Railway Hotel Pakenham — Restaurant in Melbourne

Not overly impressed with the fact that the second we walked in the door, even though greeted well, had issues with just my partners drink alone. Couldn't find the listing of a drink they had on tap on the system, spent 15min watching the server walk back and forth asking for help to receive none that actually helped, so just put 'something else on the system just to pay'. Then to follow have his drink half poured and the tap fail, being told "It's the keg we'll change it over" followed with "We're having issues with the keg, we'll bring it out to you shortly", followed by another 5min (now waiting 20min for 1 schooner), "Sorry, we can't get it to work, can we get you something else". My partner was not interested and then was essentially pressured into getting another drink, when you offer nothing of his interest, your own staff don't even know what drinks you provide, so when he asked for Toohey's another 2min wasted to find out if you serve it, to then be given options and told 'Well you've already paid for it, so what would you like?' Despite him constantly saying he wasn't interested. Eventually he gave in and just got another drink, when that drink arrived, while seated directly under the TV, the audio was turned on the TV with no notice or a reasonable volume, so my partner then had to ask them to turn it off so we could have a conversation (Which at the end of the night was being palmed off blaming the pub side being rowdy, which the issues was the speakers, not the pub side or other customers). We placed our food order, received our entree, which was quite nice, slightly under flavoured but we enjoyed it. Then the server took our plates, and my partners cutlery away, when I tried asking for a new set, the server just walked off and ignored me, didn't offer to bring a new set when she took the old set either. I ended up having to ask another server if they could bring us one. Our meals then arrived, I ordered a $52 steak, medium rare. It was brought out medium rare on the outside 1cm in and well-done the rest of the way through, we sent it back asking for it to be made medium rare, which we waited for anither 15min for it to be brought out again, leaving my partner picking at his food on his own, and mine being received again, incorrectly cooked, this time it was medium rare 1cm in, and the rest was cooked blue. At this point we were both put off our meals. The manager who originally sorted my meal said "If there are any further issues, let me know", so I asked the server to grab him, which we never ended up seeing him, just relayed through the server. Reservation was at 8pm, walked in at 7.45pm, and walked out hungry at 8.38pm. Paid for what we ate, service was hit and miss, meals need a lot more improvement. Regardless of a new establishment, a qualified chef knows how to cook, cooking a steak 2 different ways, twice, has me absolutely dumbfounded.

Honestly, despite the efforts in majority of customer service, I won't be coming back, none of our family or friends will be, and we are telling people our experience who are also disgraced and would have left sooner than we did, but I tried to give the place benefit of doubt. Now questioning...

Food was adequate. There was nothing i was overly impressed with. Roast pork had no crackling. The ice cream was down the other end of the venue to the rest of the food and even then you got to choose from 3 flavours and recieved 2 very small scoops.

The service was appalling. Firstly we were told we had to wait 5 minutes to take a seat despite having a reservation and the restaurant area being almost empty bar a few tables. We couldnt even pay then wait to be seated. Subsiquently a queue of 50 were all asked to wait to the side till precisely 6pm before then having to queue to pay as well. When booking we stated we have children yet when we arrived our seats were at the furthest point from the playground and toilets as possible. We proceeded to the bar where the barmaid didnt know what a Rosé was or where to look. I had to tell her it would be in the fridge. She couldnt pour a beer properly either. I understand your establishment is new and everyone is learning but i think some more training is needed and maybe a few test runs wouldnt have gone astray. I was then handed the beer wine and 2 glasses or kids juice. I had to ask for a tray to which i was told to grab one from the end of the bar. In going to get food there was no clear processional line as to which end people should start from and there was also no cutlery. Some clearer more detailed lables would have made a huge difference to inform customers of exactly what food they were sampling. Not once were we asked how our meals were and staff were not very communicative when asked questions about the food.

This establishment could have been a fantastic venue and a great asset to the suburb however the service fell very short from the bar. More...

Atmosphere took a bit of a dive for me because of access to NRL.

I planned to go to Costellos as they had on their website they would be playing the game. Wasn’t true. They had trivia instead. So I called railway. They said they can put it on. Head over for kick off. Wasn’t on. I asked if it’s possible and the man was hesitant and said okay but there will be no volume as the AFL is on and it’s a prelim.

Fair enough but I wouldn’t have spent the time getting there etc if I knew that was the case. I ended up missing the first 20 minutes of the game before I found somewhere to watch it.

I have NEVER intentionally gone out to watch football at a pub before until this night. I am not sure it is something I will consider again.

I get this is an AFL state but if you say something it should be followed through or addressed adequately.

I have been a few other times and enjoyed it! The staff are BEAUTIFUL people! Could not fault their kindness and engagement. The Sports bar and furniture could be more appealing and comfortable. I’m not sure how but the overall feel of the space is very...