Retreat Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

Made a booking 2/3 weeks ago for the 20th of November for the beer garden, expecting to be seated in a nice spot since there was 4 of us coming for a meal and drinks. Once we arrived we find out we are placed into the very far back corner of the garden under the dark tent with a speaker booming right next to our ears, we could barely hear ourselves think. After about 10 minutes of being seated around 7:15, we decided to order some food, my partner ordered first and once I walked up to order my food I asked if we could combine the tables food to which they said yes. It took about 15-30 minutes for 3 of our meals to come out which was understandable considering how many people were there that night, but my partners food was no where to be seen. One of my friends went to ask the staff where the meals were and she got told it’s 1-2 hours wait on food because it was busy, not listening to her saying we had already an hour and half for my partners meal (it was 8:30 at this point). I then go 5 minutes later and ask where the food is where they say the same thing to me but I refuse to take the same answer and ask them to go check if the meal is even on the table order, to which they did and said they’ll check the kitchen. The staff then come to our table (and I suspected the reason why) to tell us they had lost the order and that they’d make one for us quickly. No offer for a free meal, beer or anything of any kind for making my partner wait an hour and a half at this point for his very average parma. It’s unfortunate as the drinks were great and the service from the staff is good too, I just feel that it is not worth the wait for...

The retreat is my local, I have playing as a band member and attending the retreat for 6 years now. Attending trivia nights on Tuesdays and enjoying this place with my friends.

However the past few months I have been extremely dissapointed as a once friendly atmosphere it ruined on weekends.

My first point I have to make is that there is not 1 sign written anywhere in the place that 2 people can’t go into a cubicle together. So therefore there should be no reason that you are kicked out for going into a bathroom together. As friends this is what we do! So many times I have seen many innocent people be yelled to leave after going to the toilet together with no warning at all!! These innocent people are then left to put a full drink down and find somewhere else to go.

In addition I witnessed a young man walk into the bar from the front the other and he tripped over my friends food ( which was accidentally in the way) the security guard told him he can’t go in as he’s “too drunk”. I stood in and told him no I literally saw him trip over a foot. He’s not drunk lol. Also you’re allowed to enter a pub with alcohol in your system anyway. I would like a change to happen, find more friendly security guards, keep this place welcoming and put signs up if you’re going to create ridiculous laws.

I still attend this venue on the weekdays. On the weekends I stay away from watching innocent people being kicked out for no reason. I hope a change is made.

5 stars is given because I used to love this place and I hope I can...

Ordered the 'Gumbo' which basically turned out to be a bowl full of Gravox with scraps of poor quality meat from god knows what beast with a few bits of vegetables and this quarter cup of rice plopped in the middle. I have never returned a meal in my life, and felt embarrassed to do so as we were with others. Took the offending meal to the servery where you order and pay and said that I could not eat it and was happy to pay extra for something else. I thn had the 'cook' come over and start yelling at me 'Do you know what Gumbo is? Do you know what Gumbo is?' To which I replied 'Yeah, I do know what Gumbo is, and this damn well aint it!' He said he had 'cooked everywhere' (Is that even possible?) and if I didn't like it I should speak to the manager. Well I did speak to the manager who insisted the cook was an amiable sort of fellow and as they had sold a whopping 15 of these things to people (that's enough to make up a class action I'd say) there was no problem and they would not give me a refund. My friends 'parma' was a lump of crumbed chicken breast that had not even been beaten flat and it would have been a mercy to the poor chicken if it had. They couldn't even get the chips right. Never,...