kingston hotel

great night, great service!. this was our second visit to the kingston hotel, we dropped in after the footy a few weeks ago for a few drinks.. great atmosphere, and had a greattimechatting to the tall barman and the spikey haired man who were a laugh!
the firsttimewe came here was the steak night.. we loved the $14 steak deal, perfectly cooked... but didn’t realize you had to book, luckily we could squeeze up at the bar.
thinking of trying the duck and pinot night next...

great value with the voucher. busy pub with a fine dining restaurant out the back. delicious food. great service although meals take a longtimeto come out.

dissapointed. have been looking forward to dining at the kingston for many years, having heard of its reputation as a foodie pub. finally an opportunity arose on a saturday night with friends. unfortunately our expectations were not met. i would only give the food about 6.5 out of ten, the service only 3.

for drinks the offering was ok, but a little limited - no white rabbit beer (current fave), but a good selection of wines including by-the-glass, and reasonable prices.

decided to go straight for a bottle of red - brothers in arms shiraz from mclaren vale was a great choice.

unfortunately - pet hate number 1 - menus handed across the table, when there is plenty of room to go around. shows the wait staff are a bit slack. then the bread came out with lovely little bowls of pepper and salt, but no oil or butter. must have been a night for fry rations!

my wife started with the mussels, which were well presented but pretty ordinary. i had the soup which was fine, and our friend shared the antipasto which was conventional. pub food.

two large adjacent tables made for plenty of noise, and less than attentive waiters, so a bit of a struggle to get their attention.

mains sounded interesting enough, but the italian sausage/mash/potato combo although beautifully flavoured was cold. my lamb was casserole-style served in a bowl with breadcrumb coating. good flavour but dry, and our friends' calamari was like a bar snack.

it did make it difficult at first that the waitress had forgotten to provide cutlery, then disappeared.

all over just a little under-whelming. reasonable food, showing signs quality but let down in the detail. service poor for a restaurant with a reputation to uphold. atmosphere ok but very noisy - definitely not the place for an intimate dinner.

we won't be going back anytimesoon, given the variety of choice in the area, and much better options on offer.

try the grand hotel in burnley street (if you can get in) or the boozy rouge instead.

we bought a groupon for this hotel and decided to try this fancy place out. the 4 of us were greeted by the hustling environment and the complexity of the place. on first arrival, we were directed to the back of the hotel, where the nice dining area was set up (the front part of the hotel is the pub area). we were the first to arrive, however, by the end of the night, the area was filled with local families and other groups who were meeting up over dinner.

i ordered the calamari for entrée. the calamari was cooked to the perfect crispiness and i was sad the serving size wasn’t bigger- i could have eaten many more calamari as my main! the gluten free roasted duck breast caught my eye as a main and i also tried the t-bone. the serving size wasn’t very big, however, the food was delicious. the duck breast was cooked extremely well and the topping was thin and crispy, a great addition. the sauce accompanied the duck breast perfectly. i was really happy with my choice of main.

whilst i forgot the names of the 2 desserts we ordered, the pear, cream and crumble in one of them was amazing. i was so tempted to order another one, it was just that good. for me, that dessert was a 11/10. delicious! the other dessert (the one in a cup in the below photo) was average to me. it consisted of meringue with some berries- strawberries and raspberries- a 6/10.

the only let down was the waitingtimeand perhaps the serving sizes could have been bigger as i left feeling as if i could still eat more.

overall, having the groupon meant the meal was great value for money. however, i wouldn’t pay normal prices for the dishes at this place.

we sat down for all three courses for 3 and a bit hours. servicetimeis very very slow. food was good. make sure you know your order before the menu is even set down. waited for the menu for 15 min then an extra 20 to take down our order. nice looking restaurant

what a lovely old pub! and such a beautiful dining room out the back. i had the brisket with sweet and sour salad. loved the salad, but found the brisket a little tough as compared to my son’s brilliant bbqing technique. for mains i had the pumpkin ravioli which was sublime. so rich i was unable to eat it all, but boy was i feeling happy. staff were lovely, atmosphere great. the only downside was that our meals took a very longtimeto come out.

service in this place is shocking! so so bad i could brew beer in thetimeit takes them to first take my order and then pour my beer! the food is ok lasttimei ate at this pub my steak was tough yuk!

we arrived at 12:30 as a table of 11, we didn't leave until nearly 4pm at no fault of our own.

after being told that they don't split bills so we needed to order and pay together, the mains took over an hour for the first one to arrive at the table, two at atimewith spaces of at least 5-10 minutes between each. the last main served was well over half an hour after the first person had had their plate cleared. after speaking with management twice during this period we were offered complimentary deserts. we weren't the only table to experience this, it was essentially the whole place. chefs just couldn't get it together today. it wasn't a great meal because of the messy food service and general disarray of the dining room but i would consider going back with a much smaller table to give them another chance simply because the food was exceptionally good for the price. all in all they comped us over $100 to apologise and i guess that is a pretty big "i'm sorry" i would suggest giving this place a go if your not in a rush or in a large group.

pretty consistent. as a local the kingston hotel ticks a lot of the right boxes. staff are friendly and attentive and the food is generally pretty good. lasttimeout i had the snapper which was bathed in a nice white sauce, and my friend had a steak which was supposed to be medium rare but came out medium. the kingston is like a lot of pubs in richmond, it delivers pretty good value but there is a lot of choice and the menu could do with an update. i go back because it's consistent which is sometimes not a bad thing.

very poor, rude service. was a busy lunchtime, but staff took a longtimeto get to take our orders. when one of our party asked if we could order, the staff were rude from then onward. desserts took over one hour to be served after ordering even though by thattimethe bistro area was quiet (as well as getting orders wrong?. wait staff sitting around instead of serving. very bad experience, i will not be going back.

pleasure palate. had dinner @ kingston for the firsttimelast night. very tasty indeed. had the braise pork and side of greens...the flavors were wonderful. staff were efficient and very pleasant. we will definitely be returning!

the food quality is going downhill. firsttimei laid eyes on the parma, it looked delicious, but i was having the squid that night.

secondtimei laid eyes on the parma, it was mine and it was disappointing. rubbery chicken and rubbery cheese... very very standard =(


-----27 aug, 2010-----

bugger.... went back to the kingston to try the parma and wasn't very happy.

while the chicken breast was thick, it just wasn't juicy, the tomato sauce tasted like it came straight from the can and the mozarella on top was rubbery and tasteless. i think i can sum up the whole meal with the word tasteless.

thursday night is usually palooka night, but my boss's retirement shindig was on at the sametimeso i needed to prioritise. we headed over to the kingston straight after work for dinner and drinks. the front of the joint looked timed and original, while

this grand old pub has gatronomically lost it's way. $26 for a very ordinary red beef curry, a cold serving of eye fillett that left me needing more food. the eye fillet was replaced, however the order of fries placed at the sametimetook twice as long as eye fillet to arrive. drink service at the restaurant tables was well below par for a pub that us pretending to be more....