Victoria Hotel

Update on my previous review:

They must have just been having a bad week last time. Although the beer range hasn't improved, there is a great wine list. Still the best parmy for miles. Amazing desserts!

I have loved coming here for a while now. Unfortunately, something has changed in the past month or so. The beer menu has shrunk, the food menu has shrunk, the excellent service has disappeared. We ordered three drinks; two came out, and we had to chase up the third. My meal was supposed to be a parmy with veggies instead of salad, and instead they gave me salad and veggies. Who has ever heard of such a thing? And it's not like they were busy. The place was very quiet for 7.00pm on a Sunday, let alone a Sunday before Christmas. Says a lot, really. Thankfully my beef schnitzel was cooked absolutely perfectly and I still think it's the best parmy around, at the moment. Come on, The Vic! You are better than this!

Well, I can't say that this place is all that impressive, however I have always liked the fact that it sat in the middle of paddocks on Main South Road up the hill from Darlington. While I used to live in the area I only ever came here for the bottle shop, probably because my friend who worked here said there was nothing all that fantastic about the place. I did finally come here for a drink with my friends, however we ended up all staying for dinner. I must say that I was not all that thrilled with the Thai Beef Salad, because the beef strips really didn't do it for me. However, they do have that 1kg beef challenge where you get a 1kg steak and have to finish it off, but while there are people out there who are always up for such a challenge, I'm not one of them.

I don't think they could have done any worse today. It took over an hour for our drinks to come to our table and more than an hour and a half for the food to come. When the food came it was obvious that the kitchen was understocked and overcommitted - crap food with less than five chips served on the side.

I approached the waitress to ask where the food was and she responded by saying 'we're really busy, I've told people that the food will take an hour to come out" - sorry, not good enough. You didn't tell us, we booked, and its already been an hour and a half!! You didn't even manage to get our glasses of wine to the table early enough to calm us...

G'DAY! This is a fantastic place. I love the wood fires in Winter and the views (shame they ruined it with that oversized housing estate....never mind). The food here is great - fantastic lunch time specials (I think they are still $7.50) and for the price, try somethign new every time you go. In Winter, they do a great Beef & Guiness pie (when they put it on the menu) and in Summer, you can't beat the chicken salads or fish & chips.