Balaclava Hotel

A surprise on Carlisle St! We came in expecting a standard St Kilda pub environment, and after the rooftop dining was recommended, we made out way upstairs to an awesome rooftop dining area with a great chilled ambience!! The staff were all excellent. Riley especially was great and made sure we had everthing we needed. The food was served quick enough that we weren't waiting but not so fast that we felt rushed. Oh, and it tasted GREAT! The Veggies that came with the yummy! Parma were top quality. The garlic and cheese bread was superb and the Korean chicken appetisers were SO GOOD! In short, the Balaclava Hotel didn't just exceed our expectations, it blew them away! Definitely a diamond in the rough!

The Balaclava board was AMAZING!! Those boneless Korean fried chicken and kimchee sandwiches ooolala very well done. They were so yummy omg very friendly service there as well!

We were celebrating 2 birthdays yesterday and we had a party of 16 people. We were served by "Karl" I think was his name. He provided us with excellent service. The food was well priced and delicious. We will be back again! Thanks for making the day special for us Karl. Great job!

Went for dinner here the other night. Staff were friendly but the food wasn’t great. The fish and chips looked like it had come out of the frozen section of the supermarket and tasted bland. The chicken Parma was dry and the chips were almost stale. Really hope it was a once off and it improves as the space upstairs has been nicely renovated and is great for a drink.

Manager was incredibly rude to us. We thought the roof top area was open so headed up there for lunch but was eventually told come back downstairs as it was closed, which we had no issue with. After finishing our lunch more on that later, I realised I left my jumper in the outdoor area upstairs. I asked one of the Waiters if they would let us up there as it was now locked and referred us to their manager who rudely told us to wait 30 minutes while he ate his lunch in-front of us and would not let the other staff help me despite the place being almost empty... Despite saying I had to leave now he showed no empathy and bluntly kept telling me to wait there for half an hour for a job that would take him 2 minutes. The lady at the bar was incredibly kind and understanding though as said she would grab it for me as soon as she could, apologised that she wasn't able to help me and that I could come by later on to pick it up which I did a few hours later. In terms of the food, it was below average for the price we paid and the options on the menu are quite limited. Would not recommend coming here for food. Only good thing about my experience was the very friendly lady who served us our food and helped me with my jumper.

Secret is out now with the Bala changing for the better. Had lunch on Saturday with my friends and everyone enjoyed their meals. I ordered barramundi and it was delicious. Will definitely go back there again with value meals and excellent service. You should check it out!!!!

Ordered Calamari to share, and I'm still waiting an hour later. So hungry had to go elsewhere

Came over for a first time in years on Sunday to a quiet and pleasent bar, the food came quick and well prepaired. I was served by two bar tenders Anthony and Andre who were really enjoyable and approciable, made the mood of the bar really pleasent. Would recoomend going with especially with this service.

My friend and I have had lunch here 2 weeks ago and we were both disappointed. The staff got the order wrong twice, the waitress was not interested in her job or trying to understand what was ordered. The food was below average, and ordering coffee was another unnecessary drama. The bathrooms were in poor condition with the toilet seat and hand towel dispenser unusable.

Was a really good pub, the pokies room is one of the best I had been to. Balaclava hotel was my local and I was a regular there in till all of the amazing staff members left. Now the staff are so rude, they don’t make you feel welcome at all and the venue is never open at the opening times advertised also always closing by 1-1:30am even though they say 6am. I don’t recommend visiting this what was an amazing, friendly pub.