The Royal Hotel Drouin — Restaurant in Victoria

I feel awful for having to leave this here, but given the fact I never received a reply to the two emails I sent enquiring about booking their function room, as well as an email regarding our booking (that only went ahead cause they replied to my husbands emails not mine), I feel sending this via email will again land nowhere.

I'd like to start by saying that this is nothing to do with the staff. We've gone there for dinner and/or drinks many times and they're all lovely and fun with great service. The pub also does great food - the pub itself is a solid 5 stars.

Where things fell flat was the function side of things (which is why I've gone in between with 3 stars). The room is fantastic and has a lot of potential, but it is evident that they need a function/events manager. As mentioned, I sent two emails a few weeks apart as each time I went to enquire in person, the owner was always sick or on holidays. Neither email got a reply. Just for fun I got my husband to email them and he got a reply the next day and given the close proximity to our house plus good hire rate, we booked though I was a bit apprehensive given how things had kicked off.

I noted throughout our exchanges with them, everything was very wishy washy. We may or may not need security but we'll "figure it out closer to" (which at $250 had me concerned). They told us they'd reach out a week before the event to organise food, which we ended up emailing on the Monday before as we hadn't heard anything which they replied "email us a week before the event and we will sort food". Concerning they clearly didn't realise this event was in 5 days time and they had told us they'd contact us. They told my husband to come in the next day, but he was working so I went in which the owner (who was lovely) seemed a bit confused on who I was/what event I was there for etc.

The actual night of the event when we got to the room, the men's toilets were out of action and women's toilets were not in a state for a function which we had to ask to clean. No one had asked us about table set up (which we were told they would) so I had to move all the tables out and stack them myself. Then while talking to staff she mentioned we would have security for the event which sent me into a panic cause no one had told us theyd been hired. Turned out to be another miscommunication and we didnt have security. We were told we would have a manager on duty but she was in and out of the room - obviously looking after the whole place rather than just the event. I asked for our cakes to come out during speeches and told the bartender were starting in 5 minutes. As anticipated, the cakes did not come out for about 20 minutes after we'd asked them to and we had to ask 3 more times which when they did bring it out, forgot to bring a knife to cut it which we had to go and ask for. We then had to ask about a dozen times to turn off the house lights which the bartender couldn't work out (not his fault - but whoever was in charge should have shown him where the switches were). We also asked about doing a bubble o bill shot which we were told we'd have to go out to the main bar as he didn't have the ingredients. 15 of us made our way to the bar to order and one of my friends pointed out we were being charged more than the advertised price on the board. It was only $1 more however its the principal that was being questioned not the amount. The manager quite rudely said "well if you're worried about the price/a dollar (I didn't quite catch it), WP shots are $6" which missed the point.

All together it really put a dampener on the night and I felt like I couldn't enjoy fully myself cause I was essentially managing my own event and having to point things out/ask multiple times for things etc.

This place really has a lot of potential and if the owners invest in someone who specialises in events they'd probably make a killing! I really am so sorry to leave this here but I really wanted to pass on this feedback so RHD can fulfil...

First time visiting won't retune ,

-Came on a Thursday, there were no seats available apart from a tall table for 6 ( only 2 of us). Prompted the waiter and asked to sit outside instead. We were happy to sit outside found a table but they were dirty with dirt. I said ohhh bit dirty may need a wipe 2 times and the waiter didn't get the hint it may need a wipe. Was out in the cold and he stated ill turn the heaters on for you guys ( Never got turned on even when it started poring with rain). Didn't get any cutlery or salt and pepper or any explanation where or how to order :/

ordered a long island with cranberry and it came out glowing pink like cough syrup . After looking at it and 1 sip i knew it wasn't right and tasted hurriedness. Think this was a combination or cheep ingredients and liquor and maybe lack of cocktail experience. i politely went to a bar staff member and said this drink isn't quite right trying to explain i have these regularly and its not quite correct. Normal circumstance they would offer a replacement or something else or a refund and after 5 min of back and forth and me standing there with customers watching in embarrassment they agreed to get me another drink. Idk why it had to be so difficult and very embarrassing having to argue with staff that a drink taste like medicine especially when there is a $20 price tag on all cocktails..... This made us worried to get the rest of our meal

other then this the young lady with brown hair that served our food was extremely nice and helpful and did a great job with service hats off to her. Even getting us cutlery as the person who seated us didn't bring. this lady also kindly brought us a side salad as it was missed when ordering online. and grabbing some lemon for the chicken. Well done :)

The chips were good but the chicken schnitzel was not great, was a bit soggy and tasted like a freezer schnitzel not homemade like my partner got in his chicken burger. maybe one of the worst iv had. Gravy was good

been told this place was good buy locals as we looking at moving to this area but definitely wont be coming to the restaurant again after spending $100 and leaving with a bad experience and still hungry on the way out :(

Very...

Extremely disappointed! Tuesday night weekly is date for me and my partner. Over the past few months we have tried some of the nicest places in Gippsland and beyond and have been impressed time and time again. Tonight we decided to go to the newly renovated royal hotel in Drouin. Disappointed. The service was poor, we had to go and seek out staff to get seated even though the ‘restaurant’ was empty. The food was repulsive - pork belly tacos that were served with possibly fermented coleslaw and raw tacos? The tacos were stale and stone cold, they snapped in half as soon as you went to bend them. Over half the plate of food was sent back 5 minutes after being served as we had stopped eating it. The waiter made no comment and seemed to have no interest in asking us about our meals. How does a business like this expect to get any feedback, positive or negative, if the wait staff are that clueless in what they are doing that they don’t seek to find out what is wrong with a meal that is barely touched. The atmosphere was also very disappointing. Very noisy to the point where I could barely hear my partner express her disappointment in the meal she had been served. Will most definitely not be returning until drastic improvements...