Lonsdale Hotel Motel

Very good customer service made me feel very welcome and very helpful will be back again

I have had some good meals here but the last couple of times have been disappointed ++. I recently ordered a T-bone steak which was the most expensive thing on the menu...I asked for it medium but it was dry, overcoooked and mostly inedible, when I complained they offered us free coffees which was nice but didn't male up for the disapppointing meal. The thing I dislike the most is that they are very inflexible when it comes to ordering and won't usually vary anything on the menu, for example: I ordered a meal that came with chips which I didn't want and asked for extra salad instead but was told that I would have to pay extra, the next time I requested chips instead of mashed potato and was again told that I would have to pay extra which doesn't make any sense to me. I used to come regularly with a group of friends for dinner but we have all agreed that we will be going elsewhere for our catch-ups in future.

The only reason that I ended up down at this pub was because I was down in the area anyway, and since it was a pub that I had never been to I decided to go and check it out with a couple of friends (and it is pretty cool just driving around the place with a couple of friends visiting pubs, and other places). One of my friend's made a comment about coming here for a wedding reception, though I have to admit that it isn't the flashiest of places to have a reception. It wasn't a bad pub, at least when I was there (on a Sunday) though since it is located in the middle of an industrial area the it's character probably changes dramatically on the weekdays. Still, when I was there it was pretty quiet, which is always a good thing.

If you want our recommendation based on our experience, put simply: DON'T. My partner and I wanted a value-for-money meal on a Thursday night and had been told the Lonsdale was a good option. We were seated and within several minutes made our order which was steak and salad and fish, chips and salad. The dining room wasn't overly busy and there were plenty of staff and a lot of activity in the kitchen. So we waited for a food - and waited and waited... After 50 minutes - yep, that's correct - we finally caught the attention of one of the waiting staff and inquired about our meals. She went back to the open-area kitchen and there was considerable chat between her and 2 cooks. She then returned, saying: "It will be here in a minute." We could see from the response in the kitchen, though, that they had forget or misplaced the order. When the food arrived, the steak was OK but the fish was dry. We ate reluctantly and left. And we won't be back.

I like the fact that they are open late and have the shop-a-dockets. The menu is fairly basic. My partner is really fussy with steak and I would say 7 times out of 10 his steak turns out good here. The customer service is average. It really comes down to the individual working that night. Sometimes I get served by a friendly person and sometimes I get a rude or disinterested person. There was a time when I swore to never go back there after I had a really rude wait staff. I remember feeling like I just wanted to leave my meal and go and never come back. The wait staff made some rude comments that made both my partner and I feel really uncomfortable. However, after saying I would never go back, I have been invited to a few birthday celebrations there and rather than miss out I decided to just go and I havent had any problems since. I havent seen that rude person there since either.