Watergardens Hotel — Restaurant in Melbourne

I’ll post my email that I sent twice which was never responded to :

I am writing to formally express my disappointment with the experience my family and I had at your hotel tonight. This was meant to be a special evening as we were celebrating my daughter’s birthday, but unfortunately, the service and handling of our group left us feeling unwelcome and uncomfortable. As a buffet manager myself in Melbourne, I fully understand how buffets operate and the importance of following procedures. However, while every establishment has its own policies and procedures, the way your staff handled the situation was unacceptable. Upon arrival, I asked security where we should wait and was told to wait until the restaurant opened at 7:30 PM, which we did. When I went to pay, I inquired whether my guests could enter directly once I had paid for everyone. I was assured that this was fine and was asked to leave my ID and settle the bill at the end, which I agreed to. However, when my guests arrived shortly after, they were stopped at the entrance and told to go to the back of the queue by a staff member who appeared to be a manager. This led to confusion, as I had already been given different instructions. The manager’s approach was unnecessarily rude, resulting in a verbal disagreement that made my guests feel unwelcome and uncomfortable. This situation left a sour taste in all of our mouths and overshadowed what was meant to be a joyful occasion.

Additionally, later in the evening, I purchased jugs of drinks for our group, only to receive complimentary drink tickets for the children 20 minutes later. Had these been provided upon arrival, as they should have been, I wouldn’t have needed to buy drinks separately. This lack of communication added to the frustration.

To make matters worse, two of my final guests also had an unpleasant experience at the entrance, as security stopped them despite the fact that their meals had already been paid for. The overall attitude of the staff was aggressive and unwelcoming, leaving our group feeling uncomfortable for the...

What a horrible experience… and this was before we even had a chance to sit down!!

Firstly, we arrived early, and hoped to grab a drink at a bar. There was a snaking line to the bistro and the upstairs area was shoulder-to-shoulder waiting for the next timeslot. We decided to head to the downstairs bar.

There was a function walled off, so we found a couple of barstools in the public space. We went to the bar to order some drinks, and at first they automatically applied our drinks to the function bar tab - that we weren’t attending. The bartender also got our order wrong and I had to correct multiple times. Finally once she got it right, they still tried to cost to the function. I tried to indicate again that we weren’t part of it, only to be told that we can’t be served here. Drinks were poured out. Very disappointing given the lax maintenance on the bar tab for the venue, and for wastage given the cost of drinks. We were encouraged to attend the upstairs bar. This was also unfortunate given the function was separated from the main bar - this doesn’t seem relevant if the entire bar isn’t usable by public patrons.

We went upstairs to the main floor and it was still incredibly busy. With 20 minutes to our booking time we decided to line up, only to be told after waiting that our slot wasn’t being tabled yet. We were encouraged to sit down in the waiting area, and they would come and get us. We were told about 10 minutes later to line up again, and chose to wait. During the time we ordered some drinks. It took three tries at different machines because of various concerns. After waiting, a lovely lady tried to assist before being yelled at by another staff member about not holding an RSA. Wouldn’t be a concern if staffing was appropriately managed to support clients.

No concerns with the food.

Disappointing given we have been coming here for over a decade and never had such poor experience - it was previously much, MUCH better. Will not be coming back for quite some time, given so many...

FOLLOW UP on original post -

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE!! So we were encouraged to get in touch with Daniela after posting our last review. We did and got a reply which read -

"To compensate for your disappointing experience I would like to invite you both back to dine with us.... I would like to send you out a voucher.... We will ensure that your next visit with us will be a positive one!"

When giving the review, we weren't really expecting anything (honestly not even a response, let alone an apology/'compensation') but was pleased to be sent the voucher and we appreciated the kind gesture.

I must also add that Daniela was very sensible and nice on email.

However when trying to use the voucher to make a booking, we emailed Daniela 3 times (on Apr 27, May 1, & May 10) - we replied to our previous correspondence so it must have been the correct email - but was NEVER replied to. So the voucher was never meant to be redeemable - why offered in the first place!? VERY UNPROFESSIONAL & DISAPPOINTING!!! Wish I could give a ZERO-STAR review...

--- Original Post --- Went there for a dinner buffet just over about a week ago. After having a very positive experience of Christmas lunch (as well as another dinner buffet prior to that), we were really disappointed with the choice and quality of food we experienced on that Friday night.

Kids had some sausage and they were undercooked - lukewarm on the outside and cold inside.

The fish was horrible as well, some fish scales weren’t properly scraped off, making the skin inedible.

Ice cream and fruits weren’t getting refilled fast enough; and even when they finally did “refill” the ice cream, it wasn’t a full tub that came out.

Not sure if we were just there on a bad night or as many have pointed out it might have gone downhill - very...