Vibrante — Restaurant in Melbourne

I went with my friend for dinner at 5pm today and the experience was definitely not worth it. We spent $175 even though our charges that was calculated was only $140 at a maximum and when I asked for the reciept the manager would not give me it.

The food was not great, the presentation, the taste and the special which cost $52 was absolutely not worth the price it is marketed as.

We started off with the bruschetta 2 piece, with the dish tasting strongly of garlic which covered the taste of the dish itself and the vingerette was completely muted without much flavour. The garnish which I presumed to be pea leaves was excessive being a common theme in all the dishes presented.

Then there was the arancini balls, where it felt as if was frozen then reheated as the flavour was completely absent. The rice used was also curry rice which did not work with the dish itself. The insides was also very inconsistent as the mushrooms were not diced correctly and in almost all of the balls there was slices of mushroom present. The dish was also very salty, with the only relief being the water and mayo.

The next dishes that came out was my friends' Barramundi and my special, the Rib-eye steak.

The Rib-eye steak was requested to be medium rare, however it was actually medium leaving me barely and pink in the middle of the steak, seated on 12 chips salad and the meat swimming in mushroom sauce. The salad was very stale and upon consumption it felt as if it was left out for the entire day as the leaves of the salad was bruised and wilting. The chips tasted like the ones you can purchase at McDonalds and were very dry while also being in low amounts as I recieved 12 chips in the dish. The sauce that came with the steak was not cooked properly as the mushrooms were sometimes raw and the sauce left a lot to be desired as not only did it taste slightly off, it also was covered in oil from the steak as it was placed on a slight angle to drip into the sauce. The meat itself was not too appealing when fliped over was a grey colour with no browning and did not make the meal too appealing as the side that was facing up was covered in sauce and the meat's char could not been seen. The meat was on the tougher side and contained a massive fat berg in the meat which greatly diminished the quality of the cut that I was given and I did not feel that $52 justified the meal that I was presented. The cut of the meat I felt was really cheap with a high fat content in muscle tissue and the bone was cut in half. I doubt the grill was cleaned very well too as I could taste previously made foods in the charring.

My friend did not find the Barramundi too appetising too with excessive garnishing of the pea leaf did not help either. The salad is a similar story to Rib-eye where it was wilting and felt stale.

We ended the meal with a dessert of Sticky Date Pudding and it was a mess. The pudding was swimming in the sauce being described as a "fort with a moat" and a scoop of ice-cream on the side swimming in the sauce. The dessert itself was not too appealing either containing intact dates with fibre still present in the pudding. It lacked flavour and the sauce that it came with was "sickenly sweet" which did not help the appeal of the sticky date pudding.

Overall I would definitely not come back, not only due to the erroneous charges made, but also the managers attitude and the food presented. I would highly advice going to D'Oro which is just down the road as they are significantly better...

The customer service by management is appalling. On 10 Oct 23 I made a lunch reservation by telephone requesting a table by the window for Sunday 17 Oct 23. On the morning of the 17th I rang to confirm my reservation for 12.30pm. When I arrived however I found that all the tables by the window were occupied, the manager Mumtaz offered us a table in the middle of the crowded floor. We were very annoyed that our table wasn’t reserved as confirmed. The manager pretended not to know how this oversight had happened and tried to compensate by offering us bottled water. To avoid this situation happening again I decided to make a dinner reservation online via Google and Quandoo for Friday 27 Oct 23. The dinner reservation was made on Tuesday 24 Oct 23 giving the restaurant sufficient time to reserve the table I requested with the table number. We were surprised when we arrived on time for dinner, our table was occupied this time too. The name of the manager on this day was Hemant, I showed him my email booking confirmation I had received, this guy too pretended to be unaware as to how the table I reserved had been given to some other guest. He too offered us a different table on the middle of the crowded floor. We were appalled and furious that this seems to be the careless and disrespectful management style at Vibrante. This manager Hemant offered us a free entree and a free coke and a bigger table. To compensate for his poor management of the reservation. However this time I insisted that we are given the table I booked online and he had to request the guest to move over to the another table. To be fair the rest of the waiting staff are absolutely polite and friendly and thanks to the chefs the food is excellent. Vibrante management need to get their act together with respect to their customers service which is extremely poor and disrespectful to the customers who take the time to make a reservations and are disappointed by their attitude and disrespect to the our...

My wife and I are regular visitors to Vibrante On March 1 our wedding anniversary, we went there for dinner. The Manager did not escort us to the table and pull out my wife's chair for her to be seated but pointed across the restaurant to a table allocated to us. The restaurant was at 25% capacity and remained at that level for the entire evening.

No waiter came to the table so I resorted to waving my hand in the air. I received the menu/wine list and enquired about about a bottle of wine listed on the the wine list which on our visit on 24 December 2023 was told was no longer manufactured. The manager asked if I would we would like a glass and we said yes. When we told him of the restaurant's previous advice he said oh yes "I remember". I ordered another bottle of red wine.

A young waitress arrived at our table, showed me the bottle which I accepted. She went to pour some into my glass I think to taste but I said it would be fine, "please just pour". She filled my wife's glass and left. My glass remained empty,

A young waiter delivered my wife's entrée together with another for he did not know which table either entrée belonged to. I had a salad as a main course and my wife a fillet mignon which was luke warm when it finally arrived. I am a small eater and when I rested my eating utensils my plate was cleared without asking whether I was finished for my wife wife would have have liked a taste.

We decided to leave. I went to the counter to pay the bill for no account was brought to the table - that's OK but the Manager who was also controlling payments was rude.

We have been going to this restaurant since it first opened but the service has slipped to a level where we will never go back. I understand the difficulties with new staff, but the staff turnover and lack of training is appalling and a gross reflection...