RIVA STKILDA Review

Great looking venue. Food is acceptable but not spectacular.

Great Chef ! cooked the perfect steak and was very generous with the servings of all meals, very prompt as well.
The wait staff were a bit dozey and un-attentive. They need training, they had to be asked for drinks, desert, coffee, steak knives etc
The magnificent views were spoiled by the freezing cold restuarant interior.

The bride and groom had to clean up broken glass and vomit off the floor themselves before their guests arrived. According to them the Riva is a disgrace.

Cosy upscale great views. Especially good in the warmer months

This place has changed a lot, the music has changed to more modern duf duf and could barely be heard over people talking. I won't be rushing back here on a Sunday night

This is a top venue, recently went to MK festival, shame about the weather but what a set up!! It was an amazing day, the drinks voucher idea sucked would much rather pay as we went but other than that was a great day!

Beautiful waterfront views makes for a great event space

For a beach front restaurant, the interior style is terrible. Walls seem to be painted with cheap black paint, which is the wrong colour to start with. Depending on the theme of your event, function room can look quite nice with the right furniture. The location is beautiful, the actual interior of the building is terrible though. The sunset and customer service made our Christmas party worthwhile though.

This was so disappointing. RIVA has turned into a very tired and lackluster place with average food and poor service. Wine list well overpriced for average run-of-the-mill wines. Inattentive service, only got asked for drink orders once. Waiter went take a bottle of wine from the table that was still 1/4 full. One of our party waited 10-15 mins longer than everyone else on our table for her meal. Poor presentation in the restaurant with chipped and wonky tables with nothing more than a knife and fork and serviette slapped down.

For such a great location, so underwhelming compared to what it used to be. Clearly catering for the festival and party crowd these days. Will not go back.

The "No Chewing Gum" signs everywhere just add to this asthetically confusing classless place that has so much potential.

Food and service was great.
Having no AC and all the doors/windows open on a 36 degree day was ridiculous!

was there last year, little over priced for the poorer people to afford

Went there on a sunday early afternoon and left at midnight cause the had entertainment and dancing

i Hope they still have sundays dj and bandish music. The crowds were great no trouble and were friendly to talk to

Great food and view......the service was a bit slow

This friendly classic restaurant is a gem. With lovely staff and lovely food what more could one want. Well, there is the brilliant view and beautiful boats to watch as you eat and chat. Then of course there the beach to stroll along after you meal as well as St Kilda itself. So visit Riva and absorb everything and enjoy.

Iconic location. One of the best coastal views in Melbourne.

My girlfriend and I dined here using the $50 voucher handed to residents of Elwood. Voucher terms and conditions were not explained to us that we had to order a main meal each. We shared 2 entree's and 2 starters along with a bottle of wine and had a beautiful meal and night. This was until Chris the Manager voided our voucher, he had no remorse with our explanation of not being aware that the $50 voucher was not inclusive of these items. He was extremely rude and arrogant, cutting me off when trying to explain myself. I explained to him that we had a lot of family and friends around St Kilda, Elwood, Brighton, Port Melbourne etc that we would be going and bragging to about Riva and our lovely experience. Not any more, Chris let us pay the full amount and let us leave extremely upset with how he treated paying customers. The vouchers are to bring customers in, our word will be spread to all to avoid Riva restaurant. I also rang Friday 15 March to speak with owner to explain to him our experience, however Chris refused to give me contact details to the owner and also said I can leave my contact details but he can assure me the owner wont contact me back. Once again, extremely rude and arrogant over the phone.

Guess it all depends on the company you keep, have been here often, great place for drinks on warm days/nights. (Best to leave car at home)

Beautiful views.

Beautiful view of the bay with nice food and very professional & friendly staff.

A very contemporary restaurant with a great selection of food and drinks

Nice relaxing atmosphere watching the sunset over the bay.

LOVED the atmosphere, Staff really friendly & the tapas we ordered was great...Nice arvo

Amazing setting on the water. Great place for families during the day with a good kids menu, friendly and helpful staff.

Great space for an event right by the sea with beautiful views, and very professional and friendly staff and event managers who are eager to help you put together the perfect function. Plenty of space inside to utilise but price is quite steep compared to other function venues.

