Poachers Pantry

A huge thank you to Adam and the team at Poachers Pantry for helping make our wedding the best day of our lives! The set up at Poachers is absolutely stunning, food and wine are delicious, and the staff are amazing.

The planning process was straightforward, with regular and clear communications from Adam and a detailed pricing schedule.

The weather was looking a little touch and go in the lead up to our day. Adam was very patient and accomodating in talking through all the available options and even had chairs set up in multiple locations in case rain meant we needed to make a quick last minute change. In the end a break in the rain meant we were able to have our ceremony on the gorgeous marquee lawns and were lucky enough to get a double rainbow later in the afternoon.

We highly recommend Poacher's Pantry if you are looking to get married in/close to Canberra!

I appreciate you are trying something new (note: we have been here many times), however $24 for four heirloom tomatoes on a bed of hummus is a bit of a joke. The rest of what used to be a grazing platter is tasty but very over priced and too small. Bring back the platters and remove the pretentiousness and give value for money.

Excellent food and top-notch service. First time we'd been, and we will definitely be back! Would recommend for any special occasion.

Extremely accomodating to difficult diets, amazing venue, staff are wonderful, and for a wedding venue - surprisingly affordable. Cannot recommend highly enough

We came to Poachers to celebrate an 80th Birthday. The food was delicious and the service was amazing!
The staff were all really lovely.but a special mention for Jack.he was delightful and made every moment of our time at Poachers special.
Thank you

First time eating there and it was a very enjoyable experience. Staff efficient and very friendly. We found portion sizes just right for a 3 course meal, but we are not very big eaters. Can always supplement with extra sides, bread etc.

Food was interesting and nicely presented.

It’s a very pretty setting and seemed child friendly so perhaps in a few years we might return with the grand children.

This was my second Easter visit. The food options weren't appealing as per the previous year, unfortunately. And then, to add a 15% surcharge left me even less than impressed. I understand that surcharges are applied on a public holiday, but when you're paying $75 per head plus drinks, it's a bit much. The surcharge was not mentioned in my reservation booking either. On a positive note, the staff were friendly and welcoming. Definitely not in a hurry to return.

Visiting Canberra for the weekend, we - group of 3x - had planned a girls day out wine tasting, starting at Poachers Pantry. The website advises wine tasting from 9: 30am.

We arrived at 10: 15am, but were advised it is currently the breakfast service, but will check to see if anyone can conduct a wine tasting. Nothing happened for abt 5mins, and we were left to stand around awkwardly in the way.

The same server came back and asked again - how can I help? Again, we ask for a wine tasting. He advised he will see if anyone can conduct a wine tasting. We then overhear the server ask another staff member, and the answer was No

However, when he returned, he advised it was possible - albeit a wait. Again, there was a push for food instead - which we declined. We were asked to wait outside - and someone will attend when possible.

We waited, then walked around the grounds, then waited, pictures, and waited - in total 40mins. In this time, we see 2x other groups who were also sitting outside served. We have not received any service, no water, no tasting notes, or reading materials to tide us over - nothing.

At this point, it was evident we were not welcome and no one was going to serve us. We go in to say we were leaving and to ask why we receive such bad service. His answer was - I did say it would be a wait….

We then spoke to the manager - she was actually the person we overheard saying it wasn’t possible to do a wine tasting. We asked, if it wasn’t possible to do a wine tasting, why weren’t we just told - I’m sorry, it’s not available at this time. Instead we were left outside to wait for 40mins, for nothing. We were advised it was a new, young team, and they were short staffed, and and the water went out at 10am, and and and and ….

There was no apology, there was no recourse
She stressed that they did want to conduct the wine flights for us.
It most certainly did not feel that way - we were made to feel like it was our fault for requesting a service that is obviously beyond they capacity

This was our first stop for the day and definitely set the tone and soured our expectations for hospitality in this region.

We did not try the food
This is obviously ONLY a restaurant. Do not come here for their cellar door - it is non-existent, and the staff will gaslight you into believing bad service is a matter of fact.

