TWR — Restaurant in Melbourne

Over the weekend I attended The Waiting Room for the Nikka Whisky High Tea experience, and I must say that I was quite disappointed with the overall experience. Here's a detailed review of my visit:

My party and I arrived on time for our reservation, looking forward to a delightful high tea experience. However, our excitement quickly turned into frustration. The initial impression was tarnished as the welcome drinks took an astonishing 35 minutes to be served. During this time, we had to continually remind the staff about our tea orders, which should have been a straightforward part of the experience.

The most frustrating incident occurred when a table of six guests received two trays initially, one intended for two people and another for a single guest with food allergies. However, the tray meant for the guest with allergies was inexplicably taken away, leaving them and the three other guests without a tray for 15 minutes. During this time, the guest with allergies received a new tray to accommodate their dietary restrictions. The guest with allergies was given a bowl (small) of whipped cream for themselves, while the remaining five guests had to share just two bowls of cream. We requested additional cream to accommodate the two scones per person, but it took a staggering 12 minutes for this request to be fulfilled. By then, the warm food had turned cold, and two of our guests had already eaten their scones dry.

One of the guests at our table was never brought tea at all, and this guest had to ask multiple times for a coffee instead. Only receiving 1 drink for the entire time. Such lapses in service were disappointing and did not set a positive tone for the afternoon. The Manageress had to keep stepping in to assist.

After finishing the treats, we decided to order 2 more coffees and some whiskeys to wrap up our high tea experience. However, we were surprised to see that we were charged for the coffee. This was particularly frustrating given the number of forgotten drink orders throughout the high tea and the fact that the staff failed to inform us that the timing for our experience started at sit-down, despite the fact that nothing had been served for nearly 25 minutes after our arrival.

To make matters worse, one of the guests with allergies discovered that their dietary restrictions had been overlooked, as the chocolates given to take home contained ingredients they couldn't consume. This oversight regarding allergies further soured our experience.

In conclusion, the Nikka Whisky High Tea experience at The Waiting Room was a highly disappointing experience, especially considering the steep cost of $650 for our party. The service was slow and forgetful, with multiple instances of missed orders and long delays. The lack of communication regarding the timing of the experience, additional charges for coffee, and the allergy oversight only added to our dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this high tea experience based...

Been dining in at The Waiting Room Crown for so long because they provided outstanding customer services that impressed us when we first dined in there. However, I been giving the worst customer services ever today…very disappointing.

As a regular customer, they should know what we like/dislike and our family get used to drink hot water daily and we usually order a pot of tea for sharing; however, when I ordered a pot of tea and two cups of hot water, the waitress serving us gave me the look “only one tea?” meaning we should order another drink since we were two people dinning in. Now, please note, each customer got their own habits and the way they like to dine in, the waitress was rude to give me that look, and one time when we asked for a hot water refills for second time…the waitress (another one) served us noted and saying “more hot water, sure!” and then she took the tea pot to the back and walked away. After that, she was completely forgot she needed to refill more hot water and then bring back the pill tea pot to us. Also, we realised every time when we asked for this hot water refill request, some of the waiters/waitresses were unwillingly to do this….these were not good enough for high class bar/restaurant like this. Anyways, we went to checkout and when I ready to pay by card, the waitress (the one that directed us to a table in the first place) dared to ask us for tips and I refused then she looked unhappy instantly…I mean please, when you guys didn’t provide decent customers services like used to, do you think you guys deserved tips? Sure, it’s feeling miserable to working during public holidays but you chose to work and you get double pay today. The restaurant was not busy like other places so there’s no reason you guys can skip to provide outstanding customer services and treat each customers differently no matter tips (also optional) or not.

One simple hint: try to remember and familiarize your regular customers’ dine in habits, this will grant you some...

I had an incredibly unpleasant experience at The Waiting Room. Yesterday, I visited this place to meet up with a friend for drinks and cake. We sat at a high bar stool table near the water station.

Unfortunately, the staff was quite slow in taking our order. While we waited, my friend took the initiative to pour us two glasses of water from the tray. However, a staff member named ‘Joe’ approached her in a rude manner, insisting that she STOP and that only the venue's staff were allowed to handle such tasks due to health and safety regulations. I was taken aback by Joe's angry expression, harsh tone of voice, and overall arrogance.

Despite my friend continually reinforcing she understood his point, Joe continued to admonish her as if she had committed a serious offense. This encounter made us feel uncomfortable, especially since Joe stormed off without even taking our order. Feeling upset and shocked by this treatment, we informed another staff member about the incident. Although she tried to assist us in placing our order, we decided to leave instead.

It is crucial for TWR to reevaluate the attitude and customer service of their staff, ensuring that they interact with customers in a polite manner. I never anticipated encountering such rude, arrogant, and unpleasant behavior from TWR's employees.

I have no intention of bringing anyone to TWR in the future, especially as long as Joe remains...