Reviews


Abyssinian, The, Kensington

Restaurants, African, Good For Groups, Hip and Trendy, Romantic and Intimate

Overall 7  15

5 Average

Food  5      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  3     


This restaurant wants to get your last dollar. BYO corkage is $8.00 per bottle. The owner had to take our bill back because he had only charged for 3 not 4 bottles. Their wine list is not that good. They also charge 15% surcharge over the total bill for public holidays-this is not NSW or QLD. For larger groups they charge an extra 20%!! Most places would be offering a discount for groups and be happy doing so. I can't see why this place always seems to be busy. There are better dining options elsewhere.


Response from Management:
Corkage and BYO is not a must for a restaurant; it's a choice.
We give a choice to our customers to either use our wine list, which we might agree is not excellent but it is not pretentious too, or to bring they own.
If they do bring their own, they also should appreciate that we are granting them the pleasure to have the wine they most like and we are giving away our potential profit on the wine itself.

We also notice that this customer had given us a 5 for the food, but did not really comment on it; and they base the value at 3 just because of the corkage. We do not think it is fair.

In relation to the 15% surcharge on Public Holidays, it is a very common practice everywhere, and actually although it is written in our policy, we did never applied as we always forget :-)

In regards to 20% additional for larger groups, it is not true and we feel it is not fair to just write lies.

If we are very busy all the time we owe it to our extensive base of loyal customers which love to come here not complain abut the corkage but to enjoy the atmosphere, the food, the music and have good time with their friends.

The large majority do. but there will always be somebody that is not happy. It is in the nature of the human being.
We do suggest those very small minority to join the happy people and enjoy life until they can... or to go to some other "better dining options" that Merlbourne is famous for

Dec 18, 2008

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Abyssinian, The, Kensington

Restaurants, African, Good For Groups, Hip and Trendy, Romantic and Intimate

Overall 7  15

5 Average

Food  5      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  3     


This restaurant wants to get your last dollar. BYO corkage is $8.00 per bottle. The owner had to take our bill back because he had only charged for 3 not 4 bottles. Their wine list is not that good. They also charge 15% surcharge over the total bill for public holidays-this is not NSW or QLD. For larger groups they charge an extra 20%!! Most places would be offering a discount for groups and be happy doing so. I can't see why this place always seems to be busy. There are better dining options elsewhere.


Response from Management:
Corkage and BYO is not a must for a restaurant; it's a choice.
We give a choice to our customers to either use our wine list, which we might agree is not excellent but it is not pretentious too, or to bring they own.
If they do bring their own, they also should appreciate that we are granting them the pleasure to have the wine they most like and we are giving away our potential profit on the wine itself.

We also notice that this customer had given us a 5 for the food, but did not really comment on it; and they base the value at 3 just because of the corkage. We do not think it is fair.

In relation to the 15% surcharge on Public Holidays, it is a very common practice everywhere, and actually although it is written in our policy, we did never applied as we always forget :-)

In regards to 20% additional for larger groups, it is not true and we feel it is not fair to just write lies.

If we are very busy all the time we owe it to our extensive base of loyal customers which love to come here not complain abut the corkage but to enjoy the atmosphere, the food, the music and have good time with their friends.

The large majority do. but there will always be somebody that is not happy. It is in the nature of the human being.
We do suggest those very small minority to join the happy people and enjoy life until they can... or to go to some other "better dining options" that Merlbourne is famous for

Dec 18, 2008

Was this review helpful?   |



 

Displaying: 1 - 1 of 1 reviews



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