Claribeaux — Restaurant in Victoria

[ ] Greeting - flat “No” to seat near fire. Told completely booked but later observed clearly free tables. Also told story about 180pax in a belligerent way and no changes to be made. [ ] Went to order no drinks menu [ ] Drinks menu arrived - went to order bottle - out of stock! Not shown on menu and waiter had knowledge of out of stock - How about being proactive? [ ] Asked about promo in pamphlet - didn’t know - asked manager - returned to say hadn’t had training and promo hadn’t started yet clearly shown on pamphlet “During Dinner Service 20/6/25- 20/7/25” [ ] Ordering kids meal- were not asked when we wanted it to arrive - another waitress came later to ask. [ ] Kids fish and chips - Arrive with vegetables instead of salad and very over cooked fish. Batter wasn’t golden and near burnt. Kids didn’t like it. I sampled fish and it was dry. Better fish and chips at local shop. [ ] Steak - dry on outside but not seared and crisp. Hotplate cooked on not hot enough or steak had not been prepped properly. Steak bland and unseasoned. Bernaise sauce bland - no tarragon flavour. [ ] Chips with both meals were not hot. [ ] Dessert - meringue suisse - rhubarb not cooked and bitter acidic taste - inedible [ ] Checkout - No greet or questions about experience [ ] Docket - confusing kids meal split up [ ] Entirely poor experience on all facets. Will never return. Will...

This place is sinfully underrated! If we never dug deep for a restaurant that was open on Monday nights, we would’ve never stumbled across claribeaux. And what a shame that would’ve been! We had the escargot and steak tartare for entree and they were beautifully done with quality ingredients. The steak main was tender and melt in your mouth and (for once in a long time) actually cooked to medium rare. The ocean trout was lovely with the beurre Blanc sauce. Mussels were amazing and that’s from someone that doesn’t like mussels! The desserts were okay and it rounded out the whole experience.

Interestingly, everything was beautifully done except one thing - missing a pinch of salt. There is almost something theatrical about doing a perfectly cooked steak and a beurre Blanc sauce, just to not make it salty enough to make it sing. Fine by us though as there is salt on the table and we helped ourselves. Yes, the tempo of the service err on the slower side and you do need to pour your own water or catch their attention. As long as you are aware of this and make your request when they come around asking how the food was, it will never be an issue.

Less than 100 dollars per head for this fine dining quality of food - what more...

Been to this restaurant many times, and have had wonderful experiences. Alas something has changed.

The food was almost tasteless and the service pleasant but extremely slow ( we had to ask for our wine after selecting it 20 minutes before....not conducive to ordering more !!). Not sure if the chef has changed, but the food was unacceptable for a restaurant of this standard.

TASTE OF FRANCE was the logo for our meal. We decided to try it, as we had previously always chosen a la carte. The French Onion soup was enjoyed by my partner, and she said the mussels were reasonable, however my lamb was awful, as was our guests cordon blue chicken. Absolutely no taste. Sadly I ordered Creme Caramel for dessert. It was runny and without flavour! Taste of France?

We will never return, nor will we be recommending the place to friends (as we have done previously). I also found it extremely annoying that I had to reconfirm my booking on three occasions. Interestingly, I did the survey as requested, gave a similar review to this without any follow up call. All one way.

I hope the owner reads the bad reviews as well as the good ones, as things need to return to...