Decanter

Keep a lid on it …
I’ve not many nice things to say about this place. Booked the restaurant for a friend’s 30^th, and let me just say I’m glad that it didn’t ruin the birthday experience too much for the birthday girl.
All the dishes and drinks were all average at best, and you would think that for a restaurant that cannot deliver on the quality of food advertised, they would make up with the service delivered. How wrong was I! The manager/​owner seemed to care more about entertaining people that they knew than to even greet our table, and wishing the birthday girl a happy birthday.
The waitress who brought out the cake that we ordered to the table was also too stuck up to say a simple ‘happy birthday’. Once the waitresses have noticed that we’re done with the ordering for the night, none of them bothered to come to our table even thought the water jars had been sitting there empty for more than half an hour.
Utterly disappointed with the restaurant, will not return again.

Came here for a friends birthday and was expecting some good grub considering how much she had be raving on about it however I found the food was not good and the service was average.
My friend and I ordered a few things to share… The lamb ribs, deep fried pickles, poutine with pulled Pork and cheese and deep fried cheese balls.
Firstly the deep fried cheese and pickles were over fried to the point that the crust was way too hard.
Then the ribs where quite dry and chewy to eat and the poutine looked like it had been rushed and thrown together. And not the proper Poutine you would find in Canada or America– they used grated cheese and string fries instead of proper chips for crying out loud! And the cheese was plain old cheddar, not the cheese curd you would find in a typically traditional canadian/​american poutine.
Another friend had ordered a potato salad, however when it came out it was more of a warm deep fried wedges with sour cream and bacon. Not the cold potato salad she was expecting.
They also forgot her ribs, so as everyone had finished their meals, she was still waiting. Finally the ribs came out but they took it to another table thinking it was their order. Instead of coming to check with us to see if we were waiting on anything else they gave the other table the ribs for free until we said that we were still waiting for an order of ribs. So they hurried back to the table and took back the plate to give to us. Not much of an apology given, just a very awkward waitress and manager.
Not a very good experience for either table.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the states and I can safely say, they have a long way to go.
If you’re going to claim your food is American, at least know how to do it properly.

Went in for a light dinner after our movie on Wednesday night around 8.30ish. At first, I wasn’t too impressed as the waitress told us to grab a seat and she would bring the menus over, which was great — except she forgot about us. We waited for about 10 minutes too long so I ended up grabbing the menus and then we had another waitress who apologies and took over.
My husband and I shared three plates between us: had Philly steak sliders (3), crispy pork bites and tequila lime prawns. We really enjoyed the food — pork bites had this amazing honey bourbon sticky glaze. Slider were really good — the steak was soft and full of flavour.
Overall — the food is awesome and we will be visiting again at some stage.

Vic park is a local hang out for hipsters, lovers and people from all walks of life. When I first heard that ‘That Little Mexican Place’ had been replaced (finally) with a hip American lounge specializing in tapas, I did a squeal and semi choreographed happy dance. Walking into Decanter, it feels like a fusion between a quaint hole in the wall, and a stylized lounge bar. We ordered espresso martinis and took a seat on an oversized victorian lounge (Super comfortable ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would sit again). The atmoshpere was actually fantastic, people were laughing, talking, drinking and just generally being good humans. They played a mix of 90s/​00s punk rock, think ‘Papa Roach’ and ‘Blink 182′. The waitstaff were SO welcoming and friendly, I would high five them for their service for sure. We ordered espresso martinis, and when they came I can comfortably say they are some of the best espresso martinis I’ve had on the strip (no awful Patron aftertaste here, everyone take note Patron should be for rapper music videos only).
The menu was an array of meats and cheese, perfect for any American tapas fan. I should mention I was on martini number three by this point and was still desperately trying to get the staff to make me some kind of Espresso Martini bowl, because I feel like the martini glass although supremely cool, lacks volume.
We settled on the Hawaiian chicken, philly steak sliders, cheese and bacon balls and pork belly bites.
I’m not going to say the food was as amazing as the martinis, it wouldn’t be possible. The food was exactly what I expected, it was pretty basic and I could have made everything myself at home… except the cheese and bacon balls, which had this amazing honey mayo that made me believe in a higher power. The chicken was average, the pork belly had maple syrup (I think, I was on espresso martini number 4 and had hereby dubbed them the ‘Nectar of the Gods’) which was a nice combination, the sliders were pretty good but not spectacular.
Final review: great place, with old decanters as light fittings (very suave touch guys), great liquor, fun happy waitstaff that don’t have that look of utter disappointmemt in the human race you find in so many restaurants. Food was pretty good, wouldn’t brag about it, but all the other factors make this place worth the effort. I’d definitely go back again, but probably for the martinis… definitely for the martinis

Considering it was the opening day when we visited Decanter I have to say I’m impressed! I’ll definitely head back for more. You can read my full review on my blog (link in profile).