The Continental Sorrento — Restaurant in Melbourne

My wife & l had decided to visit the Mornington Peninsula on Monday 4.11.2024. Our experience was unbelievable and totally unacceptable. We were greeted and placed in the Dine In section with beautiful surroundings and the atmosphere was great, wish l could have applauded the service we received. We truly do apologise for calling this out however although Continental Sorrento have a reputation to upheld of great food, service, location, without us customers, this means nothing. To begin with we were served by an employee named May if l remember right coloured pink hair, no problem, however we had placed our order. We had ordered an Garlic Foccacia to begin with and drinks and mains which included the Snapper and l had the Chicken Snitz but it appeared she was not concentrating and had asked us do you want the Fish & Chips (Snapper) only for l to look up and repeat the whole order again. I had specifically ordered Stone & Wood (Pint, $13) only to be served a Schooner and when l questioned it and asked if my bill could be checked, May stated you had ordered Schooner but it may have been her mistake also. I politely said I remember ordering a pint as it was $13 which she had confirmed. The replacement was amended. It gets worse. We then received out mains, Foccacia was no where to be seen. I had asked another employee about the Foccacia only to be told she will check it out, never saw that employee again, no response. May the employee we had placed the order with l then raised it with her, she sussed it out only to return stating wish the kitchen could have told me, no Foccacia's in stock, mind you same situation was with Pasta and this was not a public holiday although was a long weekend. Received my Pint, had purposely left my Schooner as l had drunk half of it but did the right thing, as soon as l raised the issue did not touch that drink till my pint had arrived then they took it away which was fine at my request. We finished our mains and l went to pay. Was served by May, hope that was her name, l had requested the bill, it appeared May was looking up at the ceiling, her head swaying from side to side and l then questioned myself, did she hear what l had said. Was issued a bill of $98 that wasn't mine and when l questioned some of the items on the bill the response was where were you seated. Seriously, the Dine in section was not full, with what had occurred surely you can't remember as to where we were seated being 2 tables away from the cashier, in the middle. All good, once l had showed her where we were seated l was then asked what did you order. She had taken the order of us, was it not in the system. Unbelievable, a very bad experience to the extent we immediately bought 4 x Vanilla Slices, got in the car and let which is strange as we always take a stroll checking out the shops which was later mentioned to me by my wife. Take note everyone and most of all Continental Sorrento, may have been an isolated incident however this is not on, this has left a bad taste in my mouth. Post Covid places like this depend heavily...

Tried to privately discuss our disappointing experience via email however after a week and no response or acknowledgement I feel like this treatment reflects the type of service and care this venue provides. Not sure how they will cope come peak summer crowds. Here is the email I sent on 22/9/24:

I attended your venue today for lunch to celebrate my husband and son’s birthday. We had a reservation at 1230 for 13 on table 105/106. After previously dining at your establishment I was excited to show my extended family who hadn’t been an enjoyable afternoon.

I wanted to write this email to let you know of our disappointment. The venue was stunning and the menu was very inviting, we were informed of the self ordering system which suited us fine.

Our initial drinks and entrees arrived in a timely fashion and were delicious. One half of the table placed their main meal order and approximately 10 minutes later my half placed their main meal order which was at 1.22pm. The first half of the table received their main meals relative quickly however table 105 didn’t receive their orders until at least 2.05pm. I understand that a Sunday lunch time can be busy but after enquiring with 2 different staff members on 2 different occasions as to the status of the meals there was no update provided, it wasn’t until I went inside to speak to one of the staff members for the third time that I was told the meals were ‘being made’ - and was assured they hadn’t been forgotten. In fact a staff member was trying to convince my husband that if we had ordered steaks they usually take a longer time to get to the table due to how long it takes to cook them, that is fine however we did not order any steaks. By this stage half of the table had finished their meals well and truly before ours arrived, this made the meal unappetising and ultimately we would not have proceeded with the order if we knew that this was the length of time we would have to wait.

There seemed to be no care given that half of our table had finished their meals, that we had been waiting 40 minutes and I still wasn’t convinced the meals were coming.

To add to this issue the 2 lobster spaghettini dishes were served lukewarm and not as though they had just come off the stove. I didn’t feel as though this issue could be raised with the staff due to the previous interactions i’d had with them and often in the outdoor area there was no staff present to get assistance. I understand that customers place orders themselves however I would consider the partial table service offered would also include having staff present frequently to the area to ensure any needs are met and tables are cleared in a timely fashion.

Our expectations were high after spending over $500 on our half of the table’s lunch and we left feeling extremely...

The Conti has been around for a very long time. I used to drink there in my 20s, and I'm 63. It fell into disrepair for some time but has undergone a massive refurbishment with multiple places to eat and drink, accommodation, and function areas. It sits impressively at the top of the Sorrento, at the start of the main drag. We have eaten at Audrey's, and it was a great dining experience. Last night we tried the ground floor "beer garden", which is actually a very nice fully covered area. I was curious to see how such a huge venue with an enormous and busy kitchen handled food quality and service. The space itself is fabulous--very comfortable and well fitted out with nicely spaced tables. Service was friendly, prompt, and efficient, which is very pleasing for such a large and busy place. The menu is varied, but not enormous, and features the usual pub offerings, along with some slightly higher end offerings. There's a good range of pizzas, steaks, burgers--the usual suspects. The prices are a bit higher than typical pub prices, so be prepared for that. On the plus side, I was amazed how quickly the food appeared. I suspect that with a such a huge kitchen, every dish is being cooked or at least prep'd simultaneously, which makes good sense. The first dish to come out was a side of zucchini, which was nicely cooked, but very bland and was crying our for seasoning. I ordered a half rack of pork ribs, which at $45 was not cheap. These were very disappointing; hence, my low score for food. I was given the end of a rack, which was smaller than expected. Even worse, the rack had not been trimmed properly and was full and tendon and gristle. The meat itself was excellent--tender and flavoursome--and the barbecue sauce was terrific. The sides were also excellent, but for $45 I was expecting much better. One of our dining partners also ordered the pork ribs and received a much larger serve from the proper part of the rack. I politely provided some feedback to the kitchen via our waiter, which was well received. I was pleased that they comp'd me a glass of cab sav (by the way, the drinks and wine list is terrific and the prices are reasonable)--well done on that. I would've liked my main course to be comp'd but, hey, it's something. In sum, it's an OK place to eat, but there's a lot of competition on the Peninsula for this type of dining so I think they need to up their quality...