The Merri Bar — Restaurant in Melbourne

I think what often leads to a disappointing night is the mishandling of expectations. In this case, me and my trivia group had scoped out Merri Bar and their menu on google and were quite keen to come along for some good food and a fun night. This is where the pain began. The name I had called ahead to book under had been taken down incorrectly. Nothing huge so far but as it turned out a bit of an omen for things to come. We were shortly informed after noticing that there were no menus around that the venue has had no kitchen for a year. Instead we were directed to go to either the pizza place nearby (which was closed tonight) or the fish and chip shop next door and quote our table number. No Nashville hot chicken, buffalo wings or a korean chicken burger as advertised but instead a basic fish and chip shop next door who made several mistakes with the order. The saving grace for the evening was the trivia itself but sadly it wasn't enough to entirely redeem things after the start we'd gotten off to. Hopefully Merri Bar soon gets Google up to date going forward just to set reasonable expectations for anyone else who might like to pop in for...

I really liked this place up until today. Had a full day standing at work and didn't get time to eat lunch, so I went to The Merri Clan for some quick food after 4:30pm as I live locally. The selection was very limited, but given the time of day I was understanding of that. However, once I received my food, it was in a take away container. It became clear that this was intentional as their happy hour started at 5pm and they wanted me out of the space as I was alone. I ate the food seated regardless, because I was extremely tired and hungry after work. Once I left, I overheard one of the staff members mentioning to another that this "sometimes worked and other times didn't"—in reference to serving my food in a take away container to encourage me to leave the space. I was there for approximately 20 minutes, so it honestly felt very unnecessary and quite disrespectful. I do not think I will go there again, which is a shame because it is so close...

Wow! I never leave reviews. Was there last night having a dinner with other three friends at 7:45 next to the door. TERRIBLE to UNEXISTENT customer service. The waitress made sure to let us feel as burden for her. Never felt so uncomfortable at a restaurant. She kept on forgetting our drinks order, never said thank you, told us she had no idea about the beer menu (?, took the salt that i was using from me claiming that there was only one for the entire restaurant, forgot to bring a menu for my friend, NEVER REFILLED THE WATER on my table and the list keeps going. As a person who has worked on customer service that was a terrible experience for me, made my friends an I feel really uncomfortable. Don’t go unless you are willing to pay to be trated terribly when you just want to have a nice dinner....