Waterfront Southgate — Restaurant in Melbourne

UPMARKET RESTAURANT IN SOUTHBANK BUT LACKING SERVICE High end restaurant in the middle of the popular Southgate precinct. Three of us went recently on the Labour day public holiday. From the start we were underwhelmed by the wait staff who were not at all friendly or helpful. We started with a wine and a shared sushi sashimi platter plus tempura prawns. Both were delicious. We also received a complimentary taster of seafood bisque which was nice. For mains we had the 300g aged eye fillet, the baby barramundi and the seafood risotto. The steak and fish were both very well cooked and presented but the risotto was not hot (hardly even warm actually). I would have liked mustard with my steak but we weren't offered and I couldn't attract anyone's attention to get me some (even though I could see neat little trays of various mustards sitting on a shelf across the servery). The meal was quite filling so we declined to have dessert. We had to attract attention again to get the bill and then again later to get someone to collect it! I ended up wandering around the restaurant with the bill in my hand to get someone's attention :( Hopefully the service level was a reflection of the Labour Day Holiday but it did detract substantially from the occasion. We paid $440 all up (including the 10% public holiday surcharge). For people with mobility issues you wont have problems dining here. Noise level is quiet (although the restaurant wasn't full when we dined). Outdoor tables give you more room and a good view but you need to pick a warm night! Vegetarians best advised to go elsewhere (to be fair - it is a steak and seafood...

I usually never wanted to give a 1 star review no matter how bad the experience is. But this time, I had the worst experience of my life dining in a restaurant.

First of all, this is not the first time I’ve been to Waterfront. The food was good and the service was good as well everytime we went there.

But last night was a disaster, we booked in advance and they charge more than $250/person for their 3 course meal end of the year dinner. We arrived around 8pm and we ordered our entree, main, and dessert.

Not long after that the waiter came back to us and said that the entree that we want (lobster cocktail) was sold out. We finally chose something else.

The entree came 1 hour after we ordered. I had the sashimi platter and it was fine, nothing exceptional. After that we waited another hour for the main to come. The worst part is all the food comes separately, 2 person in our group got their food first. They finished their food and my main hasn’t arrive in my table yet.

When the food finally arrived, it was dissapointing. The sea urchin was literally frozen when I ate it. Nothing in that platter was fresh, the prawn taste like rubber, the scallop tasted like they’ve been cook 2 weeks ago.

We end up having a 3 hour dinner and by the end of the night, we left disappointed. What a way to enjoy the last day of 2023.

They are clearly not prepared for the dinner service last night. The reason they’re open is clearly just them being greedy. They don’t care about the quality of the food or the customer...

This was the first, and quite frankly last time I will be visiting waterfront. Not to say the food was bad, it wasn’t, it was just not worth the price. Paying almost $50 for a grilled salmon filet and $40 for fish and chips, I cannot say that my experience met my expectations. For those prices, you would not be expecting to find fish bones in your fish and chips nor bones still in your salmon filet. While the flavours of the dishes were quite good, it felt very much like some decent pub grub than a fine dining experience. After sitting down we were greeted by friendly staff, which lulled us into a bit of a false sense of security. Soon after ordering drinks, we were presented with a plate containing bread, balsamic and oil, and some sort of dipping sauce. Not even 5 minutes later our mains arrived (6 minutes after us ordering …) the food wasn’t exactly hot, which may just have been due to the air (however, I don’t think that’s quite the case). Moreover, the bread in question was at first exciting, however like the rest of the meal fell a bit … stale (which it was). Unfortunately a lovely waitress knocked over one of the dipping sauces spilling it everywhere… it happens, and she to her credit was incredibly apologetic and cleaned it up for us… but we never saw a replacement. Overall if you are looking for an expensive pub experience and sub par food for the price this is the place for you. As for myself, there are many far better places around Melbourne and...