The Upstairs restaurant was absolutely savaged in a restaurant review several weeks ago in The Australian magazine supplement. As fate would have it, I was actually reading that very review whilst seated in The Grill on that Saturday.
Firstly, very good service. I think they addressed me as 'Sir' which I do like and they remembered I had been a diner previously. 'A good to see you dining again' does so much for the ego. Nice basic touch which is so lacking in many of our more popular establishments. Prompt bread delivery, regular water fillage and good eye contact from the waiters.
Light Saturday lunch consisted of the complimentary bread (fresh, abundant, decent olive oil) and a grilled whole rainbow trout with some accompanying vegetables and a side dish of some particular green vegetation dusted with copious parmesan flakes. Whilst the fish itself bordered on the smallish side, it was expertly cooked and served at the right temperature. The side dish added a healthy slant to the meal itself.
Whilst the food, service and surroundings of The Grill proved a very satisfactory lunch destination, the dress sense and overall style of my 'fellow' dining companions was quite abysmal. Naturally, I wore a jacket and tie to lunch. Other Neanderthals and Plebians were dressed in all manner of causal get-up ranging from torn jeans (probably from the far Northern suburbs) to dare I say, a tracksuit (Western or Eastern suburbs I could only presume) but the exact nature of said tracksuit could not be verified for I had to avert my eyes most promptly.
This is a wonderful Melbourne institution. There is an old-world style to its ambience. A rarified air where old money once reigned. I just can't tolerate all the bogans in Melbourne and the general dreadful lack of style which is now the standard.
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