Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Deanery, Melbourne

Still in catchup mode, I started this last week before my weekend in NZ...


Tonight I headed out for dinner with a girlfriend, we had no real plans but a short list of possibilities. It was too early for our first choice, Coda (due to open properly next week; soft opening from tomorrow) so The Deanery, Robin Wickens new-ish haunt, it was.


So yes, I wasn't in the head space for it but its certainly didn't win me over; food, service, wine, ambiance or value.


I've drank at The Deanery many times and even had a few bar snacks over the years but have never felt inclined to eat there. It feels like a bar and to be honest I guess they know that, that's why when we arrived and asked about having dinner we were advised that we would be "more comfortable" upstairs.

So we are lead upstairs, around a corner to a spot-lit, double set table. We realise that yes, the bar space was definitely more of what we had in mind, yet we are now here and at the mercy of an assortment of waiters. House made bread arrives, oh no this just isn't what I had in mind at all.
If I wanted flavoured bread, I'd go to Bakers Delight...

The night rolls on from here. The food is fine; fancy but fine. The menu is impossible to decipher (and that's rich coming from me) and the dishes we receive though interesting are far from what we could possibly image - maybe that's the point? (My thoughts and pictures are on twitter, here, here, here and here)

Well I guess the ex-Interlude customers (read: older, richer, stuffier, conservative) would like this but from a glance around the empty dining room I guess that's all it will impress, and hey didn't Interlude go out of business? Either we don't get him or he doesn't get us but Robin Wickens food seems more than a little out of touch with the current hospitality climate.

Without nagging on any further, I feel I must mention the service... just strange...
Stiff, a bit pompous ("so, no entree for you?", "just a glass?") and plain unthoughtful. A silly mess with our credit card payments with three enquiries from different waiters and a forgotten scarf left in the center of our table as we sipped digestives in the bar (we were informed of the scarf, by a fellow diner and strangly not the waiter that must have moved it there). I'm not sure what it was all about but I am uncertain who was in charge of the dining room that night and I guess that's my answer.


So The Deanery, what can I say.
Pop in for a drink by all means, the wines are reasonably priced but don't be lead up the stairs to the dining room, I don't think you will be "more comfortable" up there.

Oh and even the MasterChef caption writer can spell Caesar (as in the salad) why can't The Deanery? At a diningroom like this, it's all about trust, trust that everyone is as keen and passionate about the product as the diner; this just screams to me that they can't be bothered.

Sorry guys, no wonder the traditional media haven't published anything, maybe I should have followed suit in the "if you can't say something nice..." bandwagon but its just not in my nature.

1 comment:

  1. Completely disagree with your take on the Deanery, aside from the fact that it was surprisingly quiet. The space upstairs is very pleasant, but that aside it is about to be refurbished anyway.

    Food was excellent, staff were first class, and the umbrella we left at the table was handed to us half a block down the street by an out of breath staff member.

    We had the degustation and they allowed us to swap out the desserts for savoury dishes as neither myself nor my dining companion are particularly into them.

    And no, I'm not a stuffy conservative type (by the way Interlude was on Brunswick St! Height of class). I spent the rest of the night getting tanked and dancing on Smith St. with a bunch of common-type folks.

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