SO DISAPPOINTED! Ordered a chicken Parma at 7.20 didn t get it unti 9.05pm. Bar wasn t even that busy! Asked twice where my food was and got blazae answers.... never coming back for a meal!

Food took an hour and a half after ordering to come out, of which 6/7 meals were cold! Took manager 15minutes to come and help resolve issue - offered a voucher.

Great venue, in a wonderful location. Low lights and a cosy fire, makes for an extremely enjoyable night out. The food is delicious, too.

It's alright. A little old and run down on the outside and smells like vom

Brilliant marquee DJ event seaside. Incl amazing #johncourse finale. #livemusic #Covidsafe.

Awesome venue ! Right on the water so its perfect for those summer events ! Toilet situation is limited unless they add extra portaloos for an event :) I've actually never been here for anything other than an event

Well made dishes.
"Can't be bother" waiters attitude take away from the quality of the dishes and the brand. Since new owners took over Riva has lost it's shine :(
On arrival booking could not be located. A reasonable request was not followed. Had three waiters on a quite night.
Disappointed. Won't be paying for such service in a hurry.

Great food and venue, pity there were a few drop kicks with foul language next to us. Sadly the kids learnt a few choice four letter words.

We made a booking via their website which they confirmed by email. When we arrived the restaurant was closed (I'm not sure if this is permanent or for renovations). There is no mention of them being closed on their website and they are still taking bookings.

Good: food, view, staff, value for money
Bad: must pay for parking, irresponsible service of alcohol (demonstrated by a bunch of blind rotten drunk women holding themselves up on the bar- not a good look). Overall a nice place to eat.

Nice place for a meal, chill out at the bar or that special function.

Great location right next to the beach! #BeatTheGrind

the best place for seeing sunset and friends gathering

Rude Staff arogant security non - informative with information

Riva Australia day festival: Whilst the venue is beautiful and the music was great.. the Security were rude and abusive at the end of the festival trying to move people out of the venue. They physically pushed me whilst speaking to them in a calm and respectful manner, completely sober. Likely that security was dealing with a crowd too intoxicated from over drinking from 'prepaid drinking cards' required to make any purchase at the venue. A random girl fb messaged me that she and her friend were abused that night by security too with her friend having bruising. We are making a police report.

I've encountered very rude security in previous years at a university ball. Completely unprofessional and disappointing. Absolutely ruined my night at the festival. I will never come here again no matter how good the line up is and DO NOT recommend this place for private functions or festivals.

Great place for an afternoon drink. Fantastic views over the jetty and comfortable lounges to sit on.

Great spot on the bay and cheap parking. Sunday single scene is always amusing to watch.

Its hard to find a restaurant where everything comes together for the perfect experience. But Riva is it.
The staff are very friendly and offered suggestions on meals.
For entree we ordered seared scallops with Asian tasting plate (the duck spring rolls are fantastic, I would die happy if i had a large plate of those) and antipasto tasting plate. Everything was very fresh and perfectly cooked.
For mains we ordered Cuban Chicken (chicken perfectly cooked and very well balanced) and Bulgogi Duck (Honestly this is simply the finest plated duck I've ever eaten).

You know that feeling of complete satisfaction after eating an amazing meal? Come here to experience it!

Great location. OK food. Noisy and crowded on weekends.

The place is a good spot, but the service today was bad.

Saturday night dinner.
Food was good.
Service and staff attitude were horrible.
Won't be going back.

Rude security, telling a huge line to wait coz they're "full" meanwhile they let heaps of their mates in

Went to a gig here. Nothing worked from the toilets to the speakers to security, and they seem to be fine breaching a legal requirement to have free water available for consumption when you serve alcohol. Also when a restaurant says they serve food and then at the last minute decides not to serve food, the stop being a restaurant.

This place needs a good clean, a bit of maintenance, staff training and a menu that is more than second rare 90s pub food.

Food was good but service slow. Ordered drinks that we had to re ask the waiter to bring.
The decor is also dated and dusty used to love coming here.

Great location looking over the bay. Beautiful place to visit when on a sunny day. Food is great with planty of options. Sliders are best or enjoy burger with chips. Plenty of beers on tap to enjoy a cold one.

