Simmer on the Bay Review

Nice function centre, alot of space, easy to get around.

You are always going to be critical of your wedding venue... The night ran smoothly, bar / serving staff could have been a little more on the ball. Absolutely awesome space though!

Use to work around here and always came here for lunch when I felt like a hearty salad. They do huge servings and my favourite is the coronation chicken or the pine nut chicken. Their sambos are awesome as well. The staff are not overly friendly but they get your food out quickly!

I would not recommend Simmer on the Bay for Weddings. I went to a wedding with 175 guest seated on the main level this October and it was very uncomfortable. The servers were very lax in asking guests what they would like to drink and we had to ask them repeatedly to top up the water glasses, I got the feeling that the servers lacked experience, one even spilt a whole tray of drinks on one of the guests minutes after she arrived. You cannot see the bride and groom enter or even their special dance as the dance floor is on the lower level. That disappointed many guests. The stairs to the main floor and to the bathrooms are very difficult to get to for the elderly and disabled and the food was very average, definitely not worth raving about.

Our advice would be to NOT book this venue. If we had to sum up our experience with Simmer on the Bay it would be the three following statements:
1. Awful customer service
2. Poor value for money
3. Good quality food

We hope this review is helpful for Bride s who are on the hunt for the perfect venue and we hope it might make Simmer lift their game. Whilst they may run many functions every year they certainly do not treat every customer with respect. Unfortunately as soon as Simmer had our deposit the customer service we received was dreadful.

We can't write everything we want to write as their is a word limit, so to keep it short...

Simmer were terrible at returning phone calls or emails and claimed on more than four occasions that our emails were not received.

Costs changed from when we booked the venue and paid the deposit, to when we were trying to finalise arrangements.

We received an embarrassingly nasty and rude email from the Director Brigid that she should be ashamed of sending. All because we were trying to raise concerns around inconsistent information being provided and very poor response times to questions that were vital to book and plan our function.

In addition to what is above, if you are thinking of booking Simmer please take the following into consideration:
The furniture list that they provide won t necessarily be available. Multiple items we had asked to hire (and that the decorating company was relying on), were not available on the night. Brigid was using these for a private function the same weekend.
They had told us that the dated furniture that they provide would be covered in new fabrics before our wedding, this did not happen.
You will need HEAPS of time to liaise with them as they do not return emails or calls.
The bar/wait staff were not experienced but were very friendly. And they ran out of ice halfway through the night.
Simmer did not return the bond until 6.5 weeks after the event and their policy is to provide a cheque. They request bank transfer from their customer s yet do not extend this same service when it comes to returning funds. It just seems a little old school and just another inconvenience for the customer.
The food was good quality.
The alcohol list is pretty poor and we had to supply a lot ourselves.

We would never recommend Simmer despite it being a great location. There are MANY other venues in the same spot who offer much more for the same amount of money.

Little cake/breajfast cafe. Lovely light cakes and muffins. Good coffee. Light breakfasts, didn't try breakfast so can't say how good they are. Lovely sheltered spot which is quiet and great on a sunny day. They take paypass only if you spend over $10. I notice the other review said they offered salads. They haven't ever had salads on the menu when I've been here, like today, a saturday lunch time, so I'm not sure when that woulds apply

Here for an event and great atmophere & good food served.

Amazing venue just a bit far from public transportation