tavern harewood

what a great bar-restaurant! my partner and i dined in the restaurant section, and were welcomed by friendly smiles and staff. we ordered the garlic loaf to start -- my goodness was it delicious! there was a good amount of garlic in the garlic butter, and the bread was tasty and soft. interesting bread shape too!

my partner had the $15mealdeal, the steak with chips. the steak was average, on the thinner side, 5/10. the chips were fat and delicious. i ordered the "akaroa salmon" dish, which had soy sauce, sticky rice and some asian greens, beans and carrots. the salmon was perfectly cooked, not overdone whatsoever, very soft and tender, 10/10. the sticky rice was sticky as expected, but perhaps lacking a bit more flavour compared to the rest of the dish -- when eaten with the rest of the dish, it didn't have as much kick. the amount of sauce was perfect and the balance of sweet and salty was great too. my partner really enjoyed the beans.

i also ordered a glass of white, i can't remember which one but it was good. all in all, a great restaurant with great food and great staff!

for the people complaining .... this is a pub - you're getting pub meals :)
i think its a great place for a quickmealand come here often.  its not a 5* restaurant - its a pub so based on that - the food is good
the service can sometimes be hit and miss when its really busy - but overall its a good little place

we lived in the area for a year and we're regulars the whole time. we've had everything from the pork belly to the lamb to the fish to the wedges to the nachos, you get the idea.

my lastmealthere was the fish of the day. absolutely delicious but i'd recommend avoiding using sweet thai chill from a bottle as it really ruined the flavor of the hollandaise sauce over the fish. my partner reckons they make the best beef wellington in town.

they recently took steinlager super cold off tap which has upset my partner and his uncle a bit, bring it back if you can!

only downfall is the waiter we seem to get always pulls up a chair and sits next to us to talk and take our order. it's pretty awkward to be honest, and they've stopped doing their $20 meal...

horrible experience. so i went into the tavern with 3 female friends, my first complaint was the price of the jack daniels a shocking $12, i don't know about you but i live in one of the most expensive cities in the world- melbourne and i don't ever remembering paying that much for a bourbon, maybe something like gentleman jack but not jack daniels.
secondly as i went to order my food, i got the lamb rump rare, after discussing with the waiter for a period of time, i made my point i wanted a rare steak, one of my friends went home so she didn't order any food and the other two ordered the salmon and the pasta.
my lamb came out well done, i told the waitress that i requested a rare steak, she immediately took themealto be re done. i also mentioned the salmon was overlooked, but my friend was starving an choose to eat it anyways.
the waitress sent the waiter who originally took the order to talk with us, i proceeded to tell him, that someone who also works in the hospitality industry that it wasn't good enough that he didn't write it on the docket for the chef to cook at the right degree, he instead assumed the chef would cook it rare, because "every other lamb dish he had seen was rare"
the lamb was sent back out quite a while later and unfortunately it was medium, because i was starving by this point i proceeded to eat it anyway, my other friend who ordered the pasta, kindly requested her pasta be reheated because she was waiting patiently for mymealto come out, he took her pasta re heated it in the same bowl an sent it out to her.
i proceeded to drill the waiter telling him, the price of the jack was ridiculous and he mentioned that they have risen the price of the drinks to even out their food costs, i said that there are many places that sell cheap good quality food, without jacking up their drink prices, and that the food wasn't good enough anyways, and the fact he sent my friends food back reheated in the same bowl was insulting, he could have at least re plated it, as a chef who has worked in hospitality for nearly 9 years, in both aus an nz and dining out with chefs who are equally as experienced. it really was disappointing, we weren't offered any drinks or even a discount. not like i ever want to go out and receive a free meal, but receiving such a horrible dining experience and vocalising it, one would assume the staff would want to rectify it.
the staff looked like that didn't give a crap about their workplace, so really not surprised about the turn of events.
it's unfortunate the venue is amazing, but the place has a lot it needs to work on, i won't be back and i most definitely won't recommend the place to anyone.

i had reserved a table for amealwith friends. when we went to the counter to be seated the staff member presumed we were under 18 and told us " you all must be 18 to eat here or you must have a legal guardian eating with you". we were all over this age but only a couple of us had i.d with us, so we were unable to eat there.

i understand that the staff had to follow the restaurant rules, but i was disappointed and found it very inconvenient that they had not informed us over the phone when we booked or even put somewhere on the website that we had to prove we were 18 or over just to eat the food. we had to leave and find another restaurant in the end.