Ironbark Brewery (otherwise known as EPIC FAIL).

In General
Okay, so we went to Ironbark for my birthday lunch, therefore I was in the mood to have a good day. However, with flu season upon us my dining party ended up being just a small group of us with too many reserved seats, which already had me pretty bummed. Things didn’t get any better.

Food
The vego options on offer were: nachos ($14), vegetarian baguette ($14) and vegetarian pizza ($21.50). I went with the pizza option. It was all bad. The toppings available were very basic and resulted in a boring meal however that’s not why I was so disappointed. There were bits of ham! Not a whole heap as in they had given me the wrong toppings but just a few to indicate that they had been careless applying the toppings. I rarely take a meal back. If something is missing or is shit, I tend to just put up with it and then not go back to the place. However, I pulled the few bits of ham off and continued eating a few slices only to find that there was ham UNDERNEATH my pizza, on the fucking plate. I took the pizza back to the counter and the girl seemed pretty unimpressed at having to remake the pizza. I asked for just a small one as I had already had a few slices. Although I didn’t ask for one, a refund of the difference or a comp would have been nice, if not expected in the situation. She did apologise and was kinder and more sincere with her apology when she bought the replacement out but I was still very unimpressed.
The other thing that annoyed me was that the pizzas for the table were brought out at least 10 minutes before the rest of the meals. I understand that they are cooked in different parts of the venue, but the people with pizzas were finished before the others received their meals.

The Beer
The beverages faired a little better than the food. The debilitator was very good for a darker ale as I usually don’t enjoy the darker beers that much and the wheat was the best beer I had that day (we ventured off to a few different places afterwards.)

Atmosphere/Service
The bar staff were very friendly and didn’t harass my friend for not having I.D. after being asked for it (we are in our mid-20s after all). The atmosphere was solid but the band had the worst song choices for a sunny Sunday afternoon with depressing covers of songs such as Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here (LOVE the song, but not when I’m trying to have fun).

Closing Comments
Being my birthday lunch and at a brewery, we weren’t really there for the food. We were there to have a good time and drink some beer. However, the restaurant managed to perform so poorly that it ruined the quality of the beer and we hurried along to the next brewery as soon as we could. If anything, I got the impression that they just weren’t trying that hard to provide quality food, particularly not vegetarian. Very disappointed.

Food 0/10
Value 0/10
Beer 7/10
Service 6/10
Atmosphere 3/10