Maestro at Geelong Quarter — Restaurant in Victoria

We decided to come here for our anniversary in early December and were quite excited. We went on a Wednesday night and there were only 5 other tables occupied in the entire restaurant.

On arrival we should have realised our experience would not be what we had hoped.

We walked into the restaurant and stood near the desk waiting to be seated. A female waitress who appeared to be flicking through papers looked up and saw us standing there before quickly moving her eyes back down to the papers .. no acknowledgment, no I’ll be with you in a minute … nothing.

We then had a young male waiter walk straight past us and into the kitchen. Albeit he was holding plates but again he looked at us before moving his eyes away and saying nothing …

We stood there for a few more minutes before the female waiter walked over to the pass to pick up food to take out to a table .. it was only then that she acknowledged us yet we still waited to be seated. Finally we were attended to by a completely different waiter altogether who appeared from nowhere.

We were seated and given our drinks menu. We ordered drinks quickly. My husbands red wine came out within a few minutes. I then waited nearly 10 minutes for a glass of Prosecco… unbeknownst to me why it took that long for my drink when both could be delivered together.

The highlight of the night was the food. The steak was cooked to perfection! We also had the small goods plate which was very good however we found a tab bit oily.

Whilst we were eating dinner the waiter and waitress started packing up the tables around us which was extremely distracting and took away from the ambience of the night.

Once dinner finished we were given our dessert menu and then waited 20 minutes to order dessert. We were almost about to leave when the female waitress re- attended our table. During this time I watched the staff packing up tables, socialising with each other .. and we felt somewhat forgotten.

We ordered and again the food was good.

Whilst we understand you need to have fun at work the whole thing just felt very unprofessional and left a bad taste in our mouth (even thought the food was delicious). We paid nearly $300 for our evening and to be honest it wasn’t really worth it. We never usually go out for dinner but thought we would do it to celebrate our anniversary. The lack of attentiveness by the staff really put a dampener on the night.

I’ll be spending my money...

Christmas Lunch 2024:

My 2023 review was absolutely well-deserved. Sorry to say, but this year, Christmas dinner was no where near as generous as the year before, albeit very nice. I went back and checked last year’s photos to ensure that I am being fair. The food is good. However, something was seriously wrong in coordinating service in both the kitchen and dining room, and all together it affected the Christmas atmosphere. Suffice to say that last year’s gold star is not as bright in 2024.

Christmas Lunch 2023: Five stars!!!

Sensational. Dined at Maestro for Christmas Lunch...and, was not disappointed. When we booked, we queried the menu offerings, thinking that we had to choose a dish from each grouping, but were advised, no - you get everything on the Christmas Menu!!! Such generous servings. Coffin Bay oysters plump and fresh, beautiful Mooloolaba king prawns, brilliant charcuterie, tuna tartare and gorgeous house smoked salmon. This was just entree, to be followed by mains of whole grilled calamari, gnocchi, juicy pork belly and medium-rare flat-iron steak - all so good. A lovely bottle of local pinot from a regionally focussed wine list was just the right partner for a delicious meal. Dessert - like we really needed more food by this stage - was the classic generously portioned tiramisu, and a freshening eton mess. We took the cheese platter to our room for later. Yes, we stayed the night at the hotel (Holiday Inn- also really good) after our sumptuous lunch.

This was a great menu; and the best part is that I think we sampled the whole restaurant menu, which means that it will also be available to choose from on our next visit.

The restaurant is new, fresh and well laid out. The staff are friendly, professional and made our Christmas Lunch special.

Well done. ...

We were here last night for dinner to celebrate my partner’s and his mum’s birthdays (4 for early dinner at 6). As it was an early dinner, there weren’t too many in the restaurant when we arrived. Although the wait staff were pleasant and helpful, the kitchen, bar service and food were terrible. We waited over half an hour for our first drinks order to arrive and a long wait for the food. I ordered the linguini with prawns and mussels which was pretty much inedible. It consisted of a small mound of very over cooked water sogged pasta with no seasoning or any kind of sauce or even olive oil. The seafood was 4 small prawns which were tasteless and and on the verge of being undercooked along with 4 mussels (one of the mussel shells was empty and the other three contained mussels that were lucky to be the size of the fingernail on my little finger). I ate the prawns and the tiny mussels but the pasta itself could not be eaten as there was absolutely no taste to the soggy mess in the bottom of the bowl. One of the sides ordered (pear and rocket salad for $15) basically consisted of a handful of rocket with a sprinkling of Parmesan and four very very thin slices of pear on top. Again, no seasoning and just a squeeze of lemon. Like one of the reviews below, we were presented with a bowl of very overcooked chips (again they were not edible) as a apology from the chef for the long wait for our food. Given the prices charged, the food really wasn’t fit to be served. My partner’s mother had been before without issue which is why we booked but we will definitely not...