Colonial Tramcar Restaurant in Melbourne
 

Hi all

I am thinking about this restaurant for a romatntic night out with my wife when we celebrate our anniversary in Melbourne next month. I have seen its website, but would be grateful for the opinions of anyone who has actually done it - was the food okay, would you go early or late sitting (I'd prefer late, but 3 hours seems a long time!!) and was it worth it?

Thanks

Hello Gratn,

My husband and I also did this to celebrate an anniversary. We enjoyed it very much. We loved seeing the sights of Melbourne go by while we dined.

The food was okay, but I wouldn't say it was anything to write home about. If you are foodies, I would not recommend it.

So, on balance, I don't know whether to recommend this experience or not. If you view it as a sight seeing experience then, yes, it is worthwhile. If you view it as a dining experience then, no, I don't think it's worthwhile.

If you decide to do it, then I think the late sitting is the nicer of the two. It's charming to see the city at night. Three hours may seem like a long time, but I think you'll find it passes surprisingly quickly. The 1.5 hour duration of the first sitting is too short for my taste. But people's opinions on these things differ, and I can't guarantee you'll agree with me if you follow my advice.

If you decide against the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant, there are many great restaurants in Melbourne. Word searches here at Fodor's and further questions will elicit information on them.

Thanks Judy. I'm not really a foodie (although I like eating well) so as long as the food is okay I'll be right.

Anyone else?

Grant

This question and reply about 8 years old so I am wondering if anyone has done it more recently; I'd be grateful for an update on the quality of the food.

From what I have heard it is expensive and over priced. But having said that, as a one off in city you are visiting maybe only once in a life time, it would be a great way to see the city at night.

The food will be good, but if you are a real foodie, it will be overpriced. But hey you are on holiday!

If you want cheap home style food but still something different, Puffing Billy dinner trips are great. We did it years ago and it is run by volunteers. Entre on the train, roast dinner at the station with music and dancing - classic rock and roll 50s 60s sort of music, choice of desserts. Port on the train back. All money goes to keeping the railway going.

A fantastic night.

Thank you, Peter! Very helpful.

Thanks, Peter. We just might have a chance to do this in March.

eliztravels2 and peggionthego, friends from the US did this just last year - against our advice. It is very overpriced, very touristy, with very average food. For the same price you could really experience one of Melbourne's many fantastic restaurants - there are more per capita in Melbourne than anywhere else in the world.....

The menu is naturally limited, with two choices per course, but the wine flowed freely and they were both very impressed with the service. Their opinion about the food was, to quote them, "wedding food done badly!".

If you do decide to do this, a daylight trip will give you a better understanding of Melbourne, if that's the reason for the journey, but frankly I think it's a vastly overpriced novelty with supermarket quality food. The free burgandy coloured City Circle trams (a tourist tram running though the Central business District) will give you a better tram experience and a feel for the city too.

Likewise there is a free circle bus as well, that starts near the Arts Centre.

At least With Puffing Billy you know you are getting cheap "home made" food and the money is going into preserving the trains.
http://www.puffingbilly.com.au/wine-...d-dance-train/

Some dates have already sold out!

The free circle bus that peterSale refers to is the red, single-decker Melbourne Visitor Shuttle. Do not confuse this with the recently-introduced red double-decker/open top bus, for which you pay. The Melbourne Visitor Shuttle works on a hop on/hop off basis (or just ride it all the way round) and will take you round most of the Melbourne sights and provide a decent introduction to the city.

Like others, I would be suspicious of the Tramcar Restaurant - most likely, over-priced and average food and I certainly would not recommend it. The Melbourne CBD is best explored on foot and there are plenty of trams that will take you to various parts of the city (so I certainly wouldn't recommend the Tramcar Restaurant as a way to see the city). As Libretto2 suggests, you would be better spending the money on one of Melbourne's better restaurants (of which there are a lot).

My bad - I have now discovered that the Melbourne Visitor Shuttle is no longer free. I haven't been on it for years - it was free when I did it. It's now $5/day.

There are some recent (Aug/Sep 2013) TripAdvisor reviews of the Melbourne Visitor Shuttle, which mention that it is free, so I can only assume that the $5/day charge is a recent introduction. Some of the reviews discuss how crowded the buses could be, so I assume that the city has addressed that issue by starting to charge, rather than the obviously-more-visitor-friendly approach of running more buses....

.... and now that I look closer, the Visit Victoria site says the $5 charge was introduced on October 1, 2013. Pity they couldn't be bothered to get a new picture of the bus - the 'blue' wording underneath the windscreen and along the top and side says "Free"
http://www.visitvictoria.com/regions...r-Shuttle.aspx
.... though this site does have a 'new' picture (no more "free") -
http://www.thatsmelbourne.com.au/vis...orShuttle.aspx