Stage Bar and Kitchen

We came here for dinner last night before seeing a concert at the RAC Arena. We didn't have a reservation, but we only had to wait about 5 minutes for a table. The dining area is very tiny. The tables are so close together you feel like you are sharing a table with the people next to you. They were quick to take our order, but the food was pretty slow coming out. The service was friendly, but the pressure to leave a tip on top of the bill amount was a bit much. The zucchini blossoms stuffed with cream cheese were absolutely delicious. They were the best thing we ate all night. We also ordered the Crispy 5 cheese ravioli. It was not pleasant. There was nothing nice I could say about this plate of food at all. The cheese filling was funky and not at all tasty. The sauce that comes with it is bland. It is not made with pasta it is pastry of some kind. Like a very cheap samosa pastry. It was also overcooked. It was a terrible texture and flavour, and an unpleasant mouth-feel. The plate was $16 and you get four ravioli squares. We both ate one each and could not bring ourselves to eat another one. So we sent $8 worth of ravioli back to the kitchen. We ordered the gnocchi and salmon salad for mains. The texture of the gnocchi was good, it was light and fluffy, but the sauce was just all garlic. It said it had chilli, but the only chilli flavour was when you got one of the few slices of red chilli which had been scattered in top; there was no actual flavour of chilli in the sauce. The only thing I could taste was an insane amount of garlic. The salmon salad was a mountain of baby spinach with some slabs of smoked salmon spread around. It had some small slivers of carrot and cucumber and a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds on top, but there was no dressing; it definitely needed a dressing of some kind. The only thing we finished out of the whole meal was the stuffed zucchini blossoms. Everything else was not enjoyable at all.

Stayed at the hotel for two 10 days and dined here a number of times. Great dinner mains, share plates and coffee. 1 star lost as the buffer breakfast was nothing special. Got offered the breakfast menu options on the last day which was more on the mark.

Thoroughly enjoy the menus here. Service is pleasant and attentive though I dare say they are somewhat understaffed as they appear to struggle when it gets busy , but I cannot fault the staff who are there, nor the quality of food.

Ordered a flat white at the cafe… they used long life milk!