The Waiting Room

Stopped in here while on a quick trip visiting from Adelaide. The atmosphere and service were exceptional but the stand out was the Southside; the most well balanced and down right perfect one I've had; and I've had quite a few it's my absolute go to when looking for a refreshing classic and the batender nailed it.

Joe and Rajeev were so accommodating and wonderful servers. We are here twice based on the incredible service and delicious food.

Convenient gathering place before and after events with the most delicious creations and one of the best Bloody Mary’s
Love it!

I attended the waiting room for high tea and had a wonderful experience with Chaileen’s service. She was very accomodating and she offered to take a photo!

Her hospitality, care, and passion to provide the best experience is such a great trait. It just makes the experience even more elevated than it already is.

The high tea Nikka collaboration food was fantastic. It was the perfect amount of food. The little chocolate gifts were just the cherry on top and really tasty!

Joe delivered exceptional customer service and made the night fantastic! Would recommend The Waiting Room to my friends! 5 star service for Joe

Over the weekend I attended The Waiting Room for the Nikka Whisky High Tea experience, and I must say that I was quite disappointed with the overall experience. Here's a detailed review of my visit:

My party and I arrived on time for our reservation, looking forward to a delightful high tea experience. However, our excitement quickly turned into frustration. The initial impression was tarnished as the welcome drinks took an astonishing 35 minutes to be served. During this time, we had to continually remind the staff about our tea orders, which should have been a straightforward part of the experience.

The most frustrating incident occurred when a table of six guests received two trays initially, one intended for two people and another for a single guest with food allergies. However, the tray meant for the guest with allergies was inexplicably taken away, leaving them and the three other guests without a tray for 15 minutes. During this time, the guest with allergies received a new tray to accommodate their dietary restrictions. The guest with allergies was given a bowl (small) of whipped cream for themselves, while the remaining five guests had to share just two bowls of cream. We requested additional cream to accommodate the two scones per person, but it took a staggering 12 minutes for this request to be fulfilled. By then, the warm food had turned cold, and two of our guests had already eaten their scones dry.

One of the guests at our table was never brought tea at all, and this guest had to ask multiple times for a coffee instead. Only receiving 1 drink for the entire time. Such lapses in service were disappointing and did not set a positive tone for the afternoon. The Manageress had to keep stepping in to assist.

After finishing the treats, we decided to order 2 more coffees and some whiskeys to wrap up our high tea experience. However, we were surprised to see that we were charged for the coffee. This was particularly frustrating given the number of forgotten drink orders throughout the high tea and the fact that the staff failed to inform us that the timing for our experience started at sit-down, despite the fact that nothing had been served for nearly 25 minutes after our arrival.

To make matters worse, one of the guests with allergies discovered that their dietary restrictions had been overlooked, as the chocolates given to take home contained ingredients they couldn't consume. This oversight regarding allergies further soured our experience.

In conclusion, the Nikka Whisky High Tea experience at The Waiting Room was a highly disappointing experience, especially considering the steep cost of $650 for our party. The service was slow and forgetful, with multiple instances of missed orders and long delays. The lack of communication regarding the timing of the experience, additional charges for coffee, and the allergy oversight only added to our dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this high tea experience based on my visit.

Cute experience, hope the staff improve their drinks knowledge (e.g. They gave us the wrong coffee/tea and then explained to us the wrong cocktails - confused the mule with the sour). Also noted that the waiters were very tense and felt 'scared' to make mistakes; maybe newbie jitters potentially but I hope they are working in an environment that supports them to be more comfortable with their roles. Food was ok, location ok but I can imagine it being very noisy if we were placed closer to the foyer.

Giovendys service was impeccable. He was so lovely and made our visit really special. We will be visiting again while staying in Melbourne. We wish we could just tip him but it is shared amongst the team.

Been to the waiting room twice now and on both occasions was served by a member called Joe.
He seated us took our orders and delivered our drinks in good time. He was very professional, caring and polite. Even offered us his own recommendation on the menu for the best cake, which was amazing.

Will be coming back.
Thank you Joe for the professional service

I recently visited The Waiting Room and had a fantastic experience! The coffee was top-notch, and the pastries were absolutely delicious. The cozy ambiance and friendly staff made my visit even more enjoyable.

