The Cove Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

If faulty towers had a view it would be the view.

Driving past, judging by the amount of cars parked made it seem like a popular venue.

However inside, I break this down to the staff and the food. As both are problematic.

The food. I ordered the steak. I thought, there is no way they could F# it up! Turns out that was not a safe assumption to make.

The steak should have been medium rare, they served it well done. The chips were chalky, and the salad was coated in a horrible oil. Which tasted like metallic cheap oil. In short, a 42 dollar steak should be better.

My friend's meal was garlic prawns. Which consisted of a tiny bowl of prawns. She got a total of 5 prawns, for 30 odd dollars. This would have been ok If: *the rice was actually warm or hot instead of cold. *the salad was not coated in the cheap oil. *If the prawns actually had their poop chutes removed. (Picture below we tried to remove or eat around the poop chutes) The prawns tasted like they were microwaved a couple of minutes before they were served. They were not succulent and did not seem fresh.

The staff consisted of: *1 bar tender for a large four corneredbar *1 waitress for the food *1 manager that seemed like he had been defeated by policies outside of his control. (Which made me think it was an owner or operator issue).

We did not pay for the meal. The manager offered to compensate everything.

We talked to a number of customers who also mentioned their frustration with the food and service.

The result. Pictured below, we found a place with a better view in Mordialloc. a shout out to India and Mussimo that were fantastic hospitality. The total of mordialoc was meal was cheaper.

(The last picture is of the meal we got at mordialoc...

The venue itself is stunning with beautiful decor and stylish surroundings.

The staff were friendly and did their best to assist.

I wanted to start on a positive as the rest isn’t so.

Our food was ordered - three adults meals and one kids meal. The kids meal came out relatively quickly - 10mins tops.

And then we waited for our adults meals.

And waited.

And waited.

Our 8 year was done, including dessert, and he was starting to climb the walls after 30mins.

40mins later our adults meals arrived.

Calamari - dry, cold and absent of dressing and taste. The chips were good though but you’d be hard pressed to get fried chips wrong.

Salmon - over cooked. Plonked on a bed of smashed sweet potato that had been sitting way too long on the plate, under a warmer. The edges of the sweet potato mash had become dry and chewy. The broccolini had been….well…..destroyed. Really well destroyed. Over cooked, left under a warmer too like it’s poor sweet potato cousin and it tasted like it had been abused to the point that all the flavor had done a runner.

My sons Korean Fried Chicken was inhaled. But he was ready to eat his own arm off by the time our meals arrived. The “KFC” was absent of any veges - not even a tokenistic side of greens.

Pricing? For what we received this was absurd. $34 for an overcooked, sub standard serve of salmon. Yeah nah - I’ll give it a miss….

The disappointing part is I dined here, with work colleagues, a few months ago.

The food was consistently poor across all meals on both occasions.

But I thought I’d give them a second chance to redeem themselves.

I should’ve gone to the real KFC and bought a piece of salmon from...

Absolutely horrendous service, do not waste your time coming here as you will not get a table even if you have made a booking. Came here yesterday at 6:00 pm and requested a table for 3, was advised by a female staff member that there were no tables available and there would be a 20 minute wait. Looking around the dining room I could see at least half a dozen empty tables, some without any cutlery, napkins etc. When I asked the staff member again why the empty tables and why the holdup incredibly she told me that the tables were not set because they were waiting got the kitchen to catch up with the existing orders! I was dumbfounded with this incredibly pathetic excuse, all the while the foyer began filling up with customers waiting to be seated. Can you believe that some of those waiting had made a booking and were told that there were patrons sitting at their table who had not finished eating yet!

This is not the first time we have experienced this terrible service, last time we came we were told exactly the same thing and we were advised there were no tables and our only option was to sit at the bar. We did on that occasion but not this time, we gave the staff a piece of our mind and promptly walked out and went elsewhere. This is the last time we set foot in this place, the service is appalling and care factor of the staff is non-existent. Looking at the other reviews here I'm glad we did not waste our time our money at this venue. The view of the river is probably the only thing this venue has going for it, other then that I for one would say I would not...