The Mill Echuca — Restaurant in Victoria

it takes a special kind of dining experience to create an account just to post a review... my wife's bday - and it was such a lacklustre visit that I felt compelled to share it. I made sure to inform our hosts that it was a bday dinner - we weren't expecting anything from this - but maybe a 'happy birthday' would've indicated that our hosts had actually reviewed our booking. There was no music! I mean, that's not a big thing for a lot of people, but for others (incl us!) it creates a sense of atmosphere. Instead, we got to hear about the table of four next to us talking about their dalmatians' hypothyroidism and sphincter dysplasmia. Dinner for my wife was the Brussels Sprouts and Pea and Halloumi Fritters, which were the best part of our evening. When Brussels Sprouts are the top of our shared list, I'm certainly questioning some life choices. I had the salmon, on an overcooked white bean ragu with two meagre slices of chorizo. Chef had done a solid job of cooking the salmon to get a nice crispy skin, but then had left it stewing until it had turned into a texture resembling an old tire that the ever-inventive engineers of the Paddle Steamer Canberra used as a belt between the governor and the blow-off valve. I get it; salmon isn't a native to the Murray - but Cod wasn't on the menu and I can still make a better version with Aldi frozen salmon. Glad I ordered the bowl of fries, which filled us both with carbs and aioli to make us sated. We literally could've walked out of the restaurant - we had to chase somebody down to pay. Three stars to our serving staff though; they were lovely if...

Lovely soulful venue with live music that really set the tone. Service was nice and friendly. Food was good and tasty. We appreciate the Chef and team to explore middle eastern and in particularly Asian flavours. The steamed Mussels and Udon with greens was too salty though a great attempt using Asian flavours. I would use less soy sauce and dilute it with water, citrus or a broth to balance the soy and oyster sauce for the stem mussels. The use of soy for the udon was too much as it made the dish very salty. A cold balanced soy based broth that’s been chilled or a warm bone-soy broth would have been better. The use of soy sauce in Asian cuisines is not the same as using passata in pastas. It’s usually a couple teaspoons diluted with a broth/water etc to balance. Everything else was fantastic. The Korean meatballs with nuoc cham, which I suspect was heavily influenced by a popular northern Vietnamese dish “Bun Cha” as the flavours was very similar and was very tasty. The highlight was the beef cheeks Rendang for me, very different with just a hint of rendang flavour. Would have loved a little more rendang thick sauce, in saying that the beef cheeks was extremely tender and absolutely delicious. Overall we really enjoyed it and can see the attention to details in presentations and really appreciate the courage to explore south east and middle eastern flavours. Well...

Food was tasty, but the experience was really let down by very poor service. Many items were unavailable, but we we weren't told until we tried to order them. Then, we ordered a couple of small plates as a starter and a large plate with a side as a main, but everything came out at the same time, meaning the large plate and side were cold by the time we got to them. Come on guys, think about it, two people don't want that much food all at once! There were other things too, like having to ask 3 times where our wine was after the table of 6 next to us arrived after us, ordered, and received mixed drinks all before we were brought a bottle of wine. Also, we asked for water and the bottle was taken and the guy never returned, so we had to ask someone else. At the end, we were left for ages with no one coming to check on us, so I had to get up and find someone to take a dessert order. You've obviously spent millions on that place, so please think harder about your processes and train your...