Hogan's Cafe & Bar Restaurant — Restaurant in Wallan

Where do I start. There's at least four things I need to express. Mind you, I'm not the sort of person to leave negative feedback. But after today's experience, you couldn't pay me to return.

I live in Beveridge. Hence, my number one choice of restaurant is your establishment. I have been coming here for the past 3-4 years. I am dumbfounded, I am shocked and surprised by the lack of service I received.

First and foremost, we arrived at 4:30pm. Between the entrance to the restaurant to being seated, we were reminded (without exaggeration) four times that we could be seated (out reservation was booked in for 5pm) but we were not able to order as the kitchen opens at 5pm. Fine! Okay! We get it. No need to repeatedly remind your customers. Especially when no one's actually opened the menu or even asked if the kitchen was opened in the first place?

Secondly, we were THE ONLY ONES IN THE RESTAURANT! I ordered from the counter. Which is disappointing as table service was the traditional process. But that's fine. Not a biggie. The issue I do have, however, is the fact that when I ordered 4 drinks, I was told to pick up a tray and do it myself! Why??? Am I also expected to cook the food as well??? I would expect this from a fast paced restaurant inner city. Not at a restaurant where there's 10 employees and 3 customers. Am I not paying for some basic service?

Thirdly, I ordered a medium stake with mushroom sauce. All four of Us on the table agreed that there was more blood on the stake than there was in my body. The mushroom sauce tasted more like gravey than it did mushroom. It was nowhere near "fresh," and tasted like a Coles packaged food. $40 plate with an undercooked COLD stake? What's disappointing is the fact that the restaurant had not become busy. So why the hell would they bring out cold food is bind boggling. My wife ordered Lamb shanks (full size) and my daughter the Chicken Scallopini (half size). They were drenched, dripping in the sauce. That's all they tasted. Was sauce. Nothing else. The cooking was horrendous!

Finally, we booked for a table of three and arrived 30 minutes early. We asked to be seated next to the windows. We were told they were reserved. Again, not a biggie!! This is where the "however" comes in. However, two other tables came in, We were seated at table 2 (to put it in context). We CLEARLY overhead the customers say they didn't have a booking. Lo and behold, take a guess where they were seated! You guessed right. The tables near the window, the one that was supposedly "reserved" Only moments prior.

In closing, I am dumbfounded, flabbergasted and mind boggled by the level of service and quality of food. For someone who's brought his family to this restaurant for the past few years and to be given this level of service, you'll be a fool to think I'll be returning. I spent over $200 at your establishment but got nothing in return. I am really disappointed because your establishment was a very cosy, family friendly atmosphere. Now it's...

Had a very poor experience this afternoon at hogans myself and a few friends had decided we’d go out for dinner at hogans as we’d been numerous times before and had a great time out. So we called up and booked, everything went smoothly over the phone with a young lady taking the call by the sound of her voice. When we arrived we were Rudely greeted by a older women by the name of “kathy” according to her name tag as we went to check in for our booking, she displayed a large amount of discrimination and disrespect in the form of ageism towards us also demanding we showed id in a harsh and abrupt manner and if we failed to do so we would be told to leave as we were unaccompanied by a parent by her means. Which to my knowledge I didn’t know a few friends couldn’t go out for dinner without requiring ID (mind you we’re all above 18 and did have a form id to prove it). she was treating us with utter disregard for anything we had to say and was giving myself and friend Alex who had made the booking a look of disgust which I did not take kindly seeing as how she had just welcomed us to the venue.

My compliments go out to the chefs as the meals were all presented with care and tasted delicious, also a man by the name of Andrew who treated as with a class respectful and was genuinely polite when we approached him to order our meals aswell as when we received them.

Overall I am honestly extremely disappointed with the quality of the customer service upon arrival although the food was great, the atmosphere and quality of service when confirming our booking was next to...

Had a $29 parmi w chips, salad & jus. The snitzel was the processed 'freezer to fryer' deal. Like a big chicken nugget. Salad had one tomato wedge, one cucumber slice. The chips were undercooked and poorly seasoned. The jus was no thicker than a cup of coffee. Jus isn't meant to be thick, like your average gravy, but it should stick to the chips. For $15 I would have been happy with it. Good snittys from the local butcher cost a little more, but it's worth it to serve quality. Partner had the $29 'half serve' lamb shank. It was clearly the '2 year shelf life, no refrigeration needed' type (yes, they exist) fresh outta the microwave at and burning hot. The congealed, bland 'sauce' it came with was inedible. To the chef's credit, the 'freezer to microwave' mash was smooth. Hey, I use it too, at home, but it requires seasoning. The service was friendly and it's a lovely venue. They sould be booked out every night. I'm not saying I wouldn't go there again, but I'd probably stick with the potato cakes for $9. I'm sure the kitchen is under constant pressure to keep costs down, but with that many pokies, I know the venue can afford a cost adjustment in the...