The Stables — Restaurant in Victoria

owner is rude, food quality inedible. Save your money and go somewhere else unless you like being degraded, and eating low quality food.

Visited today as part of the Macedon Ranges Pie Trail, my fourth stop of the day, and I regret it.

The venue itself is charming, with a lovely setup and a wood-fired pizza oven, and I initially thought it might be a great place to bring my partner on a cozy winter day. This is where the positives end.

The main problem I faced during my visit, was the owners attitude. For a number of reasons on a number of occasions.

Firstly, when we arrived, apart a couple sitting outside, we were the only patrons. Between lunch and dinner services, this is normal. There were plenty of signs saying during peak times table service is unavailable (alongside signs requesting patience due to being short staffed) we asked the owner if we could have a table for 2 and about the ordering process. The owners response was to laugh at us as if we were crazy, wave around to all of the empty tables but confirm it was counter ordering and to sit anywhere, mentioning that the pizza menu was unavailable.

When waiting at the counter to order (for the better part of 5 mins) the owner was standing close by having a leisurely conversation with someone and asked me to wait they’ll be with me shortly several times I was happy to wait and had made no comment around being hasty. While I was looking around there was a sign saying they preferred cash payments on the front of the register and a laundry list of reasons why, starting with avoiding processing fees and ending with “stop the ATO from tracking your movements”. This seemed strange as below the sign was also options for payID and EFT (funds transfer), which leads me to believe it is a tax evasion strategy, while maintaining one of the biggest legal tax havens there is - a business.

When the owner comes to take my order mentioning the lemon tart for the pie trail (mind you I did not require my map to be stamped as I had already filled 2 maps during my time in the ranges this month) I order my tart mentioning that we have been doing the pie trail today. To which the owner responds by scoffing at me remarking “I knew it would be like that” before I even had a chance to mention my coffee. I considered canceling my order and leaving, but my friend is waiting for me so I add my coffee into the order and join them.

Once I sat down I immediately regretted my decision to stay and this was only further exasperated when the tart and coffee arrived. The tart had clearly been sitting in the fridge for days, it had developed the “fridge taste” and once the coffee arrived it was practically undrinkable. The coffee that been heated so hot that it was scorching, i almost burnt my mouth. Once it had cooled down all I could taste was burnt milk. The quality of coffee could have been anything I couldn’t tell over the milk. Safe to say we left most of it on the table when we left.

I’m not normally one to avoid sharing my thoughts discreetly when things go awry with food, but after my initial interaction with the owner, I was desperate to have no further interactions with him. While the food could use a lot of improvement, the biggest issue this place has is with the owner’s attitude and behavior. It is most unwelcoming, and it wouldn’t matter if they had the best food in town—the behaviour is abhorrent.

After reading other reviews, it’s evident that these issues are common —poor treatment of both staff and customers.

Given the owner’s previous responses to other reviews, I fully expect them to attempt to slander or discredit my experience, as they have done to many others who’ve provided feedback. This tactic, unfortunately, seems to be a well-worn strategy for business owners who have no intention of addressing or improving on the constructive criticism given to them.

While I look forward to coming to the region again soon, I will never return to this venue unless they have a complete...

This review is intended to provide feedback on what was a negative & rather horrible dining experience in more ways than one. I won't elaborate on all of the issues as such, but I hope both owners can take this feedback in a constructive & accountable manner rather than shifting blame and becoming abhorrently dismissive, as per many previous reviews that customers have made, which also interestingly highlight several of the same issues that we experienced while dining at The Stables.

Firstly, Gina was not only rude but also dismissive, arrogant, physically disrespectful and overall unpleasant to all guests. It was clear from the start that we were most unwelcome at The Stables, more so as we were a group of families with children who were very well behaved and supervised at all times, at no point were the children running/walking around, noisy, unsupervised or being disruptive- if they were to become disruptive at any point we would have politely left. However the children were quietly engaged in colouring in at the table which is most appropriate for the restaurant, guests & children.

At one point Gina pushed me out of the way physically to clear plates from the table, I was unable to move to assist Gina in clearing the table as I was nursing my little one and midway though a conversation with a friend. This came at quite the shock, a simple 'excuse me' would have been appropriate and we could have assisted to clear the table. We were also still eating our meal as plates were being cleared which was made it difficult to assist Gina in clearing the table, this was most disruptive while eating. I'll also note the restaurant was completely empty on a weekend evening with the exception of one couple on the very far side of the venue and a small number of takeaway guests.

