Botswana Butchery Melbourne

"Having visited their branches in Auckland and Sydney we were looking forward to this restaurant and have to say we felt it was a big let down. The restaurant setting and ambience is very nice, nicely decorated rooms with nicely set tables and good ambience. Front door service was pleasant and helpful, but really felt let down by the service at the table. Service was very medicore at best and would have expected a lot more from a premium named steakhouse. Steak was perfectly cooked, seasoned and it was delicious. That's perfectly done but the appetizer and side dishes was lacking in presentation, flavour and texture. Felt it was like a pub food rather than at a nice restaurant. It's a shame as we really enjoyed all of the dishes in other branches and we felt the overall experience for us here is underwhelming."

"The only relevant thought about this place is where do these people get off (in a polite way) We haven't been out for dinner for a while and thought let's go check out this restaurant as the one in New Zealand is great. The waitress left us with drinks menu for atleast 5 minutes even tho we don't drink. We ordered a dozen of oysters which happened to be 8.5 per oyster before surcharge. Which is mindblowing prices. We ordered two semi reasonable steaks, 1 Mac and cheese and 1 duck fat potatoes and 1 sparkling water. That is it. The bill was $400. Which is a joke. To think that we didn't get entrees or cocktails to make it such a huge bill is seriously shocking. Mac and cheese that the hostess described as amazing tastes like something you would buy at the supermarket for $3 and heat up on the stove. It had no seasoning, no flavour. Duck fat potatoes were so bad that us as potatoe lovers didn't even eat 1/3 of it. They were overcooked to the point of potatoes separating from its skin, they tasted like pure fat and oil with no seasoning. No matter how much salt we kept putting on, it didn't make a difference. It seemed that chef didn't taste his food that night. The steaks were average, after confirming that this type of eye fillet will have more marbling to upsell the steak, it was an average eye fillet that you can get at the markets with no trouble. Overall the experience was so disappointing and it was heartbreaking to pay $400 for average food and a very low amount of it too. Highly do not recommend"

"Beautiful dark and moody interior decor, with food and wine matching and living upto the high expectations. The Persimmon salad was interesting to begin with, followed by one of the best steaks this place had to offer. The side of buttermilk onion rings, shoestring fries and Botswana slaw salad was on point as well."

"Tried their lobster and bottomless fries special and it was well-cooked and good value. 5-star for the food, but dropped 1 star because the matcha cocktail tasted like just milk and sugar… missing green tea flavour and alcohol! The service was also very average. It seems like they are understaffed and because we sat out at the front instead of the main restaurant space, we were mostly forgotten."

"From the moment we walked in, til the second we walked out… the service was amazing. Shout out to Mia who looked after us, the nicest, most pleasant and down to earth waitress. The price on the food is on the higher end but the food definitely came through with the flavours and tastiness. My favourite dish was the venison tartare. It was so fresh and light you wouldn’t even think it was venison. I was also celebrating my birthday dinner and definitely felt special here at Botswana butchery. We were looked after very well. The level two balcony is perfect for a more quiet setting with the big glass windows overlooking the streets. Also to note the balcony seating is warm and cosy. We didn’t have the heater on and it was raining outside but the temperature was very comfortable. A great place for a first date, birthday or even if you just want an above average dinner. Thank you Botswana Butchery!"