Steam Packet Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

Popped in here last night for dinner. I got the roast beef special with roast potatoes, veg, Yorkshire pudding and gravy and we shared a portion of onion rings. We had to flag a waitress down after 15mins to order drinks and food.

Drinks and food then came out pretty quickly, the waitress handed me my hot plate reaching over the table, I'm not sure why she didn't just take 5 seconds and pop around the other side and put it down but anyways... on to the food!

The onions rings were good, nice and crunchy with a light batter. The roast beef special was a little bit on the stingy side. I have included photos.

On the plate was a sprinkling of peas, one lump of roasted pumpkin/squash. 2 half roasted potatoes, 3 slivers of carrot and 2 pieces of basically raw and extremely hard broccoli. Of course, there was also the beef, which was actually a proper serve and it was very tender and tasty. I really enjoyed the gravy too, it was a bit watery but full of flavour.

The issue here is, that looking at the ratio of meat to sides, I had all of the veg gone and still had half of the meat left. There simply wasn't enough veg and potatoes for this roast meal, it was far too stingy, I could count the amount of peas on the plate! Just counted them there - 23 peas with my roast dinner! 2 small half roast potatoes and no mash. I presumed it would come with mash because what self respecting restaurant doesn't serve mash with a roast dinner?

But, to be honest, I'm really here to talk about the abomination on the plate they are apparently calling a Yorkshire pudding. Can't find it? I'll give you a clue - it's that small pale round thing next to the 2 roast potatoes. It was tiny, completely flat and tasted like a dry cracker. I'm hoping these were bought in frozen because if they were homemade, then there's a SERIOUS problem in the kitchen. It's not hard to whip them up, even I can make decent ones very easily and I'm no chef.

If you're going to advertise that the roast dinner comes with a Yorkshire pudding, then there would damn better be an actual one on the plate! Otherwise, take it off the menu because this was an embarrassment. Hang your chef whites up in shame, chef. I wouldn't be proud to put my name to this plate of...

Hmmmmm where to start? Have been coming to this restaurant for about 10 years. After a brief hiatus I visited last week as I was craving a hearty meal in a cosy venue and sadly had one of the worst meals of my life :-( How disappointing that this place has gone so far downhill. The food was just not at the standard it should be to be considered “restaurant food”. I felt I could prepare better food and I am not that great 😬 Chicken roast was scarce, just a few slices of reheated meat and some veggies sprinkled with parsley (these were good although sparse as well) was the “roast of the day”. Also ordered the ‘twice-cooked pork belly’ and it was by far the most terrible pork belly I have ever had. Meat was tough (didn’t even know that could happen with pork belly?) and crackle was burnt. No seasoning or flavour whatsoever. Over-salted. Came with veggies and these were nice and crunchy however for $30 I expected better. Fish and chips were ok, however again, for almost $30, the fish was boring and slightly watery. Was charged $8.50 for a large glass of coke which was spilt on the table as it was set down in front of me (it happens) however the waiter watched blandly while I scrambled to wipe it up with a napkin :-| Sadly I won’t be able to come back...

Dropped in to the pub because most local restaurants had closed their kitchen, but we just made it to Steam Packet by 5mins. There was live music, but it was incredibly noisy and crowded, and the band wasn't great. The food is a bit pricey but pub grub is usually generously sized and tasty. I ordered a beef & Guinness pie and it was literally a small pie with some over-salted veggies on the side.... for $26!! My dining companion had a burger that had a piece of chicken, small amount of coleslaw and waaaaaay too much sauce. And some fat fries. $24. The guy behind the bar was helpful. As soon as we'd eaten we left. I would never go back. Over-priced, low quality and not much...