Rare Hare Wine & Food Store — Restaurant in Melbourne

What’s good…

Nice setting, beautifully placed in the middle of a lush vineyard. Well crafted menu, designed to be served with nice accompanying array of fine wines.

What’s bad…

The place doesn’t allow dogs, but has very little signage to make it clear. Says they have a “no dogs policy”, but lacks anything substantial on their website to support this. Only a small fine print on the booking confirmation was what they were able to produce.

What’s ugly…

The staff of the hotel, event management area, and the restaurant were incredibly rude and judgemental. The fine menu is butchered by a team that knows nothing about how to serve the dishes to enjoy them at their freshest or to cater to a group of guests dining together. I spoke with their team leaders about it and it seems the guest experience is a lost concept for this restaurant.

A shame such a nice venue and a fine menu is being so poorly managed by a team that’s clearly not trained to be able to provide a great experience.

The story…

We visited with a very well mannered and friendly dog and a kid. Our booking was made by a family friend also with two kids who are my kid’s friends. They all wanted to have lunch together. Clearly this team didn’t have the decency to understand such a simple thing and be human about letting them enjoy the lunch on their school holidays.

We had to leave the dog in the car with tailgate open, which the events management team initially didn’t have an issue with. After, I took this step, they imposed another rule to say we had to leave in 1hr.

I am not sure of their reason for this. However by the look of guests at the venue, it was clear I had a look that was different to most. For their sake I hope it wasn’t a factor in how they treated me, my son and our dog.

The staff member in the event management venue that came and spoke to me was very rude, being rather arrogant and aggressive. But, they had the nerve to call me as being arrogant, when I’m being singled out and mistreated. The team lead from the restaurant that came to smoothen the situation was even more threatening and took steps towards me as if to physically attack.

I would highly recommend for the owners to investigate this incident and take action against the team members involved. If they don’t, I would be inclined to guess that their actions and behaviours are what is being condoned and advocated as the venues official policy.

PS:

Hi Claire,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. In response to your comments…

a) I’ve travelled extensively across Australia with my dogs. I haven’t had issues taking them to many working wineries before.

b) Re. “tolerating aggressive behaviour”, if you’re referring to standing up to your team’s bullying and aggressive behaviour, I consider myself...

Well, I really expected much more from this restaurant as, we had been to Jakalope few times before and we thought the Rare hare would be at least with a similar "milieu", good food and decent service... Unfortunately, this was not the case last night. We had a corporate event and the food was ridiculous. The share option that was offered for groups and events was absolutely shambolic! With the inconsistent quantity of plates and portions, poorly counted sharing plateaux etc, it was all very disappointing indeed. The service was not up to scratch and the long waiting time to get a drink was not impressive at all. The prep and cutting of the bread was close to our table during the event and was so noisy and extremely disturbing. The glassware however, was more than disappointing, we had the red wine served in glasses typically used for children's juices. No elegance, no class..regretably. The benches were utterly shocking, so unconfortable and we felt as if we were on a picknick in a camp having oila-reepee time or brunch, it was not a sofisticated dinner for medical professionals sadly. Ouch, everyone's back was hurting after the first 15 minutes of sitting on the benches ...followed by so many attempts to find the best position to survive through the night... And finally the biggest disappointment of all was the food. The starter was a bland fried potato crochette, followed by a triangle of burned bread with whole tastless sardines. Agh..Are we in 1950's with whole cold sardines on a bread??The next dishes were not impressive either; the broccolini were only of 2 stems for 2 people to share with fish tasting of mould (muddy water) which was extremely unpleasant and was frankly inedible. I was looking forward to tasting the lamb however, the portions were not correctly counted and the sharing plates were less than required (or were poorly distributed) To finish the meal, as a desert there was a very unsuccessful and sad attempt at baking; a dry and overbaked cake was presented (with a blob of icing on top to cover the dry taste). Extremely unpleasant experience with hugely disappointing food and everything. It was not worth the drive to get there especially if you are trying to...

I recently booked a premium wine tasting and lunch at Rare Hare. The booking was for 12:00pm, and we arrived 30 minutes early. As the restaurant wasn't open at that time, we were kindly advised by the cellar bar staff that we could begin our wine tasting early – which made sense, as the booking clearly stated wine tasting was to be conducted prior to lunch.

We completed the wine tasting around 12:30pm, having purchased several bottles, and then proceeded to the restaurant next door. To our surprise, the restaurant host (was a male in 30-40s) informed us that our lunch reservation had been cancelled and marked as a no-show. He claimed they had tried calling me “multiple times,” but I received no calls or voicemails whatsoever. In fact, I had received a booking confirmation and reminder earlier that day, so the restaurant clearly had my correct contact information.

When we tried to explain that we had been at the wine tasting next door as per the booking we made, the host insisted that the restaurant and cellar bar were “completely independent” and treated as separate bookings. This was simply very strange and it was a weird excuse – both are part of the same business under the Rare Hare brand. The booking platform also clearly links the wine tasting with the lunch as part of a combined experience.

The tone and manner in which we were spoken to were unnecessarily rude and dismissive.

To make matters worse, when we considered leaving due to how we were being treated, the host threatened us with a cancellation fee. Only after challenging him did he admit they didn’t have our card details on file and we could leave without being charged – a completely unprofessional interaction.

I’ve visited Rare Hare many times before, always bringing interstate guests and purchasing 4–5 bottles of wine per visit. I’ve previously recommended the venue to friends and colleagues. Sadly, this experience has left a sour taste, and I won’t be returning. While the rest of the staff – particularly those in the cellar bar – were warm and professional, the handling at the restaurant was nothing short of appalling.

I hope this feedback is taken seriously. No regular guest should be made to...