Bianca: After a successful day Bridesmaid dress shopping in Alexandria, The ladies – ‘Bride to be’ – Vanessa, maid of honour and cousin, Bec and the lovely Amel and I, shared an early dinner at Vicinity Dining. Set just across from the always bustling ‘Grounds of Alexandria’, Vicinity offer’s diners an upmarket chic warehouse styling with a variety of dining options. With a fairly extensive Dinner/bar menu and sushi lunches Monday to Friday.
It was a raining Sunday afternoon when we arrived, a band was playing in the sheltered semi-indoor/out-door seating so it was a little loud and sometimes impossible to hear each other speaking. It was a bit of a ghost town when we visited this particular Sunday, whether the weather had anything to do with that, I don’t know.
As we arrived before 5:30pm (When the dinner menu officially starts) we ordered off the bar menu. A quick perusal and we were all set, items off the bar menu need to be ordered at the bar. Which is ultra inconvenient for us lazy-pants.
Happy to sit back and have a chat in the lovely surrounds, our wait for our food began to border on the ridiculous. The restaurant was over 90% empty when we arrived/left, so a wait for over 35 minutes plus, seemed a tad exorbitant. Service also left a bit of a sour taste, having to ask waiters for both cutlery and napkins. As well as then having to sit with our finished/dirty dishes in front of us for over an hour as we chatted – until we left.
On to the food: Always finding it tough to bypass a burger I opted for the ‘Wagyu Beef Burger’ with a house made brioche bun and chutney. The burger had a lovely flavour, all components working harmoniously but it was extremely difficult to eat. I ended up tossing the hood and going in knife and fork style cutting it up bit by bit. Everybody knows when the cutlery get involved in a burger situation it loses its appeal rather quickly. The patty was waaaay to thick in this particular instance.
After receiving our mains, our starter arrived (seemed a bit pointless after the fact). We shared the ‘Bread and butter project’ – Sour dough, olives, pink salt and whipped butter. A pretty standard affair
The other ladies all enjoyed their respective meals; Vanessa had the ‘Fried Calamari’ with smoked paprika, lemon salt and aoli.
Bec had the ‘Poached Chicken and Alaskan King Crab salad’ with Iceberg lettuce, cashews and namjim.
And Amel had the ‘Classic Steak Frittes’ – Cape grim pasture fed Wagyu flat iron with café de Paris butter and chips.
For such a beautiful space it almost seems like a crime that the service is so severely lacking and almost detrimental to a possible killer piece of real-estate and a would be rival to The Grounds.
Bianca
V.B.A
Looking at some of the other reviews at Urbanspoon (thanks for the link!), it looks like you’re not alone in your experience of poor service and absurdly long wait times for food and coffee.
With such a massively popular venue just across the road, you would think everything at Vicinity would be impeccable.
Thanks for the review!