April 28, 2013
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The Merrywell
I have heard great things about The Merrywell (Cnr Clarendon St & Crown Riverside Southbank), many of my friends have raved on about the lovely food that comes out of the kitchen-
Some friends of mine had decided that this was going to be our “hangout” for our big reunion of sorts. Unfortunately my friend had tried to book a table downstairs but we were squished (there were 12 of us) in a corner upstairs sitting around small little tables which were more fit for a “drink out” than to have dinner.
Being seated upstairs also meant that we had a very limited menu than what we would had eaten downstairs. Whilst we waited, Mr_54632 shared an entree size of their lobster rolls (2 came out)- and yes, once again i forgot to take a photo. If you’ve ever had the pleasure to eat at Golden Fields, let me tell you this- The Merrywell will surely disappoint. The ones we had could not compare to the ones at Golden Fields. However, if these were your first time, they were pretty good.
My sincere apologies for the poor photo quality. Being upstairs meant that there wasn’t a lot of lighting and i didn’t want to blind my friends by taking photos. You might ask “What on earth is that?”. This is the Merrywell’s version of Ribs, the thing on the side is corn with a slice of watermelon and there was coleslaw too (hidden behind the watermelon)- i know i know, it’s almost impossible to make out what everything is. (I told you before, I fail at photo taking)…
The serving size was very generous. I really enjoyed the corn where it was very nicely flavoured and had a lot of cheese (only on one side), I didn’t have the watermelon but found it strange seeing it there.
This main costs me $35. It was by far the worst spent meal I spent that night, Was it that bad? Yes, the ribs were extremely dry, felt like eating chipboard with a lot of bbq sauce. I guess if I paid $8 for this huge meal, I would have shrugged my shoulders, but it was $35 and I expected a lot better than overcooked ribs and coleslaw that looked like it came from KFC. Actually, I take that back, the coleslaw from KFC would have been and tasted fresher. My coleslaw, like the ribs had probably been sitting around for a LONG time and tasted stale.
That’s probably where my mistake was- The Merrywell is apparently famous for some of the best burgers around town, except I ordered ribs. In saying that- the UPSTAIRS “pub grub” had very limited amount of “burgers”, so you really can’t blame me.
I’ve had a lot of bad meals in the past, not so many where I walked away not only hungry(because I did this time) but having to seek an alternative meal afterwards. I’m sad to say this but the Maccas at Crown served a much better fare than the crap that Merrywells coughed up that same night. And it costs 2/3′s less for the crap I ate that night. It says a LOT about a place where I had to find “fast food” outlets to fill me up. I can tell you- something like this hasn’t happened for a VERY long time- okay maybe there was this one time where my friends and I went to this apparent “hot pot” place and we ended up at Supper Inn for dinner (but that was a bizarre experience altogether).
A couple of things really annoyed me that night besides the food:
1. My friend did try to book a table for downstairs, however the Merrywell stuffed up our booking and were unable to place on a table downstairs. According to them, they weren’t just double booked, they were “triple booked”. The guys at Merrywell, were really lucky that it was my friend they were talking to because if that was me being told that a restaurant such as this had “triple booked”, I would have not been as accomodating OR nice because frankly WE, as patrons had done the right thing and BOOKED a table ahead of time. It’s not our fault that the staff are so incompetent that they don’t even know how to work a reservation system. How on earth can you “triple” book a restaurant? It doesn’t take Einstein to work out “if the Merrywell can fit i.e 100 people, then we can only have 100 booked in at any one time”, so how they end up tripling that is beyond me (in the example I’ve given, some moron at The Merrywells would have accepted 300 spots for 100 spots- yes WTF). It’s not a VERY good excuse to tell your patrons who do the right thing, because it just screams out “we’re incompetent and we’re stupid” all in one go.
2. I have to admit, the staff were really attentive, they was always someone around who we could flag down when we needed- which is a good thing. You can’t fault service like that. I was however annoyed with one particular staff member who after giving us our mains, immediately came over and asked us “how are your meals today”. (Personally this is a pet hate of mine- I get that restaurants want to know what their patrons think of their meals, or to be seen as “caring” but I find it intrusive, but I never make a deal about it because the staff are only doing their jobs). The problem was, we hadn’t even started eating, so i turned around to the waitress and said “actually, im not sure, because we haven’t started yet”. The waitress could have said- “sorry” but instead her response was “that’s because you’re talking so much” W T F. What kind of response is that? So what if we all sat there and talked each other’s ear off. Who the hell did she think she was. I didn’t respond- people like this aren’t just worth your breath.
I haven’t yet tried the “downstairs” section of The Merrywells, and many of my friends assure me that it’s much better food than the crap they serve upstairs. Yes- note to all readers, don’t BOTHER with eating upstairs. It’s clearly a “bar” upstairs where a lot of people come to have a good time. It’s an awesome place to sit back, listen to awesome music they have playing, or hang out near the bar. Although I’m not sure if I want to be coming back in a hurry, especially if I have to go Maccas afterwards.
