Kawul Events at Calais Estate — Restaurant in Pokolbin

We came here for lunch with a big group - 8 adults and 11 children. I’ll start off by saying that the restaurant were very accomodating over the phone, it was a miserable rainy day and our plans to have a grazing platter out on the lawn were off the cards, so they set up an area inside for our party, which was really lovely. That’s what gets this the extra star! As soon as we arrived, we walked upstairs into the restaurant and it just felt so cold and unfriendly. The kids table they had very kindly set up was so unstable that when the kids sat down and went to colour in, it tipped over.

Here’s where we are so disappointed. We ordered the grazing platters after speaking with the staff about the best options for us for lunch. I am so glad we didn’t get the kids included in this. $60 per adult was outrageous - honestly, the selection was mainly fruit, some peckish crackers, a tiny amount of cheese, hommus. We were full, but totally unsatisfied. For the cost ($480 for all 8 of us adults) it should have been done a lot better. We ordered each of our children kids meals and then had to walk over to the bar to ask someone for the drinks menu so we could order our wines. 2 bottles of wine and the kids meals. For this - $285. We left feeling so ripped off. For the amount we spent, we should have left feeling completely full and satisfied but instead we just see it as another restaurant in this area taking advantage of groups and cutting costs. Another thing which also looks bad on this restaurants behalf. There were 2 women no older that 20 working on the floor. They were completely short on staff and attention to service was missing. We had to order everything up at the bar after waiting for them to come and take our order. Sad to leave such a review as I am not one who takes pleasure in it, but if your going to offer grazing platters at $60 a head, you need to have some food on there that resembles lunch. It’s a very overpriced fruit board to say the least.

EDIT at my review in response to the owner. We all agreed, 8 of us adults, that $60 a head for this grazing platter was overpriced. The images online didn’t resemble what we had, so for those reading, just be wary of ordering this as a lunch option, which was what was suggested to me at the time of the booking. This was not brought to the attention of the two young women working there on the day as we could see they were short on staff. And yes, we did get some boxes to pack up the fruit to take away with us, we needed to make value of every cent we spent! And the child leant over to reach for the colouring in pencils and the table fell. He didn’t climb on it. Appreciate the help that this restaurant offered due to the rain, but the point of this is - the grazing platter...

Came here with a group of 9 for the Priscilla wine tour for Pride week.

Positives: Staff were super friendly and obviously passionate about customer service... It's nice knowing its a family run place. The food was delicious... we all left content and full. Beautiful decor/ location. It's organic with good vegan options available.

Negatives: Staff seemed confused about our tour group (this may have been because of confusion over the booking name), but then also not all staff knew about our special deal price and what it entailed (this may have been that the mum and dad were just helping out so weren't up to speed) but it made ordering very confusing for everyone.

The main negative was that it took an hour and fifteen mins to bring our table dip and bread (with not enough bread), and a total of two hours to get our mains.

We were on a wine tour so had had quite a few sneaky bevvies early on in the day and by this stage really needed some food, as most of us hadn't eaten... And with the meals being late didn't get to eat our main until 2pm. We were also planning to fit in a wine tasting nearby but had to cancel that and also cut our stop into the brewhouse short to keep to schedule.

The meals all seem to be slow cooked/pre-prepared items like brisket, pork belly or pot pie so I have no idea why it took so long. The table behind us were also served equally slowly.

We asked for the dip and bread a couple times to get a generic 'sure thing... It's coming ' Not sure if the restaurant reads reviews... But if you do... Please have nuts on the table of there's going to be that big of a wait...or bring our the dip and bread straight away. It's literally dip and bread and shouldn't take an hour!

Edit: Thanks for the response! We understand things happen - like you might be short staffed etc. but it would be awesome if you could let the customers know whats going on. A simple 'We are down a lot of staff today so mum and dad are helping out for today only, but please be patient with us!' would have been fine and our table would have been a lot more patient. But yeah, maybe some nuts or something for the table would help out on days like that where there is a particularly long wait.

Besides that.. the food was amazing! No one had a complaint with...

Overall I felt the prices were too high for the quality of the meals we ate. The service was great, but the mixed up orders and incorrect bill left us with a disappointing experience. We are really unlikely to return.

They do offer a rewards card for locals who live within 30 kilometers.

It was a hit and miss experience at Nanna Kerr's. We ate as a large group 9 adults and 4 kids. The cheese souffle was great. The coffee was great. The matched wines with meals was ok The steak and mushroom pie gravy was too strong in flavour for my liking. Our Devonshire tea scones were cooked too long and the top of the scone was dark brown to black. I watched other scones go to other tables that were perfect. The cheesecake was hit and miss. Some on the table loved it, some on the table felt it was grainy and had texture (which I would not expect from a cheesecake), the texture came from the coconut. The service was very laid back and friendly, which we loved and enjoyed. Unfortunately we had quite a few things go wrong with our order. A big breakfast which we asked for with no mushrooms turned up with mushrooms, when we asked for no mushrooms the waiter asked us would we like a replacement for the mushrooms (which we thought would be free) we were then charged $4. We ordered two kids breakfasts, one with fried eggs and one with poached eggs, both plates turned up with fried eggs. We ordered a beverage which didn't come. The bill came out wrong, partly due to the beverage not turning up and partly due to them being flexible and letting us change items that we ordered but ... then the bill charged us full price for them. That said when we discussed the bill problem with them, they were friendly and great and fixed the bill straight away. It was a really hot day, there was air con inside, but they left the doors open so the air con wasn't that effective. We were all hot. We found the music was too loud for casual conversations and the hard wooden floor make...