del Rios Winery and Restaurant — Restaurant in Victoria

Part 2 posted from groom due to word limit on first post by Zoe.

We had paid for buses to bring our guests to the wedding, we also paid additional for welcome drinks on arrival and had discussed with the venue that these would be pre poured and waiting on the bar to avoid long lines. This was not done and the line to get a drink was out the door and down the stairs, with some people not bothering as they didn’t think they’d be able to get a drink prior to the ceremony starting as the line was so long. They had one person at the bar inside and one person outside who didn’t have half of the stuff they needed to serve anyway so was pointless.

Further to this we had discussed with the venue what beers we would like served, within an hour and a half of our wedding starting the venue had run out of beers. A staff member had to drive to Lara to purchase more for the night and they were then served warm.

We also paid for the premium drinks package which included two cocktails as an option for all guests, but we have been told by guests when they asked for them they were told these were only for the bridal party and were not served them.

The staff were so overwhelmed on the night as they were completely understaffed and could not keep up with any of the bars, clearing any food that was left out, guests had to ask for oysters to be cleared as they’d been sitting in the sun finished for 2 hours, there were glasses covering the bar as they couldn’t clear them and huge lines for anyone trying to get a drink. The staff tried their absolute best and it was not their fault but they were completely understaffed which the venue has admitted.

Our dessert option Churros was additionally never served. We did not have a cake as we had included the dessert option for guests but they never came out. Apparently a mis communication with the venue and the kitchen. We were also made aware that the guests were later served ham and cheese sandwiches, we paid for the premium Spanish tapas food option, this certainly was not one of the options we paid for.

Unfortunately it was not only me that was finding it difficult to get responses or answers to questions leading up to the wedding. Two of my suppliers expressed they would not take on clients that were getting married at del Rios as they could never get in contact with them and couldn’t get answers to anything they were trying to get in order to provide quotes for decorations. On the day of the wedding vendors even expressed they couldn’t believe how un prepared the venue was and it was potentially the most unprofessional they had experienced.

Despite the venues initial response to my email accepting all responsibility for the above issues and admitting to all of the failures that had occurred on the day with lost details between wedding coordinator and the venue as well as being totally understaffed and underprepared I was offered a food and wine voucher for del Rios, which given the above issues was an insensitive gesture as we do not wish to be compensated by having dinner at their venue. We have asked to be refunded a small amount (less than 2% of total cost) for all the things that were paid for and not provided as well as items within the contract. To date after having to follow up twice we still have no reply.

We would have liked to have dealt with this privately and have been rather understanding and kind to deal with given the huge impact this had on our day but to leave an issue like this and not rectify it further just shows the lack of care and unprofessional nature of the venue. I don’t wish the above on any other bride so book very carefully. We feel a bit robbed of our day, we made the most of it because you don’t get to do it again, but all of the above could have...

Disappointing “Spanish” Restaurant Experience – Not Worth the Drive or the Price

We drove a long way from Melbourne, excited to try this Spanish restaurant after reading so many glowing reviews. At $85 per person for a three-course meal (excluding drinks), we expected something special. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of the most disappointing winery dining experiences we’ve had.

Food The food felt more like what you’d find at a countryside RSL than an authentic Spanish restaurant. • Entrée: The oyster was the highlight—fresh and delicious. The prawn croquettes tasted like fried mashed potato balls with no trace of prawn in flavor or texture. The fried calamari was decent, but its presentation looked like something from a Coles frozen packet. • Main: I ordered the lamb shank. While it was soft, it was completely flavorless and lacked any spices—definitely no Spanish character. It came with a large sprig of rosemary for decoration, which seemed to be there just to make it look fancy. • Wine: We shared a bottle of rosé from Del Rios. I’m not usually a fan of rosé, but this was actually very nice. • Coffee: I ordered an iced soy latte, but it was undrinkably bitter. My husband kindly let the staff know, and they replaced it—but the second one wasn’t any better. • Kids Menu: Only two choices—meatballs or chicken nuggets with chips. We chose meatballs. While they were tasty (especially the chips), they were far too salty for children and clearly not made with kids in mind.

Service We arrived 5 minutes early for our 1:00 PM booking and stood at the reception for a while because all the staff were busy. Although they were friendly, the service didn’t feel professional. For example: • We asked for a baby’s plate, which was forgotten. • After replacing the coffee, no one followed up to ask how the second one was. It was meant to be a special Mother’s Day lunch, and waiting with a hungry baby while things were being missed didn’t help.

Atmosphere The venue has a beautiful panoramic winery view with adorable llamas around the grounds. Unfortunately, the gravel parking area was steep, loose, and hard to navigate with a pram—I actually fell while holding my baby (he’s okay, but I scraped and bled my knees). Not ideal or safe.

Toilets were more like portable ones attached to the building. There’s a nice balcony and a lower deck, which another group was using as a kids’ area—that space looked perfect for small parties.

Overall A beautiful setting and good wine, but the food was overpriced and underwhelming—definitely not Spanish, and not what you expect for a special occasion meal. For $422, we expected something memorable. Sadly, what we got was a lamb shank and barramundi-level pub lunch that fell way short. “No Spanish food served on a Spanish restaurant’s special menu”—a real letdown.

Be extra careful in the car park, and manage expectations if you’re coming...

(Part 1 due to word count )

Unfortunately I am posting a negative review after trying to deal with the many issues that occurred at my wedding privately with the venue but as it has been 6 weeks since my wedding and they don’t care enough to finalise an outcome with me after admitting full fault to the issues and waiting weeks between replies from them I feel that other potential brides should make an informed decision before booking here, or cancel their booking entirely. We had 114 guests for a cocktail style wedding.

The whole process and lead up to the wedding was difficult to say the least with a lack of communication and a wedding coordinator that was working remotely from Belgium who then left prior to my wedding so there was no wedding coordinator in attendance which was something listed within the wedding contract as well as a floor supervisor for the night.

So many of our details that were in writing and clarified on a few occasions were completely lost on our day.

My mum arrived to the venue one hour before the ceremony started to find the decorations and ceremony room had not been set up at all, she frantically started trying to get this together with my family after asking the venue what was going on and why this wasn’t set up ready to go. My mum couldn’t get it all done in time before guests started arriving so had to do the best she could. I had sent a PowerPoint presentation with a diagram of all decorations locations and the items del Rios were setting up, we had delivered all of these items on the Friday and discussed it. We set up the rest of the venue on the Friday and the ceremony room was the only decorations the venue had to place as they had a dinner service on the Friday so we couldn’t set up this room ourselves. The venue had also not been cleaned and it was very unorganised but that was just the start..

After trying to test the music and speakers repeatedly on the Friday night before the wedding to ensure a seamless day we were told the required cord wasn’t available but would all be fine and work numerous ways on the day. Of course as I was arriving my MC could not get the speakers to work and the staff inside at the time did not know how to make the venue speakers work either. There was then going to be limitations to where he could stand so the celebrant ended up having to offer her speakers for him to use to play the aisle music for myself and bridal party as nobody could get the venue speakers to work. (No Bluetooth connectivity, aux cords...