Great atmosphere, a place to have fun and meet people.

Held function here. Terrible right from the start. Very hot night and No aircon, noisy fans. Opened balcony doors to let breeze in meant listening to drunkards yahooing and motorbikes racing all night. Room is upstairs with no disabled access/lift. Staff couldn't care less, very poor service. Didn't even introduce themselves at the start of the night. Not once were we asked if we needed anything. No microphone/ speakers for projector. Food was pretty average. Won't be back.

Boring, Friday before Cristmas and is was quiet. Years back it pumped I'm not the problem...!

A fantastic location by the sea. Sunsets heaven to enjoy with a beer, glass of wine or a mojito. Great parties and fun atmosphere. Good spot not too far of lots of places!

$10.00 to get into a venue that is only interested in get em in get em out Bar staff who wont make cocktails lol i really didn't think they should be knocking that back.
My friends and i used to go regularly to Sunday evenings at Riva for a while they lost music permit but now they have it back and they seem to have forgotten what hospitality is about really poor effort and this was after giving you guys another chance, the last time I left a reveiw was after your Greek disater you offered me $100 to take off my reveiw It is not about the money its about feed back i don't want your voucher it would just be good to have the feedback acted on.

Cracking day for Australia Day 2017 Rock Royalty. Went the VIP option with the family. Staff were all helpfully and friendly. Food was excellent. Drinks were cold. Plenty of free bottled water continually distributed on the decks and on the green.
Music wise 'Outstanding'.
Best Day

not bad place to chill during the day time and few bev with mates.

Beautiful view of the marina. Very nice to eat with a view!

Recently visited for a work Xmas lunch. Food was 7/10, didn't set my world on fire. Service was mixed, although was very busy due to a number of work functions. Great place to have a few drinks and take in the views of St Kilda beach. This bumped Riva up to 4 stars from a 3...

A beautiful view in all directions the bay the marina. Simply stunning. The restaurant was busy and understaffed, so it took a long time to get served. The food a solid 4 stars for a pub menu, size of servings and flavour. Good value. A suggestion to the venue - if you want to charge well for your wines do not choose mainstream wineries. Use good boutique wineries for your supplies. It makes it too obvious that you are adding over 200% on a wine that is available from any bottle shop. Patrons have to feel that they are getting value for money when sampling a good and unknown to them wine.

Went to an event at this venue and the location and view is outstanding

Very rude owner, tried organising an event of around 18 people as I saw great reviews about this place, however when calling up to see if they were available the owner was reluctant and rude over the phone as he wasn't sure if it could be done... therefore he will call the next day to let us know. When he called back the next day he told us that they were not open on Tuesday/wednesdays until after the footy grand final. Find it funny that he couldn't just say that in the first place, instead of letting us know the next day. Such a shame when st kilda is such a vibrant place with places like these not letting a small event happen.

Very disappointed, had a booking for good Friday. Confirmed on Thursday evening. Caught a cab from Glen Waverley to St Kilda only to find everything closed. Obviously not enough business for you to stay open and not enough professional curtesy to inform booked patrons.
THANK GOD FOR DONIVANS. Could of been a very ordinary Good Friday had they not accommodated us at such short notice.they will receive my business in the future.
TOTALY UNPROFESSIONAL REVA

Oh dear. What has happened to the once great Riva? Tired surroundings and a somewhat disinterested staff: stacked water glasses and a grubby jug unceremoniously deposited on the table. And an unusual odour in the dining room to complete the experience. We had a quick drink and then left, finding somewhere else for the four of us to have lunch. Not just disappointing but sad to see the decline of what was once a dependable venue.

Went on Saturday night in the middle of summer. Food was good but the place considering it's on the water has no ambience. If you have a big group and can make your own go or if you want a place no one will see you having dinner...

Great large boat ramp, allows approximately 5 boat trailers in to launch at the same time

I took a look into Riva as they were setting up for an event when I heard who I can only assume was a manager of the venue telling staff they were stupid and yelling at them. As a mother of someone who works in the hospitality industry I would be appalled if my child was spoken to that way.