The Castle Hotel

Ordered ravioli pasta and it was not cooked properly, tomato sauce was watery and flavourless. Sent it back and got same quality back. No staff came to check if meal was OK. Couldn't eat it, on leaving I mentioned the food was poor quality, the response from the older man (maybe manager) was 'the food is normally pretty good' 'it's just one of those nights'. Food quality was poor and staff seemed to have no interest in customer being satisfied with meal.

Won't be back here, the beer is not genuine or fresh. We were not expecting happy hour or anything resembling those prices, but $15 for a pint of non genuine (as in, brewed and/or bottled locally) beer is not ok when you advertise as being something else. The service is friendly. We went for the Belgium beers.....expensive and the friendly service is just not enough to bridge the quality gap. Total disappointment for me, didn't finish the beer and walked two blocks to the next pub. Edit: the owner responded, suggesting I had expectations beyond what was reasonable....it was not shopy hour, i didnt expect that...as advertised is totally reasonable to expect, check my other reviews, I'm not that human who is anything other than honest in sharing my view. Another minus 1 for this place.

Do not pass this place without going in & having a drink & a feed. I’m from Sydney, but this place gave me the vibe & comfort feeling that you’d get from your local pub, which is rare for me, so was a highlight of my trip being in the winter cold. Warm lighting inside, SUPER friendly & helpful staff (injured my acl, bartender was really helpful in helping me pack things up, had a nice chat!) Bangers & mash were unreal, sausages had an intense flavour, so don’t skip on that one. Portion for the parmy was giant, & I was decently impressed. Cocktails were made with care & tasted great, knocked back 2 & I was done. My background is Belgian, so the overall experience was pretty good. Was just going in for a quick drink, so didn’t take proper pictures of the place sadly. Thanks again to all the staff for being lovely & accommodating, was doing it tough mentally for the week, so that was a big help, & the place was a fluke find. Will definitely come back to this place on my next trip to Melbourne!

Please PLEASE do not read any other review until you've read this one. Sadly, I'm across the road from this restaurant the Peter Mac Cancer Centre, living out my last days. Family eat at the Castle Hotel just about every night and the nursing staff rave about it too. Basically, because of my cancer, I'm down to a horrible liquid diet and everyone around me talks about beautiful food and I'd give anything to just smell a parmigiana! So I'm in the hospital with my family when a man called "Ange" introduces himself. It was a noisy environment so I guessed maybe he was a physiotherapist or someone come to take yet more blood samples from me. But out from his bag comes the biggest, juiciest, most perfect looking chicken parmigiana and chips I've ever seen. Yes, due to my condition it'll take me a week to get through but the THOUGHT!!!!! Ange not only made it with love, he delivered it with love and didn't even charge me! I was in tears. Ange paid it forward to a total stranger he'll never see again. He had no reason to. So please PLEASE repay his kindess and try his food. Tell them Troy sent you. Thank you! Troy.