Remy Bar de Tapas y Vino — Restaurant in Melbourne

On April 18th, 5 other ladies & I (a total of 5) attended the restaurant for an evening booking. Upon arrival, we informed the manager that we were only five, although the original booking was for six, & there were no issues with this. We sat down, were given the drinks menu while we waited for everyone to arrive. I was asked if I wanted water, which I did, but it never came. Noticing that the restaurant was filling up quickly & the waitresses were busy, we remained patient throughout the night. The manager checked if we needed the sixth seat, & we confirmed again that we were only five. They removed the plates, glassware & cutlery on this spot. We requested the food menus & began deciding between the two banquet options: one for $68 & another for $75. When we asked the waitress about the difference, she mentioned that the larger banquet offered more food. I specifically asked if dessert was included in the larger banquet, & she said yes. We then ordered five banquets. The food started arriving very slowly, but we were not in a rush, so this was not an immediate concern. However, the first few dishes were all vegetarian (e.g., pumpkin dish, potato dish), which raised some concerns about value for money. Eventually, the meat dishes started arriving, & we were satisfied. Each dish was split into two plates, so we received two servings of each item. When a meatball & bread dish arrived on a single plate, we politely inquired if we were supposed to get another serving. After calling over a second waitress & then the male manager, we were abruptly asked, "So you want more bread?" Our main concern was not just the shortage of bread, given we were 1 short (only given 4), but also whether another meatball dish would be coming, as we had been receiving two servings of each dish up to that point. Another dish was brought out with approximately ten pieces of bread, which felt like a negative response back to our question; we just wanted a fair split for the banquet food. The remaining food arrived, & everything was tasty. After the last dish, we were asked if we wanted dessert. When I asked what desserts were included in the banquet, the waitress didn’t understand, I tried paraphrasing using words such as 'set menu', '$75 package', so she brought another waitress over. We were then told that no dessert was included, which was disappointing as we had been told otherwise initially. We raised this but no soluton. Despite the disappointment, we didn’t make a fuss, or raise it again. One of my friends paid the full bill of $554 with her card. Afterward, she felt that she had overpaid. Using my iPhone calculator, I added up the costs: $75 for each of the five banquets totaled $375, plus $78 for drinks, totaling $453. She had paid $554, which was $101 more. We went to the counter to explain this to the male manager. His first comment was, "Oh, but you booked for six people." I explained that although the original booking was for six, we had confirmed from the start that we were only 5. He claimed that he charged us for an extra banquet to cover the sixth person, which didn’t explain the $101 difference since the banquet cost was $75. He seemed perplexed & did not offer an explanation or apology. I explained to him from the first minute I walked into the restaurant, to the confirmation of 5 people when he came to visit our table, we knew there was only 5. His response was, 'oh but you got more food'. We stood there in awkward silence for a bit. After adding up each drink with my iPhone calculator with the manager, to what felt like I had to provide the overpayment, he didn't bother adding anything up or reviewing. I asked for a refund of the $101 so we could leave. He refunded the amount on my friends card, & we left. It was the strangest dining experience we’ve had, with an overcharge & no explanation. We visited the restaurant as a culturally diverse group with over 40 years of combined experience in hospitality & had never experienced such poor service & an overcharge in Melbourne before. On a positive note, I rate the...

The food was average, but the experience was completely ruined by some of the slowest and most frustrating service I've had in a long time. It felt like the waitstaff were trying to see how well they could ignore customers. Even raising my hand and making eye contact didn’t get their attention.

We were seated at 7:00 p.m., and our drink order was taken, but by 7:30 p.m., we still hadn’t received anything, and no one had come to take our food order. During this time, we made eye contact and waved at three or four different waiters. None of them acknowledged us; they just looked away and kept walking.

By 7:40 p.m., other tables took pity on us and helped redirect a waiter to our table. He asked if we wanted to order drinks, and I told him we had already ordered 40 minutes earlier. He apologized, went to check, and returned five minutes later to say the docket hadn’t printed. At that point, another waiter came by to take our food order. Apparently, each waiter has a specific role and can’t assist with someone else’s duties. I thought for sure the waiter would bring our drinks then—nope. We had to wait another 10 minutes.

Our food finally arrived by 8:20 p.m., but even then, the service was odd. Waiters kept asking if they could clear plates we were still eating from. It felt like the service was slow at first, then rushed out of nowhere.

Around 8:40 p.m., we ordered a bottle of wine, but after a long wait, we were told it was out of stock. We picked another bottle, and again, it was out of stock, so we were offered a substitute. They dropped the bottle at our table without providing wine glasses. Once again, we had to play the "chase the waiter" game.

Meanwhile, the table to our right, who had arrived before us, didn’t receive a single dish until close to 9:00 p.m. And when their food did arrive, it was the wrong order, so they had to send it back and wait another 20 minutes. They had also ordered a bottle of wine, which was completely forgotten and had to be chased down multiple times.

As the icing on the cake, we were upcharged at the till. The substitution bottle was much more expensive, and we were not told the price. Only that this was the substitute that they had for the one we ordered. I had to point it out for the charge to be reversed.

The whole night was a circus, and unfortunately, we were...

My husband and I have come to Remy Tapas multiple times in the past and really enjoyed the food; however, we recently had such a bad experience that we are unsure if we will return.

I called tonight to book a table at 8:15pm. When we arrived, the restaurant was busy and it took 15 minutes for us to get seated. While we were waiting, my husband overheard one of the waiters swearing at the computer screen when he was trying to input an order - not off to a good start.

After we were seated, we were ready to order drinks and were ignored by the waitress. She served the table on one side of us food and another table behind us drinks, but walked past us without checking in, even though we were clearly waiting.

We had to call another waiter over who took our drink orders, then got told the beer my husband ordered was not available so he had to order another one. He came back to give us water and I asked for food menus. He came back and gave the table next to us all their food menus but then walked away and forgot to give us ours.

I flagged down another waitress for the food menus again. Once we had a look and were ready to order, we waited 10 - 15 minutes and again, no one approached us. I called one of the waitresses over and told her we were ready to order, but she said she had to get another waitress to take the order. She left and never came back.

We sat for what felt like a long time again and ultimately decided to leave as the service was clearly disorganised and chaotic tonight.

When we got to the counter, the manager looked perplexed at why we didn't have food on our receipt. I told him we'd been here for 45 minutes and no one came to take our order. He gave the most unenthusiastic and half-hearted apology and still charged us for the two drinks that we did not even finish.

We've never had to leave a restaurant mid-way like this before. Luckily we weren't dining for any special occasion, but it was still really disappointing. We ended up going to another local restaurant for dinner where the service was 100% better.

Judging by some of the other reviews, Remy Tapas seems to be a real hit and miss and they really need to review their customer...