Hamer's Bar & Bistro — Restaurant in Tasmania

We visited just after new year, and didnt know much about the town. We came to know that the only place in town to eat was Hamer's which seemed fine. Love a chicken schnitzel! We enjoyed our meal, standard pub food but it was nice. I especially want to commend the gentlemen we dealt with behind the counter. It's a shame I can't remember his name, perhaps Simon? He ( and the rest of the staff) were under huge pressure- the play had just finished and the pub was extremely busy with tourists as it's really the only place to eat. We decided to grab the last table in the bar area ( not the bistro) but nevertheless it was packed.

Our food was taking a while, understandably due to the pressure but after around 40 minutes I did politely enquire as to where it was, just to make sure the kitchen had the order more than anything else ( we were fine having some drinks- by the looks of it some other customers need to be more understanding ). The employee took it in his stride with a smile, and came out with our food, hot 2 minutes later and apologised for our wait. He also was dealing with other customers, some of whom were not being very nice to him, with a smile and with patience.

The pub itself probably needs a bit of tlc, the food we had was great, but our experience was made by the staff. Well done, Simon- I hope I've got that right, and also well done to the rest of the staff. Not all customers don't understand the pressure hospo workers are under, especially in an environment where you're the only place in town trying to serve 100s of tourists at peak...

5-stars for waiter, Cathy, who seems to have very little support from her team. 4-stars for food and negative stars for everyone else's service and the venue's lack of service systems. While waiting 15-20 minutes at the door to be seated, waiter Cathy was the only person to acknowledge us while 3 other waiters ignored us. We watched her wait an entire section, clear tables, host/seat patrons and run the bar solo, while all others dragged their feet. When we were finally seated, we asked to order immediately because we knew what we wanted and could see the disarray. We were told we could not order and that tables will be served in the order in which they arrived. We waited another 30-minutes and still nobody took our order. We watched tables who arrived after us get served, and our waiter continued to ignore us. We flagged Cathy and she served us immediately and was exceptionally pleasant, very professional and clearly run off her feet with no support. Every face in the venue was clearly disgruntled by the wait times. Patrons were being turned away, purely due to dirty empty tables. Every table around us was complaining or leaving their seat in an attempt to get served. The owner of this venue could at least double their income with correct systems. My tip, give Cathy a pay rise, promote her to manager and create some systems... At least allow patrons to order a drink so they have something to do while they wait, and assign a runner or bar staff. Good food, great location and vibe, but lack of service systems is clearly turning...

Note. I only gave 1 star as I was not able to post with NO stars. In one word pathetic. Not the food as we didn't stay for that but the waiting staff were obviously hired from the local specialty needs centre as they seemed to have trouble grasping the basics of life in general and hospitality in particular. Upon entering we asked for a table of six. We were ushered into the backroom which smelled extremely musty to the point where it was quite unbearable. When we came back and asked the waitress to move back to the main room the answer was that they couldn't accommodate us as they only had tables of 2 or 4. When we asked as to why they couldn't join two tables of 2 and 4 together they looked like stunned mullets trying to grasp the concept. I must admit I've never seen a real stunned mullet but I think I now know exactly what they would look like. Their answer was that they are going to get busy and they needed the tables. I presume it may have been partly our fault for not wearing badges that said CUSTOMERS when we walked in. So we asked to speak to a manager, at this point already deciding to go out but thought we would leave some feedback with someone that understands customer service, but not surprisingly were told that there is no manager on duty and when we asked someone in another part of the establishment, they didn't know who was in charge. Anyhow, we ended up at another place and spent $275. To the owner: get to your place and manage it before your employees destroy your business, while they are...