Review Castello's Foresters Arms Hotel - Oakleigh

The interior was beautiful! Very modern and sleek inside, although the atmosphere was a bit of a let down. For a Sunday lunch, I expected more of an atmosphere, for it to be busy and bustling, but it was super quiet. I had a small group of friends to celebrate my birthday, and it was average to say the least. I ordered the roast lamb, and it was a little chewy and not warm. My partner ordered the steak, and the steak was a generous serving, but the chips on the other hand was not. It almost looked like they counted out the chips. The menu was pretty limited and pricey to say the least. I wished all the food came out at one time, but it didn't, which left awkward gaps in between our meals. Not sure I'd return again, overall, a pretty average experience.

My wife and I went in for lunch today. We used to go in regularly many years ago when we lived in the area and decided to pop in to see what had become of the place. So glad we did. Staff were brilliant, very friendly and accommodating. Food was excellent, well-cooked and nicely presented. We'll definitely return next time we are back that side of town.

Ordered the porterhouse steak cooked rare, and was not disappointed. Vege and mashed accompanied the steak with peppercorn sauce. Topped with a glass of Shiraz, a great meal out. Service was friendly from the staff we encountered!

We were treated appallingly by bar staff and manager. Richard the manager was so disrespectful and didn't want to hear any complaint I had to make about one particular young female staff member. She was rude and confronting as soon as we walked in. He said without listening to anything I had to say. We need to leave. Never been treated so badly in any establishment

POOR SERVICE WITH A CAPITAL P.....Young girl could not navigate pos system to take order....she was very abrupt. Then young guy tried to clear our table with food not consumed. Part of our food order was missed....I had to ask for my salad. The food was so average....please beware....

Staff are friendly and attentive but food is below average quality and lemon squash was poured from an open bottle without explanation; why no post mix?!?!

Nothing special, 1st time there very quiet for a friday. We had the chicken parma and the porterhouse steak. All dishes were edible but thats about it.

Staff are friendly, meal sizes are huge, oh my gosh get the garlic bread and scotch fillet! Perfect meat and garlic heaven!

Good quality meals reasonably priced, highlight was the service provided and the accommodating staff.

I’d give one star purely for the restaurant manager who was very apologetic and helpful when I complained about our food. Can’t fault the staff to be fair but allow me to take you back an hour or so before this.<br/><br/>Let me also preface this review with an acknowledgement that whilst I had a very bad experience others haven’t. I’m in no way being a keyboard warrior, just providing an honest review of my experience. <br/><br/>We arrived for dinner and were shown to our reserved table. After browsing the menu and checking the roast of the day with staff we ordered our meal. Only 3 meals - roast of the day, pork belly and spicy chicken Parma. These arrived half an hour later. <br/><br/>Let’s start with the final two dishes. The pork belly was average. Slightly over cooked and no crackle to the skin. <br/><br/>The spicy chicken Parma. Well I’ll start by saying that to be fair it did taste alright. Not great but alright. I’d question the description though. House prepared chorizo - ok maybe “chef” sliced it in house but that’s about as close as he got to prepping it I think. It tasted very much like Don chorizo from the supermarket. “Chefs house made hot sauce” was very obviously masters hot sauce from a bottle. <br/><br/>I didn’t complain too much about those two meals though because the roast was an absolute disaster of biblical proportions. Firstly the roast turned up with cold veggies and was sent back. <br/><br/>When it returned, having been told chef was preparing a new meal for us, the veggies came back steaming hot. Result right? No! Sorry but no! The roast turkey and roast ham - these were far from roast meats. When I asked if I could see the bird / ham from which these suspiciously uniform slices came from I was told no, because they’re not from a bird or ham, they’re pre-sliced deli meats!! The veggies - also perfectly uniformly sliced. Why? Because, just as they tasted, they’re clearly frozen. This leaves me with a question - if you haven’t roasted your own meat and therefore have no meat juices - how did “chef” make the gravy? So that’s what the Foresters Arms call a “roast” (reheated) dinner for $21.50!! <br/><br/>So overall a pretty disastrous dinner. I have used the term “chef” in quotations because in my opinion no chef worthy of the title would ever serve this terrible quality of food. This wasn’t cheffing, it was preparing and reheating. Very poor effort and I most certainly won’t ever be returning this this establishment. <br/><br/>I’ll finish by again saying that the restaurant staff and bar staff were excellent and a refund was given for the roast dinner.