The meals were relatively fast from ordering and nice enough without being amazing, however we felt the portion size was very small for the cost of the meal. For example, the moussaka was $39 as a main dish which included one very small square of moussaka and a small side salad consisting of lettuce leaves & a small amount of tomato and cucumber that was heavily dressed in balsamic. We absolutely understand and appreciate the cost of living on a small business, however we believe the cost and serving size is unjustified in this instance.

Gina, it seems that you despise your role in hospitality and serving guests, it would be best to have a friendly and welcoming staff member on front of house who is willing to assist guests during the dining experience. I do note that there were no other waitstaff other than the owners & there were advertisements for positions for front of house staff. This really makes me wonder if anyone would truly enjoy being part of a hostile team who clearly go out of the way to make guests feel unwelcome and a burden.

I truly feel as a business that you will not thrive long term with poor customer service skills and quite frankly, disrespectful behaviour. Word of mouth and reviews really do make a difference in the hospitality industry and I hope that you may reflect on your actions towards paying guests. I truly feel robbed of what could have been an excellent dining experience with our friends.

And no I did not feel safe or comfortable to bring this to your attention on the evening that we dined. It's seems you request feedback as per previous customer reviews but it seems nothing has been taken onboard given that our experience has been similar to others who have also left a review.

I hope this might be a learning opportunity for your team otherwise I would suggest to others, steer clear. There are many other wonderful venues that respect and value their guests and strive for excellence.

I hope your reply shows dignity & grace as opposed to blaming paying diners as per previous comments & replies. However I value that others can understand your behaviour in order to decide whether to visit your restaurant or to...

This was not just a bad restaurant, but something actually more sinister… it’s an utter scam! It’s parading around as a warm, homely environment within this small town, but instead it’s a place that downright doesn’t feed you, won’t acknowledge it’s long list of short-comings, and instead attacks and gaslights it’s diners if any concerns are addressed.

I paid 45$ to be part of a catered ‘feast’ last Saturday night, and it was a complete disaster.

We received a tiny portion of a lentil dish (maybe a tablespoon worth for each person) and an aubergine-pepper salad (again a small tablespoon worth). They tasted mediocre despite the tiny amount, but little did I know at the time that the entrees would be the “highpoint”, since at least they tasted like actual food.

After waiting over 2 hours for the ‘main-dishes’, they provided only a couple of small pizzas (some of them were even served as halves). When evenly distributed, like many others, I ended up only getting one measly slice of a very small pizza….which I guess makes it the most expensive pizza I have ever eaten! (45$ x 8 slices = a 360$ pizza!)

Meanwhile, the taste of this pizza was terrible! It was so incredibly chewy and dry, it tasted like the flour was sawdust, and cooked with diluted tomato sauce and powdered cheese...how does something taste so bland yet terrible at the same time?

If I had known that this was what we had waited over 2 hours for, we could have just driven back to Melbourne, buy some Pizzahut and drive back to Malmsbury. It would have been tastier, quicker and more honest.

They had also run out of red wine of course, luckily, I could get some cheaper wine from the bottle shop next door and bring it in (and am genuinely happy over this, since I did not support this establishment any further).

What’s worse, is that instead of the owner taking responsibility and apologising over this disaster, they just dismissed the complaints of hungry diners and went on the defensive over not giving enough food….they shut us down and shouted at us very rudely that they were “spreading” the meals, as a pathetic excuse for simply not having enough. Looking at past reviews and talking to Malmsbury locals about this place, I can see this is a pattern…. by going on the defensive and dismissing this review and just point out positive reviews, just as they always seem to do in the face of any criticism (they will likely even respond to this review in that way).

At the end of the night, they put on their warm and hospitable act, after viciously attacking us so personally. Instead of taking responsibility and apologising, they even had the audacity to say to our group “if your bellies still have room, we have dessert” which felt like a mockery after feeding us so little food. But at this point we had had enough, and luckily we had food and dessert at home.

Literally the only positive thing I can say, is that the waiters were hard-working and constantly refilling our water jugs (because they had nothing else to offer us). None of this was their fault however, I had real sympathy and 2nd hand embarrassment for them. If those in charge even gave a 10th of the effort shown by the waiters, this so-called “restaurant” could at least warrant the tag.

This was the first time that I have left a "restaurant" not just feeling hungry, but feeling violated. I am not exaggerating when I say I’ve been to restaurants in literal war-zones that are more genuinely hospitable, provide more and better food, and at least treat you like a...