The Royal Hotel Mornington

The Not So “Royal experience”. We visited the Royal last night after it being recommended to us, it had been many years since our last visit, and sadly we won’t go back after last nights experience. We had a table of 12 with 2 young kids and 2 international guests visiting us. We were sat directly in front of the kitchen and walkway to somewhere that had a constant flow of people brushing past us and staff lingering for food beside us. All 4 tables in that section were big tables of 10+ people, so it was extremely noisy, we couldn’t even hold a conversation which was very upsetting. Our booking was for 7, once everyone was seated with a drink we ordered entrees and mains around 7.30. The wait wasn’t too long but I would say by 8 we had our meals. However, they brought out all the food together, entrees were dumped on the table with our main meals at once. My main meal was missing, by the time I got it most guests had finished eating. Kids meals were horribly over priced! $16 for 6 cheap frozen nuggets and chips. Once they cleared the plates, we went up to order kids ice cream, around 8.50 pm I asked for just a single serve of ice cream as they were little and I didn’t want to pay $15x2 for their dessert option being ice cream with sprinkles and fairy floss. They were obliging and only charged $10 for 2 basic ice creams. Minutes later 8.55pm our German guests went to order desserts for the table as they wanted to shout us all desert as a thank you for hosting them for the past few days, and they were told “Sorry kitchens closed”!! No warning from any waiters prior, and we had only just finished our meals as mine was forgotten. I was so shocked, I asked what appeared to be the manager why we weren’t advised kitchen was closing and why he took my kids ice cream order but minutes later not an adult order. He apologised and said kitchen closes at 8.30 for mains but desserts usually stay open for much longer, and he wasn’t sure why we were refused a dessert order and why the kitchen closed desserts without notice. He refunded my kids ice cream cost, and we all walked up the road to buy ice creams for dessert. Upon leaving we saw the front half of the restaurant both sides was basically empty all night and was nice and quiet! This is were us as a family trying to enjoy dinner together and actually hold a conversation and be able to hear could have sat! Not in a noisy loud beer hall environment.The food was nice, we enjoyed what we ate, it wasn’t cheap and the portions for mains were very small. We are thin to average build people, but after eating mains we were all saying we were still hungry… but refused desserts.The 1 star is for the taste of the food only. Going out to dinner isn’t just about the food, it’s about the enjoyment of the experience and having a nice evening together. For last nights experience for which the manager even said was a “shambles” to me, we give it a minus 5 stars. We left very disappointed, sore ears from the noise, hungry and very annoyed, it was a relief to walk out. The ice cream up the road was delicious

Went to the royal 2 weeks ago on a Saturday. I didn't have a booking but there was enough room in the bistro area. We felt as though we were not welcomed at all. The young staff looked completely miserable, and the management seemed to not care about their staff or customers. I spoke to a manager about swapping my meal a few minutes after I ordered and they simply looked at me and rudely said you'll have to pay more" which i was willing to do so. Iv'e been to the Royal a few times and have always loved going because of how nice the customer service is BUT there is clearly a shift in a management and you can sense how none of the younger staff DO NOT want to be there anymore. Will not be coming back."

Walter’s is an awesome night out! The food is delicious and there is so much to choose from. The staff are really friendly and helpful! The decor really sets the mood too.

Staff never explained the difference in the ordering platforms.This was a business lunch, but as the venue doesn’t supply receipts when using the QR code at the table, I had to contact a 3 party company to be sent what I needed. My guests heard the table next door have the same issue.Meals good but overpriced a little.Great venue but bad staff.

Always enjoy the Royal nights out. But having no wait staff to assist with the menu selection caused one of our group to make an error. Scanning a QR code to order saves on staff but in this case made the experience less than previous visits.

We had dinner at Walters Friday night, the service was great. The food was also really delicious the only down fall was the serving sizes were quite small. We look forward to visiting again.

Whilst the food was good, the service was poor. It looked as though the lovely Staff were trying their best to cope with the restrictive systems & processes and with the bar as the location for Restaurant ordering, further confused both patrons and Staff. Fortunately the Manager acknowledged our frustrations resulting in our evering meal with friends, ending on a more positive note. Would we dine again?Yes we'll give it another go but if the Management were to have better systems for their staff to efficiently run the restaurant & bar simultaneously, with location, great food AND good service we'd be regulars and loyal to the Royal!

We sat down for lunch on Sat 8th of April. We were greeted with a sign that said 20% surcharge for public holidays with no warning, despite this we sat down and were in the formal dining area. Ordered at the bar for food and drinks, and the lovely young lady at the bar provided great service. All went down hill from there. Ordered entree, came out with no share plates so went and got my own. Needed more water, and went and got that too. We’re informed that someone had ordered at the QR code on our table and whether we ordered twice. We didn’t order from this QR code at all and someone was seated at our table at all times. Then I questioned if I was charged twice for someone else’s order and was told not to worry and completely dismissed when I asked questions and was laughed at. Food was overpriced, steak was over cooked, and for what you pay, I expected more. In summary, no service with overpriced food. Plenty of better places to eat than here in Mornington.