The Dispensary Bar & Diner — Restaurant in Victoria

My husband, Patrick, and I travelled to Bendigo on Easter Sunday for the Festival and ended up finding this 💎 gem of a restaurant. We started off with cocktails 🍸, selected the 'Lucky Seven' for our lunch (a cross-section of 👨‍🍳 chef's selection of 7 dishes for the day and this delicious food was accompanied by a bottle of Rose wine. The food was sensational and, honestly, every bite felt like a party in our mouths!!! Desserts were also sensational...I am not often impressed by what's out there anymore... however, this establishment was pure joy - from beginning to end!!! Not only is the venue quirky (but elegant), and also having outdoor seating under cover in a funky lane, the whole ambience/atmosphere had a great vibe!! The energy of the whole venue was next level; the servers were all enthusiascally polite, the owner, Finn, was such an engaging personality, it became clear to me how and why he made such a success of his restaurant!!! He is THE man and his chef and staff are a reflection of his discerning taste. Everything, from the decor, glasses, dishes, etc. was impeccable 👌. Truly, the food, service, drinks and the whole experience was so thoroughly enjoyed - I am still thinking about it the next day!! We will come back and will not bother dining anywhere else when coming back to Bendigo. So.... for me to write such a long review is unusual. In a word: WOW❣️ what a great place and I cannot wait to eat here...

This was one of the worse meals we have had in a long time and left us feeling very disappointed and ripped off. We will not be going back to this venue again, there are much better eateries in Bendigo. We cannot complain about the staff or the service, our waiter was quick witted and pleasant to deal with. The food however left us wondering if Macca’s would have been a better choice. What we had was the Lucky Seven (will be know to us as: Un-Lucky Seven – ‘Not so’ Harmonious selection of their favorites).

It consisted of: Rice crackers, umami seasoning – So Salty they were horrid. Edamame, smoked miso & ginger dressing – After the rice crackers this at least had some flavor. Grilled scallop, glass noodles, garlic oil, coriander – These were nice and well cooked. Xinjiang lamb skewer, coriander mayonnaise, pickled onions – Very nice and the sauce was flavorsome. Beef carpaccio, smoked ponzu dressing, daikon, pickled ginger – Best dish of the night. Miso egg noodles, pork belly lardons, white funghi, salted yolk – JUST HORRIBLE! Too much salt, pepper or what ever it was that they put in there. Iceberg lettuce, roasted sesame dressing, smoked almonds, fried shallots – Lacked any resemblance of a pleasant flavor. The wife, who normally likes these types of dishes, said it was tasteless, (although our taste buds were probable destroyed from...

New ownership have made some slight changes and one big one. Service was exceptional, very welcoming without being pretentious. Drinks were great although the once incredible wine and beer list has somewhat diminjshed (unless I missed something which is entirely possible). The kitchen has also changed hands and it shows. We ordered the porthouse and the duck off the mains menu. Our meals were cooked very well but to be honest were amazingly small for a mains menu item and were nothing to write home about. Quite plain fare to be honest,again it was cooked well but lacked enough punch to justify being such a tiny serve. The sizes were also disproportionate as the syeak meal was twice the size of the duck and came with an additional side? The additional green salad we got was so cold that we couldn't actually eat it. Desserts were nice although a bit underwhelming again - the truffles had obviously come out of a freezer as the middle of the dice-sized portions were actually still frozen in the middle when we got them. Overall on the right track but have a ways to go. Would be happy to go back and try again in...