The European

We last dined here 8 years ago. Not quite the restaurant experience it used to be. Just like a lot of Melbourne, it’s looking a bit tired & worn, lost its lustre & shine. Don’t misunderstand me, we very much enjoyed the beautiful food with delicious flavours, the bone marrow entree being a highlight. Au revoir à l’Européen

Was immediately taken back to Paris with this quaint and old-school restaurant/brasserie.

Our Tasmanian wine was excellent, our waiter was extremely friendly and helpful, and the food was delicious. I especially loved the cozy atmosphere and location.

Ingredients were extremely high-quality, and it reflected in the beautiful dishes we were served.

Our visit to the European was less than pleasant, as firstly the waitress tried to sit us down at the worst table although the restaurant was empty. Upon some insistence we were allotted something better. Having said that Sitting in a corridor with a continuous draught is not a pleasant dining experience.
Wine list terribly expensive with very few Australian wines by the glass, of rather mediocre value. Scorchingly hot prices for a glass of so called premium wines.
Table setting with cloth napkins sitting on frayed timber top tables combined with cutlery which one can find in op shops made a poor impression of general neglect. Napkins and decent restaurant grade well polished cutlery sitting on a clean side plate is the standard norm for a classy restaurant.

Being a vegetarian I had a very poor choice to pick from the menu. My wife had the Octopus entree which should have had Mojo as per the menu, alas turned out rubbery and chewy.
Her order for an aged porterhouse steak which was presented drowned in pepper sauce was tough and sinewy. My sauteed spinach totally lacking in flavour, and Gnocchi was passable. Had to ask for parmesan, which should be served on auto mode at a quality eating establishment.
We brought to attention the issue with the tough steak, which was swapped over without any fuss for a schnitzel served with an enormous mound of coleslaw and huge serve of chips. The serving size and presentation reminded me of plates at some Oktoberfest in Germany.
Conclusively there is nothing to rave about this joint, it is all over rated in the reviews.
Surprisingly the only good thing tonight was the green side salad that we had ordered with our steak. Crisp, cool and full of flavour with a refreshing dressing.
Restaurant wait staff seemed more interested in having a good time gossiping than attending to customers. The service attitude borders on being too casual to a bit offish. Definitely this is not an elegant place to dine out for a special occassion, and most definitely if one is a vegetarian please don’t bother coming here.
My rating below Average for this joint, as for what you will spend here does not reply good value for money.

I get to eat at a lot of place due to my work and suppliers, vendors and other happily funding these outings to gain my mind share. I can basically dine where ever I want when ever I want. Now I got that out of the way and given you context for my review, I can say that dinning here was a very positive experience. The wine list was top shelf, the service was excellent without being annoying and thr food was exemplary. We shared a few dishes to get us going. That being the spicy oysters and the steak tartar. For the main I had ghe ox lounge. We ask share some sides and for desert I had something I forget but dang it was good. The French reds, a 2014 and 2016 vintage were exceptionally good all in all I rate this place as somewhere worthy of your time and investment. This was a business lunch that went for 3.5 hours and at no time did they pressure us to vacate thr table. Very happy to have made time for lunch with this key partner today, the company was great and the food was on par

Food is always sensational. Great wine list to match. Cozy interior!

The service and speed here are amazing – our favourite spot to hit before going to the theatre. We love it every single time!