Theodora Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Melbourne

A dining experience memorable for all the WRONG reasons!

On Sat 14/12/19 my partner and I had a 5.30 pm dinner booking (made using the "booking tool" and confirmed via email on 10/12/19) at Theodora Bar and Grill.  We were the first to arrive and were promptly directed to the worst table in the venue.  It is located close to the entry and is the main thoroughfare to the large dining area.

My seat was hard up against the wall (I had to slide into it carefully) so as to maximise space behind the opposite seat for guests and staff accessing the dining area. Due to the cramped position I politely asked the head male/proprietor if we could be seated at another table, but was informed the venue was fully booked.  The head female intervened and pulled the table out from the wall to give me a little more space, but this diminished the area behind my partner.

As we began our first course two young ladies arrived.  They did not like their table so requested a change, and to our surprise they were accommodated at another table.  Soon after, a group of three people arrived and the same thing happened.  We were annoyed but resisted the urge to approach the head male as we did not want to make a scene.  We would gladly have sat at either of the tables these other patrons were initially offered.

We were only halfway through our first course when the main meat platter and Greek salad was delivered.  Instead of having time to savour our food, we felt we were being rushed to finish it.  As our plates were being cleared by a pleasant young waitress I requested our dessert be held for a while as we needed time to let the meal ‘settle’.  However, not long after, the head female appeared with dessert.  I advised we were not ready for it to which she retorted abruptly “Did you tell anybody?”.  I explained that I had and the dessert was taken back to the kitchen until I let the young waitress know we were ready for it.

During the whole dining experience the head male stood at the end of the bar nearby staring over us into the main dining area.  Of course we felt very uncomfortable.

My partner spent the evening feeling like he was “being swooped by magpies”, staff with plates walking back and forth behind him with barely enough room to get past.

Although our food was fresh and tasty, our expectations of a pleasant and relaxing evening did not eventuate.  We were most disappointed and will not return...

My Fiancé and I came here for dinner with a booking. The owner then greeted us saying are you with “Groupon or just a booking”? We immediately went online and saw a deal for $59. We were in the middle of paying for the deal on Groupon after having asked a waitress if we should pay Groupon or the front desk. The owner then came over and then said you can’t use Groupon as you have already come into the store which is absolutely not fair. I began to explain to him that we have not paid for anything as of yet and is no different to us booking through Groupon and coming back. He refused to honour the deal and we again explained to him that he is losing business by doing this as we actually have come here multiple times and enjoyed the food. His excuse for this was that it is “marketing” so this somehow doesn’t apply to us???

Absolutely lousy customer experience and it is clear the level of professionalism in the front of house is severely lacking. We will never be coming back here on principle.

• Response to comment from owner *

Firstly, we already had a booking and were planning on ordering the meat platter for two anyway. The staff member mentioned only a few items were swapped out with the Groupon (Sausage instead of cutlets, etc) which if there was an issue with stock (which I don’t believe there was) then we would have been accomodating and understood. You never mentioned anything about stock levels last night, your excuse verbatim was “it’s marketing”, so it’s clear you only want to get customers in the door and now you are trying to come up with any excuse to cover up your mistake from last night instead of just owning up to your unfair mistreatment of us.

Secondly, Groupon was STILL taking booking for the night we came in and we were about to pay until you rudely came over and told us we couldn’t. If somebody else decided to book on Groupon that night and then decided to come by you wouldn’t have...

Overall, most of the food we received was lovely and there was a lot of it. However, one element (the rissoles) on the platter were obviously off. My husband bit into one and immediately had to spit it out to stop himself from vomiting. We were going to quietly mention it at the end but the smell was so overpowering that we asked for the plate to be removed from the table. The waitress called over another staff member/manager, who then called over someone else. We were first told it was the herbs, and then that it was because the meat was still uncooked and then that the meat was delivered that day. We were trying to be polite and nice but it felt like they were immediately defensive and coming up with excuses that felt like they were determined to find any reason to tell us we were wrong. They took it away and a little later a woman came back and apologised, but told us AGAIN that the meat was delivered today and they had asked other diners with if there was a problem with their food and they said that there wasn't. None of this changed the fact that our meat was definitely off - we cook meat daily, we know what it should smell like. I don't know why they felt the need to prove themselves right rather than just admit what was clear. Maybe they thought we were after a refund (this wasn't why we mentioned it, and one was definitley not offered). They did offer to replace that element of the dish with something else but we declined. If we had just received an unqualified genuine apology, we wouldn't have left feeling as bad as we did. Overall, a very uncomfortable experience, we ate a little more and packed up the remainder and left as quickly as we could without feeling like our whole night had been spoilt. Very unfortunate as we are locals and had been planning to try this place for a while. We won't be back, and won't be recommending this place to...