Food was 10/10 the club sandwich and crab tacos were amazing! Coffee was great but the service was average, waited a while to be seated and served. Otherwise loved our experience!

Excellent place with good ambiance. Staff are kind and respectful. The luxury comes with a price tag. But you can count on Peter that his hospitality is genuine.

Enjoyable experience and management were very friendly toward customers. Staff very happy to be there and therefore the experience overall, was great.

Wonderful and affordable high tea. Balanced items of food between sweet and savory. Staff attentive and friendly. Great atmosphere in Crown. Definitely a great high tea experience and worth trying.

Not really anything to write home about hey, considering the price.

If you buy a hightea, they will make you sit at the front in this tiny little table so small they can't put the actual food on it- just the plates and tea. The food gets placed on the highset boundary designed determine the difference between the casino entry and cafe.not for food.so anyone walking in and out of the ALWAYS BUSY casino can breathe, talk and cough all over it before you can eat it.we didn't finish the food because it was such a turn off.

Also buyer beware, the 'unlimited drinks' is great but trying to flag down one of the staff members is almost impossible to ask for another so maybe just bank the coin and have drinks somewhere else.

The Waiting Room is opposite Crown Towers Lobby. We were lucky to receive complimentary drinks cards, and I’m glad the staff at crown towers did. The menu is simple but delicious, especially their crab tacos crunchy and tasty. Their club sandwich is a significant portion, and every bite was perfectly layered with flavours. I’m glad I purchased my birthday cake. It was beautifully presented and a light cake to eat. Not sweet, just perfect!
Friendly staff, especially Dianna, who served us on the night and was prompt with our orders.
Dianna has excellent customer service and is helpful with what food to recommend to try. The place is elegant and has a great ambience. You can bring children here and be pram friendly. They also have high chairs.
I love their drinks selections and can pair them with their food menu. I highly recommend this place.

As good deserts are as bad service unfortunately: (

I hope management will invest a bit more into people to change it.

Popped in for pre dinner birthday drinks on a whim and enjoyed some delicious cocktails and attentive service as we people watched from our seats.
Highly enjoyable.

My experience of The Waiting Room from today:
1. Waited over 45 minutes for food to be served (as it was High Tea, the menu was already pre-planned)
2. Waited for a drinks menu that never arrived
3. Waited to be served water so I went to find the water jug and brought one to my table
4. Waited for the complementary glass of champagne that is always served with High Tea but it's not part of the service
5. Food was very nice

They will be waiting an enternity for me to return, poor service, poor attention to detail.

Been dining in at The Waiting Room Crown for so long because they provided outstanding customer services that impressed us when we first dined in there. However, I been giving the worst customer services ever today…very disappointing.

As a regular customer, they should know what we like/dislike and our family get used to drink hot water daily and we usually order a pot of tea for sharing; however, when I ordered a pot of tea and two cups of hot water, the waitress serving us gave me the look “only one tea? ” meaning we should order another drink since we were two people dinning in. Now, please note, each customer got their own habits and the way they like to dine in, the waitress was rude to give me that look, and one time when we asked for a hot water refills for second time…the waitress (another one) served us noted and saying “more hot water, sure! ” and then she took the tea pot to the back and walked away. After that, she was completely forgot she needed to refill more hot water and then bring back the pill tea pot to us. Also, we realised every time when we asked for this hot water refill request, some of the waiters/waitresses were unwillingly to do this…. These were not good enough for high class bar/restaurant like this. Anyways, we went to checkout and when I ready to pay by card, the waitress (the one that directed us to a table in the first place) dared to ask us for tips and I refused then she looked unhappy instantly…I mean please, when you guys didn’t provide decent customers services like used to, do you think you guys deserved tips? Sure, it’s feeling miserable to working during public holidays but you chose to work and you get double pay today. The restaurant was not busy like other places so there’s no reason you guys can skip to provide outstanding customer services and treat each customers differently no matter tips (also optional) or not.

One simple hint: try to remember and familiarize your regular customers’ dine in habits, this will grant you some tips at the end.