The Drake Tavern / Railway Hotel Pakenham

It's pretty good since the renovation.
The menu could do with more options though.

First visit since new ownership, nice to see staff from a previous venue working here.very friendly attentive staff from the start.fish and chips by 3 1 Asian calamari salad plus sweets and coffee, no complaints with any

Walked in today for lunch. Was seated and told there was table service.we waited and waited and waited, saw that there were only two staff members on and the bistro nearly full. There was about 10 people waiting to be served drinks. We then decided that we didn't want to waste anymore time wand walked out.

Never again.

Our first time since re-opening was for lunch. The food was great (we had fish and schnitzel) and staff were friendly and helpful. We'll be very happy to return.

We had a family function here last week. Food was great and staff super friendly. So glad we found you guys Can’t wait to book dinner here again. Well done.

Gotta say, the place was brilliant. There were five of us and we all enjoyed the quiet in the dining area, the staff and especially the food.

Lovely family atmosphere. Great people and customer service. Live music on Friday brings it to another level. Free parking. Can book for family events

Had the parma and wife had the calamari, which we were both happy with. Went for a birthday and everyone seemed to enjoy their meal. We happened to go on a Tuesday night, and the meals were discounted to $22 or thereabouts, which included a drink.

I got a coke and it tasted pretty flat.

The urinal at the back of the dining area (not sure if they have just the one male toilet area) reeked. It looked clean but I had to try and hold my breath it was that bad.

Overall, it was a nice night. Staff were friendly, and we will happily go back.

Dined there on many occasions for dinner over the past 6+ months. Always excellent food and service along with value for money!

Amazing food, would recommend the California club. Staff are lovely and very welcoming. Will always come back here.

Best meal since moving from Sydney! Essentially a pub but menu is a bit more interesting, food is definitely better and marginally cheaper as well. An all round great experience.

Dinner was perfect. Definitely recommend the Bombay chicken. Thanks for dinner! Lovely to have service with a smile:)

Nice place first visit, bar staff really nice food was good, free drink with meal was nice touch, be back for sure

The service was efficient and the costs reasonable.
Unfortunately the seating was hard and the ever intrusive TV'S were present.
Overall 8 out of ten.

Family dinner we had steak not cooked as ordered taken back to kitchen twice still not cooked correctly. Frozen chips these were still cold to touch and mixed in with cooked chips, peppercorn sauce with mushrooms in it not once but twice.
Tried to contact manager and keep getting ignored. Email does not work, sent various messages and still ignored. Tried to cal number a d cannot get through. Sent mobile number and email address and still no contact.
Customer service is absolutely disgusting. This all should have been reported to manager in the night by the waitress but we were just left and then ushered out around 9 ish. Be warned not a very friendly place if the food is not spot on. Also paid full price for all
Meals. Would not recommend
At least the manager should have responded to me. Horrible lack of customer service.

Have been here a couple of times before and had pretty good experiences.

The most recent time was on the 27th of November for a birthday dinner. My brother and I ordered a couple of Melbourne Bitters on tap to which they were really flat - I exchanged the beer to the bartenders displeasure.

We exchanged the beers for a couple of Carlton Draughts and they were also quite flat. My brother went up to the bar and explained that this beer was off as well. The bartender got the manager and they smoothed it over after complaining that everyone else was enjoying their beers.

I work in the industry and can tell when they haven’t checked their kegs and they clearly needed to be swapped.

Table service would elevate my star rating, having said that our meals arrived in a reasonable amount of time. Interesting food choices, slightly different to normal pub fare. I chose Katsu Chicken, the meat was tender, sauce tasty, and the accompanying veggies were very nice.

I can understand venues being short-staffed, but I won't tolerate the attitude that goes with it. Thought I'd take Mum out for a nice dinner and as we both live in Pakenham and as we have never tried The Drake we thought we'd give it go. Arrived around 6pm on a Sunday. Stood at the "Please Wait To Be Seated" sign for around 10 minutes before we realised that this is getting ridiculous. People at the bar seemed to be getting served, but we were clearly being ignored! When we finally decided to ask if anyone was going to seat us, we were met with rudeness and attitude from the bar staff. (In their defence, no other staff around). Decided immediately to take ourselves elsewhere! The Drake will never see us again, but I thoroughly recommend Castello's in Pakenham. Efficient service and delicious food!

Such a shame how downhill the Drake has gone. Went for lunch and half the bistro has become a TAB bar. Asked for grilled fish and it came out with a flour coating and stank as it was fried in butter - was off-putting & not grilled. Even my fiance's chicken snitzel had soggy coating from the frying. I gave this place 5 stars 3 yrs ago but won't go back as the standards have definitely gone.

Me and my bestie ended up here after a massive hike. (We were half broken and starving)
We had entered and asked if they were still doing meals, they had said the kitchen was closed, but they were so lovely and offered to make us a meal.
We sat outside and the food and hospitality was amazing.
Really friendly, highly recommend going here.
If we are ever in the area again, we will definitely be going back.