Black Sheep Geelong — Restaurant in Victoria

This business uses non-legislature compliant "fine-print" to charge surprise surcharges on bill totals.

Consumer Affairs Victoria is very clear regarding surcharges on menus: These words must be displayed at least as visibly as the most prominent price on the menu on the day or days the surcharge applies.

Black Sheep (and other GEHCO properties) use sneaky placement within the dietary requirements and a font approximately 1/2 that of the prices to minimize visibility.

Subsequently the surcharge was not seen by us when dining, (none of us have dietary requirements), which was especially surprising considering that we had looked for surcharge information on their website both prior to and during booking, and there was none.

When the issue was raised upon returning home the Operations Manager of GEHCO answered to push back as if it's simply our fault as customers for not seeing it. However it's fairly absurd to blame someone for not seeing something that you've hidden both by omission and overt design choices.

Based on feedback we've provided they have indicated they plan to make changes to improve pricing transparency, which I suppose is a small admission of fault, and I really hope they do.

The food, drinks and service themselves were great, (albeit a little slow), it's just a real shame about the apparent lack of business ethics and compassion from the Operations Manager in our correspondence.

Had they initially shown care for the issue and been conciliatory and offered literally any token gesture, we'd have waved it away and been happy with them ensuring that they improve pricing transparency for future customers.

Instead they've been only dismissive and defensive, later ignoring us to the point we've made a report to the ACCC, as they shouldn't be allowed to profit from misleading or deceptive conduct.

Obviously not what we were expecting when we visited them for the first time in 16 years after holding our wedding reception there in 2008.

Note that I've ultimately got no issue with a business charging surcharges, charge whatever/however you want as long as it's legal and you ensure customers are given fair treatment and not misled.

UPDATE 2024-09-17: As advised by Consumer Affairs Victoria we issued a 'charge back', providing their menu and emails as evidence. We won the case and have been credited...

Had dinner at 7.30pm on Saturday night. We booked a week in advance on OpenTable.

Firstly the atmosphere is just beautiful. Love the light against the brick wall - it gives such a rustic and authentic feel.

We ordered and the food came out very fast in 15-20 minutes. I found the portions to be quite small but it wasn’t a big deal as we ordered more food. The calamari and prawn entrees were cooked perfectly and delicious. The sweet potato fries were really amazing and definitely the best I’ve had. The pork hock was also tender, juicy and the skin was so crispy however the sauce that went with it was lacklustre. It was too thin for my liking and in my opinion needed to be reduced a bit more to get a thicker/ more viscous sauce. All the dishes were good however could be elevated even further with better sauces. For example the schnitzel was good but instead of serving it with spicy aioli it could be served with a delicious brown gravy. Just my opinion. For dessert we had the spice chai panacotta with poached pear and lemon tart. Panacotta was not bad, I could tell they used agar agar instead of gelatin to make it vegetarian so it wasn’t quite as “bouncy” as the traditional panacotta. The rum poached pear on the side was really great though, it was the highlight of the dish. The lemon tart was also not too bad, love that for both desserts you could have the option of having ice cream on the side.

I found that it was understaffed for a Saturday night but it didn’t take away from the atmosphere as staff tried their best and were so polite and friendly.

Overall we really enjoyed our time here and would definitely be back!...

Made the BEST DECISION to pick the FEED ME option for our family birthday dinner!! :D

We were 6ppl and were delightfully surprised and extremely happy with all the dishes that came out in our FEED ME option! This allowed us to try a wide array of beautiful dishes to choose from and allowed us to share the meals together so no one missed out or felt like they should've chosen this or that dish haha! Starters and side dishes are simply underrated and add such an enticing element to the FEED ME option as well! This also allows newcomers a great introduction to what Black Sheep can offer. None of us have special dietary requirements or allergies but were delighted to know that Black Sheep can cater for such necessities:)

Their cocktail range were highly-rated and so eye-catching!! we also tried the Gin Paddle and were treated to the gorgeous flavours from their Chamber of Gin range! Eva and Darcie served us so eloquently and very positively charming throughout the evening - thank you oh so much for making it memorable!!!!

Our cake that we brought even arrived with some candles lit and happiest of birthdays singing so thank you oh so much to the wonderful Eva and Darcie once again!!!!:D

We also got to try their cute and unbelievably delicious Petite Gin Tarts which honestly finished off the evening on a high note!

Highest compliments to the Chefs and FOH staff as service and food were just beyond 5 stars!! Thank you so much and will be back again!! Have already recommended Black Sheep to our fellow friends...