Peter V

Review of Doyles Bridge Hotel

From the moment we walked in I had never felt so u...

From the moment we walked in I had never felt so unwelcome to a restaurant in my life. The lady behind the counter didn't say "Hi, welcome, how many for lunch?" instead she asks "Are you sure you want to eat here and not the cafe next door" after we responded yes there was a surprise with a further "really? ok". At this point I couldn't tell if it was how I was dressed (thongs, shorts and wide shoulder respectable looking singlet (respectable for Mordialloc's standards)) or because we arrived and had 3 children with us, all of which were under 4. Not long after us, I notice other customers arrive where one of that group was wearing crocs, which quickly blew my theory, of being poorly dressed, out the window.

Once we finally got seated our hostess, continued to make us feel uncomfortable by manhandling our 2 prams, whilst we were still getting seated. Really awkward tension in the air at this point, considering the restaurant was completely empty at this stage with only one other party there at the complete opposite end. (We chose this place out of the fact lunch started at 11:30, these other places that don't start serving until 12 makes life tricky with a toddler that needs nap time at 12:30.) New customers started to arrive and every other table was being served bottles of table water and glasses, meanwhile we had to hunt around for a waiter to give us a menu.

on the plus side, the food was quite delicious, us three adults all had chicken parma's which were made from real chicken breast and quite thick, the topping actually included ham, which other places seem to forget to include these days. However, for just a parma and some chips at $29.50 with no side salad, it seems a bit rich. The espresso martinin's were quite delicious though and would recommend.

Oddly enough, they have a children's menu which was really surprising (nice pasta, rather than fish fingers and nuggets) and the kids loved it. Food wise the place is quite nice, but none of us had felt that ostracized before, and that feeling throughout the meal just made it difficult to enjoy. It gave the impression this place is trying to be something it is not, and nor should it as its location and food is fantastic and it should cater to everyone, kids or no kids, crocs or no crocs. I understand people have bad days at work, myself included, but I might try again in the future and give this place one more chance before I write it off, and that's credit to the chefs.