The Bridgetown Hotel

I had a lovely Red Hat ladies lunch this afternoon. One suggestion: patrons should pay for their food first. With a large table and not much room, it would be better to order and pay at the counter instead of having staff take everyone’s orders around the table. It would help avoid embarrassment. Thank you.

Our first dinner here was pleasant. The staff were welcoming, the pub-style pizza and burger were what you’d expect, the chips were really good, and the room had a nice atmosphere. It wasn’t busy that night. If that had been my only visit, I’d have given it 3 or 4 stars. This recent visit brought my rating down to two, averaged with that earlier experience. The Freo across the road was busy, so we came back to the Bridgetown hotel because we’d enjoyed the food before. We should’ve stayed at the Freo, where the staff were really friendly. At the Bridgetown hotel, several staff avoided eye contact while I waited at the counter. I understood they were busy and waited patiently, but when someone finally served me, they were curt and mumbled my order back quickly. After my husband asked me to get tomato sauce, I went back to the counter and got much the same service. We ordered a margherita pizza and wedges, but the food wasn’t quite as described or worth the price. The wedges had none of the advertised rosemary salt, just plain salt after my husband added some from the table. He wanted to complain and ask for a refund, but I said not to because they were busy and I’d already felt ignored. We were hungry, so we ate and left before the sauce arrived.

The outdoor dining area is lovely. We’ve eaten at the restaurant a few times on visits and enjoyed the classic pub meals. The banana walnut and chai cream cake was a favourite. Please bring it back!

We came back because the service and food had been good on Christmas Eve, when we ordered a veggie burger and vegetarian pizza. This time service wasn’t good, though they were busy, so I can’t say whether that affected the food as well. The Margherita was advertised as a 10-inch pizza made with house-made dough, but it tasted like a frozen pizza and was barely 7 inches. It was worse than a small frozen pizza and cost $19, awful value. The hand-cut royal blue wedges were $12, served in a tiny bowl, and had no rosemary salt as advertised. It felt like I’d been robbed.