Ten Minutes by Tractor — Restaurant in Melbourne

To the utterly inept management of Ten Minutes x Tractor ,

Words cannot adequately express the disappointment, frustration, and downright outrage that consumes me after our experience at your "establishment" on a Saturday evening in December.

Our meticulously planned weekend, encompassing travel from Melbourne, driver arrangements, and accommodation, all hinged on the centerpiece: a pre-booked wine tasting and private dining experience at your restaurant. What unfolded, however, was a series of calamitous missteps and blatant misrepresentations that would embarrass even the most amateurish diner.

Firstly, our pre-booked tasting "vanished" into thin air upon arrival. Kudos to the cellar door staff for salvaging the situation, but the initial fumble set the tone for a night of escalating disorganization.

Next, the promised private dining room morphed into another group's territory, leaving us bewildered and questioning the very foundation of your reservation system. Was it built on sandcastles and wishful thinking?

Our desire for the signature menu was promptly squashed due to an imaginary "driver timing constraint." We bent over backwards, rescheduling our pickup, only to be served a five-course "tasting menu" (apparently four, according to another staff member) accompanied by "snacks." What qualifies as a "snack" in your culinary lexicon? Air puffs with existential dread?

The true pinnacle of incompetence, however, resided in the "matched wines." Imagine, paying $185 for four glasses of supposedly exquisite pairings, only to discover they conveniently skipped the "bread course" because, apparently, bread isn't "a course." And for this princely sum, the highlight was a JJ Prum Kabinet Riesling, retailing at $110 a bottle. Truly, "Peninsula tax" doesn't begin to describe this highway robbery.

Our attempts to salvage the culinary wreckage by upgrading to the Marron were met with another symphony of ineptitude. No matching wine, overcharging for the course, and then billing us for 4.5 glasses of the recommended wine instead of the entire bottle. Is fractional wine consumption your new profit scheme?

To add insult to the gastronomic injury, your wine prices were a masterclass in gouging. Three times the retail price for even the house wines? I'm surprised the tables weren't adorned with tiny velvet pouches for us to collect our tears of financial distress.

The final cherry on this rotten dessert was witnessing the staff, once our tormentors, unwind with drinks and laughter after what can only be described as a masterclass in service malpractice. We, meanwhile, sat nursing our deflated wallets and shattered expectations.

To call this experience "appalling" feels like an understatement akin to describing a supernova as "bright." This, dear management, was a monument to organizational chaos, communication lapses, and service so inept it should be bottled and sold as a cautionary tale.

Be assured, the story of your epic incompetence will be shared far and wide, serving as a potent deterrent to anyone considering gracing your doorstep with their patronage. Consider this not just a complaint, but a public service announcement.

Rest assured, your establishment has earned a well-deserved one-star review on every platform available, a testament to the truly abysmal experience you provided.

Sincerely

A Thoroughly Shafted Customer and their 5 equally...

The service was almost great, although no one explained the paired drinking options when we arrived, despite my advising that was our first time at the restaurant.  This became an issue, as once I started looking at the exhaustive drink menu, its depth blew me away as much as the pricing. Once I realised, I should have taken 1 pairing for my wife, (It was her birthday), I was told it was too late and we would have to purchase by the glass. Really!  Now my wife and I enjoy big bold reds, certain whites, buttery chardonnays, etc, We have a pretty defined palate. While the drinks menu had many lovely stories, it offered little in the way of a usable wine flavour profile, so I didn’t bother, and my wife’s Heathcote Shiraz was far too dry for her taste. She should have been warned or at least offered to taste it, which never occurred.

The restaurant itself was beautiful, but let down, but the constang changes in temperature, from cold to sweating hot and back again. The building has o insulation, so I was told, unacceptable.

Some of the wait staff seemed rather cold/unhappy in their jobs, i.e. too formal, too mechanical, whereas others would entertain a conversation, but not with us.

Now, the real issue is the food. All meals were beautifully presented in lovely unique bowls made of stone, etc. The pre-dinner prawn canapes were nice, fresh, and well presented, but taste-wise, nothing special. Same as the first course of 10x garden beetroot, Main Ridge Goats cheese, etc. Maybe people who don’t eat fresh vegetables might be amazed, but again, nothing special.

The next dish was disappointing, the Hapuka was meaty, and not pleasant, there was a sliver of cucumber on top, making it look like a rice dish, not sure what part the oyster played in this dish but it was forgettable.

The Fettuccini with Jerusalem artichoke and Manjimup marron was ok, but was nothing compared to homemade Fettuccini with artichoke sauce that my Aunty used to make, (wild artichokes from her olive farm), interestingly this disk tasted like vegemite more than the next!

The Rapa Turnip was bitter and ruined the entire dish.

The bread and butter were great, apart from the coffee-flavoured jam butter.

The O’Conner eye fillet was too rare, not tender enough, cold, and not how I eat meat, but I know this common amount fine dining restaurants, I have had eye fillet that melts in your mouth, straight off hot coal grill, and sorry I can’t go back from such a high.

We did enjoy the dessert and Petie Fours, and the birthday card signed by the staff was a nice touch, but ultimately, we won’t be back. At over $660 dollars with only 2 drinks, it's an insane amount of money for...

Ordered the reduced tasting menu and the meal took over 3 hours end to end. A discretionary 10% surcharge is applied to all bills so unsure how that is categorically discretionary and probably should just be included in the sticker price. The food was absolutely beautiful but the portions were incredibly small and the diversity of ingredients and complexity of the dishes left much to be desired. All in all the meal was not at all memorable. What I will remember vividly is waiting 20-30 minutes in between being served what looked like an amuse bouche and the smallest brioche loaf I’ve seen in my life. The atmosphere in the restaurant is a little stiff. It’s a small restaurant that gets quite loud when full.

The upsell on the wine was blatant. Junior somm recommended three different chardonnays priced per glass at $62, $59 and $58 accordingly. Relatively very pricey pairings on a $175 menu. I dined at Attica the week prior and Minamishima the night prior and the wines and cocktails were priced much sharper than ten minutes. I did not get a chance to benchmark wine bottle prices however another review has noted over 3x. Our very average old fashioneds were $30 each which was more than what we paid for the iconic wattleseed old fashioneds at Attica that are absolutely delicious.

Tasting at the cellar door is complimentary for diners but we were not informed of this. Walked into the cellar door at 5:02 and were refused service because they closed at 5 but we were kindly informed “for next time”.

All in all I’ve had a much better dining experience at Polperro which is only ten minutes away (by car). I found the ambience to be much more inviting with food that is easily at par with better prices and better service across the board. I genuinely wish I had just gone back there.

The TMBT team contacted me immediately after posting to address these issues. The 10% discretionary service fee was refunded. If the gratuity was plainly called a gratuity and was not mandatorily added to the bill and the pace of service was sped up this could have been a 4 star dining experience. I hope that this feedback is taken onboard and changes are made. Adding to this - phone conversation with staff member mentioned that complimentary cellar door visit was in the booking confirmation and I checked and this is not the case.

Supposedly staff are trained to mention that the 10% “service fee” aka gratuity is added to the bill however the two other people I dined with confirmed that this definitely did not occur. I would surprised if this fee and the method of delivery are legal given how blatantly misleading this practice is.

Policy changes and further...