an unusual request as we were at a pub. We were also seated inside above the area of the wake.

We had 8 kids who desperately wanted to play in the outdoor kids area, but were told we weren’t allowed to go there as the kids might be too loud.

We were told another 4x to be quiet by staff members as there is a wake on and to be more respectful. Also staff were telling the kids their voices travelled and to shoosh. (But they chose to seat us in a room that echoed above the wake).

The adults could not relax the entire time as we constantly had to try and keep our kids from talking too loud and sit still, even desperately had to pull out our iPhones for them.

I was constantly apologising to my family, who I had not seen in months because of how uncomfortable and inconvenient we felt. I was so embarrassed. We ended up leaving the table and standing out the front (smokers area) to finish our drinks, as this was the only area we felt we could talk normally.

I would’ve preferred my booking cancelled and being told the play area was going to be out of bounds due to a wake. I would’ve 100 percent booked somewhere else.

It just felt like the pub wanted our money and didn’t care about our experience there. The meals were not cheap either. I personally think it would’ve been more respectful to the wake guests, if the pub booked the entire place just for them. Young kids aren’t to know or understand what a wake is, they were under the impression there would be a kids/grass area to play on & were excited to see their cousins....

DON'T TAKE A DOG ANYWHERE NEAR PANTON HILL PUB I called in first to ask if it's OK to have my dog out the back while we have lunch. The staff member said it was fine if we brought her through the back gate and sat right down the back. So we brought her in, ordered lunch and waited quietly right down the back with no issue. Then another staff member came and told us she had 'bad news' It was apparently illegal to be outside near food with a dog and so i asked her to then cancel the order since the previous staff member had told us it was OK. She didn't want that and told us that if we go and eat out the front beer garden we would be fine. So we asked her to inform the kitchen staff that we have moved and out we went to the beer garden which was full of smokers. We ignored the obvious legal problem there, sat down and waited for our food. Then a third staff member yelled out our table number from before and said we had to eat inside. I went and spoke with her and she proceeded to yell about it being illegal to eat where the smokers are. I recounted the previous 2 staff member's interactions with us and asked her why we couldn't have just stayed where we were... quietly far from anyone right down the back outside instead of right out the front with the smokers. "That's illegal" she yelled. Well then hundreds of cafes around Australia that have people eating outside with their dogs must all be breaking the law I guess? Eventually after explaining that we specifically asked the second lady to cancel our order if it were impossible for us to eat with our dog here, the third lady agreed to let us eat out the beer/smokers garden... however she threatened that if the police show up, i have to pay them a $700 fine. "I'll take my chances" I yelled back. Too much hassle, miscommunication between staff, poor knowledge of state laws and...

First time I've been here to eat, it was really good. The space is a busy pub bistro with a mix of tables and chairs in two adjoining spaces and some small bar tables and stools by the fireplace. We were guided to the latter table right by the fire - nice. The Boys Next Door 'Shivers' was drowned by the busy chatter - gee, I thought, strange! But wonderful. Standard pub fare menu, with daily specials listed on a separate menu at the bar where you order - we stuck with the permanent menu. I ordered the pork ribs, while Ceen ordered the parma.

The food - a generous serve of pork ribs - succulent meat with a sweet, unctuous, hoisin orange glaze (I tasted honey, hoi sin, soy, garlic and slight citrus); salad was crisp (no dead leaves *) and dressed in a mildly sweet, minty (?) dressing (cranberries were an interesting addition); chips were crisped very nicely. A finger bowl with a lemon wedge was provided if you needed it. I did. Ceen reckons her Parma was great, particularly the sugo - it also came with salad and fries. Coffees, to finish, were fine - espresso and soy flat white.

Service was casually professional, accompanied with courtesy and goodwill - from wait and bar staff.

There is a considerable outdoors area, both open and sheltered. A kids play zone. They still have live music on designated days and evenings, which is great to see after so many years (I came here many decades ago to see a live band - kinda faded from memory, it may have been Broderick Smith).

We had a great feed and agreed we'll come back - it's a great pitstop to add to any of the nearby park...