Shoppingtown Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

The room looks like it has been completely refurbished within the last few years, and with a few more finishing touches, more useful amenities and better cleaning they could bump up their star rating.

NEGATIVES

These are relatively minor things, individually. Although when combined, it all adds up to equate to an average stay.

Reception was closed when we arrived at 6:05pm - we weren't informed that reception had opening/closing hours. We had to go wandering around to find someone.

The room wasn't clean. Dust and dirt around the doors and skirting, and the beds haven't been vacuumed underneath. Glasses were not clean. Coffee cup marks from the last guest were still on the bedside table.

No crockery - spent an hour calling reception (early on a Monday night, there was no answer) to get some bowls and spoons for our breakfast the next morning.

No face washers.

No kitchen sponge or tea towel - though I understand this isn't always standard.

No plug for the bathroom sink to do some washing up - we did bring our own dishwashing detergent.

We were told the room and fridge would have some complimentary snacks and drinks - we got a 250ml milk, 4 biscuits and 2 bottles of water.

POSITIVES

The view of Melbourne skyline is fantastic.

The beds are super plush, with warm winter blankets available in the cupboard.

The menu for the restaurant is great, and the full menu is available for room service.

Overall, the value for money was acceptable, but with a few extra touches it could...

It used to be quite good. But now both quality and service has gone down. This is the second time with such slow service. The place was only about 20% full but the food took almost an hour to arrive. What made it worse was for our group of 7, 2 of us have the our order arriving about 30min after we have ordered and the last person get their food 1hr after we have put the order through. The last dish came out was a salad with the dressing not the right ratio of vinegar and tasted so sour and salty. Were pretty sure the order has gone though becuase we ordered via the QR code app on the table. Will NOT be going back in the near future since this is the second time we had such bad service.

In-laws had the meat platter to share and the meat was so tough and took them a longtime to cut through. Would have been better if they were given steak knives. Was going to ask for some but hard to find a staff.

Tried to ask for the jelly dessert included in the kids meal and was told to wait for a few minutes. 20min passed and we asked again and were told to wait for a few minutes again! How hard is it to get a cup of kids jelly from the fridge? Luckily the manager overheard our request the second time so he asked the staff to get it immediately…. it did come after 5 min.

Tables around us seems to have the same problem.

It was such a stressful dinner. We were all so tired afterwards and couldn’t wait to leave and go home.

I hope management will improve because it is such a lovely...

Shoppingtown Hotel Bistro at Doncaster Visited on 18/5/2021

The sky is grey, the temperature was burrrr...

This is a great venue to catch up with friends for lunch.

I did not have a good look at one of lounges in previous visit because the curtain was drawn.

I make sure I order my porterhouse steak blue next time, because it was overcooked for my "rear" order. For seniors meal, the meal is thiner, and the cooking time should be reduced. Visited on 23/3/2021

The bistro is located at within the Shoppingtown Hotel. There are levels of open air carparking space, but the front entrance is at the third level.

Despite being multi-split level, it is a very wheelchair friendly venue with ramps installed just next to locations where steps are found.

The gaming room is within the building, on the left after entry from the front door.

The dining area is fairly dark. It is made worse with very bright light coming through large plate-glass windows. It is rather difficult for the eye iris for some people to adjust quickly in response to contrasting light intensity.

Despite that, it has roomy and with good ambience.

Our group order senior meals at $9.99 each. I have Porterhouse Steak with Chips, Vegetable and Mushroom Sauce, while my wife has Battered Fish and Chips with vegetable.

The dishes are cooked to near perfection, because I prefer my steak to be a little bit undercooked. The portion sizes are generous and therefore they are great...