The Elephant & Wheelbarrow — Restaurant in Melbourne

I normally never give 1 star reviews but this place deserves 0. I advise you not to support this business at all. I came in without any acknowledgement from anyone at the bar. The ginger man with beard (apparently the manager called Sam) looked at me and then decided to serve the gentleman beside me, clearly knowing I was there first. At first I did not find an issue with this but then he finished serving him, glanced at me ( I was directly in front of him), then proceeded to serve the customers at the very end of the bar. I found his behaviour was so rude and discourteous, but, as a hospitality worker myself, I thought maybe he’s having a bad day and gave him the benefit of the doubt. It actually gets worse from then on.

My buzzer rang to collect food and when I came to the food collection counter, I was barely acknowledged at first and could see the servers eating chips and chatting around that area. Sam, without a word, rudely pointed the other side, I felt panicked and quietly picked up two dishes and placed them on the table. I realised I picked up the wrong dish and came back to the counter where I ordered. I apologised to the servers about taking the wrong dish but he said he couldn’t do anything about it. The manager asked what table number I was, found the docket and proceeded to slam the docket in front of my face. I looked at the docket and the server had put down the wrong order. I told the server I had clearly stated another item and he once again said it was up to the manager. I looked at the manager, he went to serve another customer through this dilemma, I felt so disrespected and upset, scared to argue back that I just took back the food. I asked my sister who was there with me when I placed the order, and she clearly stated that we had placed the correct order and the server had processed it wrong.

I didn’t touch that dish and had lost my appetite, I started crying and wondering why I felt so degraded. I have been a restaurant manager before and I understand that in hospitality it is important to simply acknowledge your customers with a ‘Hi, how are you?’ and attempt to find conflict resolution if something goes wrong on behalf of the hospitality team. I was not at all rude and politely told them the order was processed wrong but it was the response by them that made me feel absolutely disgusted. In this case, I was happy to wait for my order to be made again but no attempt by management was made to fix the issue. I looked at other reviews about Sam, not showing respect for non white woman and wondered if it was race and/or sex that played into this, as I am a woman and a person of colour. I just couldn’t wrap around why someone would treat their paying customers with upmost disrespect and make them feel less than human. I strongly advise you to not continue supporting this business, my friend who has gone there for a long time was shocked about this as he personally knew Sam, and has mentioned to never come back. Such behaviour will get you losing new and loyal customers. I hope all staff at this venue rethink the way they treat people because their behaviour that night...

After dinner and a show in the city our group of two couples visited this venue for a drink to end what had been an enjoyable evening for my parter's birthday celebrations. We sat at a table in front of the live male performer and proceeded to purchase a round of drinks each, by our 4th drink our ladies took to the dance floor as there was lack of atmosphere as no one was up dancing. They were having a great time and other patrons vibed off their energy and began to get up and join in on the dance floor, everything up until this point was amazing, then when my mate went to purchase another round of drinks bar staff informed him that one of our ladies has been cut off. We were shocked as we all have our current Responsible Service of Alcohol certification and know exactly what qualifies for stopping the service of alcohol. Their reason was "We don't approve of her dance moves and she appears to have a glazed over look on her face ". If bad dance moves and slightly glazed over face gets you cut off then every licensed establishment in Victoria should only serve iced water according to this place! I understand they have a duty of care but seriously management give your service staff better training than what they've been provided, loss of earnings to your business would have been $200+ multiply that by the amount of patrons your staff misjudge and refuse service to and you are making an extremely big loss annually as well as upsetting patrons that will not return and recommend any family or friends to your establishment and even worse, leave these types of posts for prospective customers to read. This venue use to be the spot back in the day, now it's just a spot we will not revisit. Sorry about...

We are usually fans of the elephant and wheelbarrow and come every few months for a roast. Unfortunately this visit has ruined it for us I think. Firstly, we were one of the first customers in at 12pm on a Sunday and ordered an orange juice but they didn’t have any which seems a bit silly. We ended up ordering 2 Turkey roasts and some sides and it came to about $110 which was quite expensive but we thought it would be worth it.

So im assuming due to Covid, its bar service which is fine however they give you a buzzer and you have to go and collect your food yourself. The food arrived cold and we were actually unable to eat the turkey. It was thick and rubbery like a frozen turkey. The rest was okay, just your bog standard boiled veg and a sad looking Yorkshire pudding. The cheesy garlic bread and the gravy were nice however. My partner who is a big lover of Guinness said he could barley drink his pint as it was really sour.

We were so disappointed as the roasts were $29 each which is much more than you would normally pay, and then we had to do half the work ourselves. It was actually a bit funny in the end hearing all the buzzers go off and people go and get their food like it was a school dinner. The staff couldn’t really have been less bothered about anything going on, and couldn’t even be bothered to wipe down tables but only swipe a few crumbs off with their hand.

Very sad as we liked coming here, but it really isn’t worth the money at...