Trombar — Restaurant in Melbourne

Trombar!

Had dinner with my daughter and a mate the other night, and did we get a serving... I didn't touch the chips because i was full on veal parma.

Hang on, let me start from the beginning.

For entrée we had chilli muscles served with sourdough tosted bread. Perfectly cooked in tomato sauce with chilli. Not too much, and not too little of chilli, just enough to make you want to dip the bread in the sauce once more.

For the main meal, we had salt'n paper calamity, chicken, and veal parma. Calamari were lightly crumbed and well seasoned, without the grease going down your fork.

Veal parma, now that was a feast and half. Come with chips and rocket salad tosed with fetta cheese and vinaigrette. Veal was melting in my mouth, tender, crumbed to perfection, and cooked even better. Chicken parma was also tender and juice inside. Both veal and chicken parma were relatively thick, not too thick, but not too thin either. As i said, I couldn't finish the lot, so I had to take the rest in the takeaway container. It was so good, tasty, and delicious that i had to meet the chef to pay him a compliment (BTW, his name is Louis).

Floor staff, including the management, were professional and polite.

No!, they were not annoying like in some restaurants. They knew exactly when to approach the table. And this is why i keep on going back to Trombar.

After we settled our dinner bill, we took a couple of drinks at the back "garden." There is a separate bar and sitting as well as dedicated smoking aera.

Almost forgot. They have Dj in the house and / or live band, and it's kid friendly till 9pm-9.30pm.(please check with staff for the right cut-off time for kids). After that, it turns...

Unfortunately a very confused menu, it’s claimed to be Mediterranean however, the food is nothing close to it, and the quality is even worse.

We ordered:

Trombar Eggplant Rib Eye Steak Napolitana Pasta for Two Capricciosa Pizza Rocket Pear Salad

Trombar Eggplant was claimed to be the special, it was eggplant sliced with mozzarella cheese and bacon, it was far from special for $22. 2/10

Rib Eye Steak served on a sizzling plate which is such a waste because it basically will cook through the steak overtime. Also doesn’t come with sauce, and the restaurant does not have mustard to go with the steak which for $58 is very disappointing. Good cut of meat wasted. 2/10

Napolitana Pasta For two, generous serving size but it was really salty. For some reason they added bacon to the pasta which shouldn’t be for a Napolitana sauce. 5/10

Capricciosa Pizza - this tasted like it was purchased from Brumbys or Bakers Delight like the Focaccia slices you can buy, then reheated. This was nothing close to how a pizza should taste, it was basically what you would expect at a Highschool Tuck Shop. Avoid the pizzas at all costs, $27 of awful. 1/10

Rocket Pear Salad, not bad at all but needs more pear and more dressing, as the rocket is quite bitter, so need more of the other components to balance the flavour. 6/10

It’s probably better as a drinks place for live music but the food is really poor. Definitely would not return which is a shame. The owners were friendly, but I think they really gotta rethink the menu and the chef. For the price, it’s definitely...

I asked a the door woman outside at Trombar what is happening inside, because she says there is a $30 cover charge. We just wanted to go inside for a drink. And I asked her, "what is inside, is there live music or a DJ?" And she wouldn't answer, so I asked again and she snapped at me, "I don't know, I just work here" in a very rude and dismissive tone. And I said "so, if I can't ask someone who works here what I'm paying $30 for exactly, who can I ask?" And she told me they wouldn't be letting me inside because of my "behaviour".

How crazy to charge a cover amount and not be able to tell patrons what it is for and also to be so rude / obnoxious to people just seeking information. My "bad behaviour" was just asking for what was happening inside which the $30 cover amount was for. I will never go back to this establishment just based on...