Garrison Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Western Australia

First of all, I am rating 5 stars only because I'm perceptive enough to realise our experience was not the fault of the menu, location, nor the staff. If I was a different kind of person who couldn't see past the tip of my own nose I would likely rate it 3 or 4 stars. I was unaware that Albany has very limited nice dining options on Sunday nights, and it was also a long weekend so the city was a lot more full than it would usually be. Garrison seemed to be near full capacity when we arrived at 6:30, and whomever did the roster for that night woefully underestimated the staff needed. The three waitstaff and one bartender were absolutely, literally run off their feet. We waited about 10min to get seated, though the bartender did make eye contact and greet us which was appreciated.

I had viewed the menu online about an hour previously on the website and was pretty sad to discover the oysters weren't on there, but the menu was still great. We recieved our entrees eactly an hour after we arrived, and shortly after the entrees our sparkling water, and my bushfire cocktail which was perfect. The croquettes and empanadas were both to die for. I was dining with my 9yo daughter, and we hoovered them up.

At no fault to the staff/venue of course, the restaurant was unbearably loud. I sent a video to my husband who said he would have left us there if he'd come too 😅 Ive never dined anywhere as loud as this was, even large pubs. The main source of noise was from a 34th birthday dinner (I saw the cake lol). Never in my life have I wanted to stand up and yell "STOP SHOUTING" in a restaurant. I honestly had a headache from about 30min after arriving, lingering about 24 hours. I have no idea how the staff coped. The bartender is a huge asset to your team, she made countless cocktails, as well as running her own drinks to tables, and cleared our plates also, as well as smiling a lot. The three wait staff are commendable also. They absolutely flew the whole time, but had no choice really. There needed to be another waiter and another bartender, minimum. The Cafe at the Whaleworld Cafe had twice the staff the next day (on public holiday wages), albeit all juniors.

I feel as though we were a tiny bit neglected due to the understaffing as we were 'just' a mum and kid, not a big rowdy table of fun... though the bartender showed us a good amount of love. We spent $190 +$20 tip so not like we weren't a good spend per head.

We got the scallops, chicken dumplings and chicken gnocchi which were all absolutely faultless. Beyond delicious. We then finished with a Laguvulin whisky for myself and icecream fro my daughter.

I would return, but certainly not on the Sunday night of a long weekend. The staff working that night all deserve high praise. The food is incredible. We arrived too late at night to see the view but from photos it is a spectacular view for...

Looked promising at the start. Pleasant environment and friendly staff. It went down hill from there...

When asked if the plant-based burger contained mushroom, they couldn't tell us because they buy it from a third party, and didn't know the ingredients. How can you sell restaurant food without knowing the main ingredients? It's important to know so you can cater for allergies and other dietary requirements.

I made another selection from the menu, and the order was taken. 25 minutes later I was advised that they did not have the main ingredient for that meal...

I made another selection, and 10 minutes later I was advised that the main ingredient for that meal was also unavailable. At that point, I just accepted the complimentary fries that I had been offered.

The other meal that we had ordered arrived a few minutes later, and the fries arrived 10 minutes after that.

Regardless of how busy you are, (it wasn't busy), taking orders for food that you can't deliver is unforgivable. This can't be put down to a simple error (I accept that mistakes can happen). This was simply poor management.

I can't recommend this restaurant.

The manager responded to this review, and provided excuses for being unable to deliver the ordered food. Stating that you ‘always try to keep something on hand for vegans’ is a weak excuse. The two meals I ordered were on your menu, not special request from a customer with a rare dietary requirement.

If you don’t have the skills to manage your pantry, and have to throw food out because it isn’t often requested, then let your waiting staff know, and don’t put them in the embarrassing position of having to repeatedly apologise to a customer.

Perhaps the answer is to not accept orders for items on your menu that you can’t deliver. Once is an unfortunate error, which most customers would accept, but only advising the customer of your error after almost half an hour, when the restaurant is pretty-much empty is just poor service. Subsequently accepting another order from the same customer, and then also being unable to deliver that order (after another wait) is just ridiculous. But, I guess it must be my fault for ordering items from the menu that...

I really wanted to like it…. I read these comments before going and really wanted to prove them wrong. However, we also experienced the same unfortunate service as those with the less favorable reviews on here. We ordered, our drinks arrived relatively quick but we had to wait 1 hour and 5 minutes for any food to get to our table. And we still had missing items by the end of the 90 minute slot we had booked. We ordered two mains 1 entree and 1 salad … Looking around many others seemed to have had a negative experience too. A couple next to us did not have their order taken for 30 minutes after which they stood up and left. Another couple that walked in with us at the same time did not receive their food until we had finished ours already 90 minutes after walking in. And in the meantime the line outside the door just became longer and longer.

The staff were super friendly, and were definitely trying their best to provide a professional service. however the organisation around the delivery/making of the food, plus over booking of guests just put more and more strain on the staff. There is a point a manager should stop saying yes to guests if they can see that there are multiple tables still waiting for even 1 plate of food after 1 hour of ordering. They over booked the place and this just puts the waitstaff and kitchen staff in an uncomfortable position where they are trying to play catch-up the whole night.

I never write negative reviews let alone such long ones, but the managers or owners of this place need to rethink the way the restaurant is managed and operates as the place is overbooked and there will be more and more guests who will walk out or voice their dismay. Let alone this business could lose great employees due to bad management that allows overbooking of guests which the front line staff have to deal with and somehow resolve.

2 star and not just 1, because my truffle pasta was delicious BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY because the staff were fantastic and they were genuinely...