The Wanderer Thai Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in Melbourne

Major Disappointment We made a birthday dinner reservation for 5 a week in advance for 7.15pm Saturday July 31. Upon arriving, the venue was packed with patrons and there was also a queue of patrons waiting to be seated. We advised the hosts of our arrival and that we had a 7.15 pm dinner reservation for 5 people. The host welcomed us but seemed extremely flustered and stressed and said if we can please wait and we will soon be seated. However after about 15mins it became apparent that the venue had for some reason ignored reservations and had been allowing walk-in patrons to be seated. This was confirmed when talking to the other patrons in the queue who also had made reservations but were also still waiting to be seated. Time was passing and apart from the host’s constant apologies we were still waiting to be seated. We remained patient because it was our daughter’s birthday and she was keen for us to experience the food at this venue which she said was really good. One hour and 30mins later the host finally led us to our seats, only to find that we were being seated at the bar with only 3 bar stools even though we were a party of 5 adults. We expressed our displeasure at the seating arrangements and reminded the host that we were a party of 5 and that 2 of us had no seats. The host quickly changed his story and said that these seats were just temporary until a table became available. A further 20mins passed and a table behind us became vacant. We asked the host if we could please be seated on this table but the host said no. However after 2 hours of being treated like second class citizens we told the waiter that we were going to sit at this table and to get it packed up and cleaned please. We finally took our seats and were given our menus. The waiter came and we gave him our order which included four main dishes and a meat salad and drinks. The waiter then queried our order and said our 4 main dishes were “sauce” dishes. I didn’t quite understand what he was referring to and after further explanation he advised us that with these “sauce” dishes we should be ordering some steamed rice to accompany the “sauce” dishes. We asked the waiter why the steamed rice wasn’t on the menu with those “sauce dishes” or at least as an extra side dish but the waiter did not understand. So we took the waiter’s advice and ordered the steamed rice to accompany our 4 “sauce” dishes. Our “sauce” dishes arrived but without the steamed rice that we ordered, on the recommendation of the waiter to accompany our 4 “sauce” dishes. We advised the waiter our steamed rice had not arrived and at the same time advised some of the other hosts that their customer service was terrible and that our night had been an absolute disaster. The other hosts apologised and said they’ll bring out the steamed rice as soon as possible but by the time the steamed rice arrived, our food was cold. This venue needs to decide whether their restaurant is a bar or a restaurant. If they have reserved seats and they want to seat 'walk-ins' on those seats, they must communicate with them that the seats must be vacated before their reservation guests arrive. If their mains need to be accompanied by a rice dish, then it should be stipulated on the menu, or at least have rice as an option appearing somewhere on the menu. Learn from feedback from their guests as this is the only way they will allow themselves to grow and fix their mistakes. They were understaffed and staff were untrained. The host and waiters were running around like headless chooks, even though they had earphones and pretended to be communicating with each other. Despite the food being tasty and the music nice, all five members of my family, were left upset, disappointed and talking about this restaurant the whole weekend. They ruined my daughter's birthday and ruined everyone's night. A...

I left in tears. My partner and I walked in last night around 9:30pm ish hoping to grab dinner at this restaurant. I did knew this restaurant can be booked out on Saturday night but when I walked passed..it was pretty empty with a lot of vacant tables and the peak hours has passed so I thought I would try asking if there was a table available. I mean nothing is wrong with asking right? We walked in… I spoke to the boy with the glasses at the counter ‘ Hi so sorry we didn’t make any reservation but I was hoping to get a table for 2 if it’s available?’. The boy just nodded his head, smiled and pointed us to the bar. I said, oh we are not here for the bar, we just want to eat dinner but he kept telling us to go to the bar, so we just assumed he wanted us to wait at the bar first because that’s what most restaurants does, they made the customers wait at the bar until there’s a table available. We sat at the bar near the toilet or kitchen, waited for a good 10-15mins but no one came to us with no menu nothing and all the staffs just walked passed or attending to the other customers.. Then a group of 4 Asian people walked in.. they went and grabbed a seat on one of the booth that was vacant and was served with menu straight away.. so I felt like something was off so my partner went to ask the male staff again. The male staff told my partner no, there’s only the bar available for us. So then we moved our seats to the other side of the bar area away from the kitchen, we waited for staff to give us the food menu but no one was coming to us or attending us or taking care of us. I didn’t mind, I went and asked one of the female staff working at the bar the meal menu and she gave me drink menu with some special meals on it and not the proper menu… then the staff told us to order at the counter and brushed off before I could ask for the food menu..The male staff we spoke to at the start walked passed so, I stopped him and told him I feel pretty disappointed with how we’ve been treated, he just smiled (I can feel the smile was not genuine) and told us there’s a birthday party function happening at 10pm. No other things was mentioned, just keep getting told there’s a function happening. Why didn’t he tell us this when we first came in? And it was 9:56pm, 4mins to turn 10pm. No tables were set up for the birthday party. The big tree tables were still left with dirty plates and nothing was cleaned up. I call it biggest bs telling us there was a birthday function happening. Maybe there was a function booked, but if a customer tells you they feel disappointed with the way they’ve been treated, shouldn’t you find out why? And how to solve the issue? But instead you keep getting told there’s a function and indirectly telling you to leave. I come here multiple time, celebrated my bday here last year. I remember coming here without booking on Saturday night and it was more busier than this. I did got a table maybe because I was wearing heels and dress? But I’ve seen white make customers wearing just Kmart t shirt and jeans? Is it because my partner is not white, not Asian? Or is it because the way we were dressed? I don’t think I need to wear dress and heels to dine? Our dressing code was neat, smart casual. I took a video when we left it was 9:56pm. Less than 5 tables were occupied. And there was...

Not often does a restaurant leave such a bad taste in your mouth, and not only because of the food.

We had booked a table for Saturday night at 6pm over a week ago and at 5:49pm we receive an email telling us that our reservation had been cancelled. As we had parked in the city we decided to call the restaurant to find out what had happened. Though difficult to comprehend what was being said, we were told that our reservation had been cancelled because we hadn't turned up, when we said that we still had 10 minutes before our reservation was to lapse, it seemed like the staff were not wanting to fix the situation, ultimately they said that they would rebook us in for 6pm.

Perhaps alarm bells should have been ringing, but we thought the high rating on google reviews would mean that any issues would ultimately be worth it as people had said good things (for the most part). When we arrived at the restaurant at our initial reservation time they couldn't find a table for us and wanted us to sit on the elevated table and chairs, not exactly an enticing atmosphere for Saturday night dinner. A little while later and they found us a booth in the corner.

We ordered the beef starter, crispy duck curry and crispy pork stir fry with fried egg accompanied by rice and roti. This is where the downward spiral continued.

The beef was okay, but overcooked and the lychee salad was just mixed leaves with canned lychees on the side. We would have preferred there to be a dipping sauce as opposed to pre sauced meat. The roti seemed the generic frozen round roti, reheated. (I'd be very very surprised if this was an in house made roti)

The strange thing about the mains were that there must be a different definition of crispy at this restaurant as neither the duck nor the pork were wearing their crispy skin. From all the previous reviews, I must say that this was a very disappointing experience. The staff did ask how the food was, and my reply both times was that the food was okay. I've see that management seems to be quite active in replying to reviews, but they don't seem to actively take responsibility for bad reviews and often put the onus back on the customer.

The hit and miss reviews mean that this restaurant does have their good night's, but the inconsistency means that it won't be one that we will be revisiting nor...