Huski Kitchen — Restaurant in Victoria

There's a reason this restaurant was completely empty. We will not be going back, and we implore you not to waste your time either.

The attitude from the floor manager was abysmal and incredibly disappointing, especially given that the proprietor was there observing. We booked for 6:30 PM but called in the afternoon to inform them that two members of our party had tested positive for COVID. We asked if we could cancel without incurring the $80 fee due to the circumstances and our desire not to risk infecting other patrons and staff. We were told that we would be charged regardless and that it was impossible to waive the fee on their 'backend system'. Our options were to attend or order takeaway. I mentioned we might do takeaway, but she informed me that the staff 'didn't want to hang around the phones all night,' and we had to come to the restaurant to order in person.

We decided to dine in rather than attend, order, and wait for the food to be prepared before walking back to our accommodation. A polite waitress seated us and provided menus. We noticed the only option was a $65 per person menu, which included a starter and a main. None of us could eat that much food and were concerned about food wastage, as we had a late lunch and planned on sharing a few starters and mains for a light meal.

As we considered our options, we overheard the same lady we spoke to on the phone joking with a group of customers that they were "an extremely non-allergy friendly restaurant" – completely contrary to their menu's claims and highly inappropriate, especially since one of our group has severe food intolerances and allergies. The group of customers left after hearing this.

We asked our waitress if we could order a couple of starters and mains instead of being required to order four starters and four mains. The waitress brought over the same lady from the phone and who made the inappropriate allergy comment – presumably the floor manager. We explained our concern, to which she replied that the starters were extremely small, which didn't make to us sense given the $65 set fee. She was unempathetic, failed to understand our concerns, and insisted the set menu was non-negotiable.

We then asked if we could order a few items for takeaway instead of the $65 per person menu. Again, she insisted this was non-negotiable for takeaway as well, and it would need to be the set menu. After reading the reviews once we returned home, this seems very strange given the restuarant has replied to multiple reviews confirming that the takeaway menu is à la carte? This inconsistent treatment of customers is incredibly upsetting.

At this point, we felt increasingly uncomfortable with how the floor manager treated us and other customers. We decided to leave, unimpressed with our experience. We communicated to the floor manager that our disappointment begun when she confirmed we would be charged for cancellation, regardless of our six hours' notice due to two of us having COVID. She said, "it's really hard for us to rebook the tables as it is such a small venue," which was odd since it was a Sunday night, and the restaurant was empty aside from our table.

It quickly became clear why all the other nearby restaurants were packed, and this one was not. The floor manager was dismissive, unaccommodating and overall quite unimpressive given she is front of house and has a direct impact on a customer's experience.

We left, marking the first occasion where we have ever needed to leave a restaurant due to poor service. Our sick members returned home, and the remaining two of us went to Astra down the road, where we were immediately met with hospitable and welcoming staff, delicious cocktails, great food, and a...

Food was great, however main courses arrived before starters and then all courses were on the table at once. The GF dishes were much later than the rest even though the restaurant was not busy at the time. Everything was unnecessarily rushed when it didnt need to be, we were rudely told by a waitress "We are a fast paced restaurant". The poor service and rudeness by our main waitress ruined the experience for us. Also the menu on website was slightly different, listing more allergen free meals than were available in the restaurant which was very disappointing. We chose Husky Kitchen because it seemed to offer a variety of GF mains. Dan Dan noodles, and the Lamb ribs mains were listed as GF on the website but were not GF on the...

Whilst I can appreciate why the dine in option is 'set menu' only during these covid times, I won't be dining in again unless there's an option for alacarte. Their takeaway menu seems to be more flexible though.

Recommend - fried chicken, coconut sago

Not great - duck noodles (soup was luke warm, rice noodles weren't cooked proper as the texture was al dente/crunchy), banana spring rolls (banana tasted like sweet potato rather than banana)

Edit: so presumptuous of the response to think we only wanted to order one dish. LOL. Actually we were a table of 6 and wanted to order a few more mains than the allotted dishes in the set menu … but was told...