We held our wedding at Poachers Pantry recently and the process couldn't have been easier.
As we had a smaller wedding, we used the Restaurant and Kitchen Garden lawns for our canape reception and the Homestead Lawns for our ceremony. All locations were simply stunning.
Being a canape wedding rather than a sit-down meal, I had been slightly worried our guests wouldn't get enough to eat but I really needn't have worried - in fact, all our guests told me they were absolutely stuffed and loved the food.
The team at Poachers were great and I can't thank them enough, with their help we had the most amazing day and I would highly recommend them to any Canberra or surrounds area couples looking for a great venue.

We went there to enjoy a three course set menu.on reaching there it was quiet a task to be asking to be seated as there was no one to look after that aspect.we were seated after I roamed around to ask someone to help us. We had chosen the three course set menu.the prawns in entree were the driest or the hardest prawns which I ever have come across. The entree was replaced without an apology and we were told “ now they are grilled fresh for you “ ain’t they supposed to be freshly made or What? Rest of the food was ok with the lamb saddle nice and tender and sorbets were lovely.
My two stars are just for the prawns and the things mentioned before.

Christmas Eve set lunch with the family. Wonderful! Beautiful space, yummy food, great staff. What more could you want?

Absolutely beautiful view, food and wine. Absolute shame about the service from Claire! Made to feel inferior, as if we were an annoyance and she was extremely rude. Questioning about going back again. Spent over $350 and still had to ask for what we were entitled too! Everyone is entitled to a bad day, but don’t take it out on paying customers.

I feel its a bit of a stretch to book tables for a business, with the catch that you have to forgo a pre authorisation in the event of down size in numbers, cancellation etc.things happen in this world and appreciate your running a business but that’s a tough ask.

Poor business model which made us to go elsewhere.

Even high end restaurants do not do this ‍️

Had a fantastic set 3 course meal on Sunday afternoon. Rachel the Matre De was just wonderful and provided me with the details of each dish when it was served.
I definitely will be back.

We are a family of four that visited for lunch yesterday at the last time slot (2pm). Unfortunately, the experience was poor, and we won't be returning to Poachers Pantry. The wait staff behaved like they'd had enough by the time we arrived, the food for the adults was very slow, and the dessert item advertised as gluten free on the menu was not gluten free as it turned out, and consumed by a coeliac. The only response was 'oh', without an apology. The pork belly menu item needs some work - I can and do make much better pork belly at home. The only upside was the children's meals which were good and served promptly. But this won't be enough for us to return.

Food was good but the service was laughable. Very disappointing. For a vineyard, you would expect your wine to arrive before you finished your entree not after. Only asked 3 times. One side arrived at the end of the main meal too. Another table had the same issue with their wine. So, not worth the money spent. The wine I had was nice, the food was nice but the experience made us feel not to return.

Overall the meal was of ok quality, except we were very disappointed with the main. It was tiny, poorly presented, and showed clear inconsistency from customer to customer. It was evident that I had just been given scrappy shreds of beef, while other customers ordering the same dish had a proper sizeable chunk of beef that actually required a knife to cut. The most shocking thing was finding a big piece of baking paper tucked in with the shreds of beef. I thought it was part of the food and tried to eat it.

We let the waitress know and she assured us she'd inform the chef. But no attempts were made at recompense.

Having come here years ago I think this place has lost a lot of character and been somewhat 'commercialised'. I used to recommend this place to friends for special occasions, but will not be recommending it any more.

* Edit to respond to owner: Rachael, no alternative was presented whatsoever. A resolution was noticeably missing, otherwise I might not have posted this review. When a different staff member asked about our meal during payment I mentioned this issue, and once again just received words in response but no action. Also reading another recent review we had the same problem: wine came out very late, after the entree. The waitress was nice enough and apologised and said it was a busy day. Also someone may need to take ownership of the front door. We saw some customers being completely ignored as they walked in. Overall a disappointing performance.

We had a Club Committee & partner's lunch. The staff were professional, friendly and helpful. Food and service fantastic. A great lunch was had by all and happy to recommend your first and their next visit.

This is such a beautiful place with regard to location-wise, food and service. I love it so much I almost don’t want to leave a great review so I can keep it to myself!

Finally got to use our Xmas voucher from 2020 from our children to dine at Poacher's Pantry. It was absolutely delightful. The food was excellent, simple quality ingredients cooked to perfection. The wine pairing topped the meal off. The service was outstanding and the staff friendly and attentive. We don't often get Canberra way these days, however we will make the effort to get back to Poacher's Pantry again. Thank you for a beautiful lunch that made a great day.