Walk this hotel many times and finally came here with a group of friend to tried out the steak and parma. The food was fantastic and staff is super nice and friendly. Love it

I had read a few negative reviews so was a bit dubious about going for our meal, but we had a really nice meal (very tasty) and the service was great.  I would recommend this place.

Fantastic food and very helpful and informative service.  The chicken breast stuffed with camembert, wrapped in prosciutto sitting on risotto was to die for.  A fellow diner also said it was the best steak she had had in a long time.  We'll be back!

What a hidden gem!!<br/>The best "pub" food we have had.<br/>We ordered the barramundi soft tacos and chicken wings for entrée. Both fresh and delicious. <br/>The mains were huge, so bring your appetite. <br/>Salt and pepper calamari was fresh, soft and tasty....gnocchi was delicious as was the bacon burger. <br/>Would definitely recommend.

Dined in with a voucher tonight but sadly even at that price the evening was not worth it. We had a reservation but the venue had double-booked us - so we were placed in an empty function room with zero ambience - although not that the rest of the venue has much more. The staff member dealing with us was courteous and apologetic so we overlooked this. <br/>We were also brought a wrong main - but as one of the party was happy to eat it we didn't bother sending it back. Poor attention to detail but not terrible so far. <br/>Unfortunately for us - the food was inedible. Although it looked like squid - you would never know that's what the salt and pepper squid was from the taste alone. It was appalling and flavourless - and sat on a bed of chips so oversalted that were too awful to eat. The Parma had no flavour at all and the gnocchi was slimy. We all left majority of our meals and ended the night early. I feel bad leaving such a negative review - but the meals aren't worth half the price we paid with a voucher let alone full price.

Went with a Scoopon but unfortunately even then can't rate it higher than the provided rating. Ordered the Mix grill from the specials, there was absolutely nothing special about it. Apart from the steak nothing was really edible/fresh. The chicken wings seemed really old and were cold as were the chips. The mushroom sauce had a weird flavour. Bacon was ok. Also ordered the Hot n Spicy parma, which unfortunately had no flavour in itself. Even on the addition of Salt and Pepper it was still Unedible. Had a couple bites but left roughly 80% of that plate. Salad and veggies on the 2 plates were stale. The wait staff was uninterested and did not bother smiling at all, had to wait a very long time for someone to come to our table to assist us. All in all a very disappointing experience, i think either they need to close down their kitchen/restaurant and focus on just being a bar or reinvest in their kitchen and try to actually provide food thats actually edible.

I visited Foresters arms with my wife ,son and his partner, using a voucher for lunch. We were greeted by a very capable and friendly  young lady .Seated and explained the  selections on the menu. The meal was excellent .All chose Scotch fillet which was cooked to perfection. we had starters (charcuterie board.) which was very well presented and very tasty.  Great place to dine anytime. pleasant dining area We all agreed a top lunch. And very friendly helpful staff. will be going back.

With scoupon 4.5, without scoupon 3<br/><br/>FOOD/TASTE - my partner ordered steak medium but it came out medium rare (even had the stick confirming so). I had the ribs which were good - fall off the bone tender and tasty. Beef salad was tasty. Would have liked a bigger serve of salad (with the mains)<br/><br/>COELIACS - 2 starters, 2-3 gluten free options.<br/><br/>VALUE - great value with scoupon, without it would be reasonable to slightly expensive. Their 1/2 rack of ribs is the same size as a full rack at some places (like hogs breath) so good value<br/><br/>WOULD I GO BACK? - if you get a scoupon definitely worth going back. Without the scoupon then maybe. If you like ribs then its worth trying out.

Sorry but the meal that I just had was inedible. 'Special' lamb cutlet salad - 3 unseasoned, old, lamb cutlets crumbed and fried, on a bed of raw salad with a sparse, funny tasting dressing and a few rehydrated dried apricots????? <br/>The lamb cutlets stunk, literally. Old raw meat smell. Bland and hideous. Forced one down under protest due to peer group pressure. The salad had that mouldy, unwashed, 'just out of the packet' fragrance. Everything was unseasoned. <br/><br/>I had left the bulk of the meal uneaten which is an absolute first for me. <br/><br/>

Rick Parker. Very disappointing special<br/> Described marinara risotto with a blue swimmer crab!<br/>Dish comes small, oily, with half a tiny crab with NO claw!!!<br/> Staff thought it was funny that I asked where the rest of the crab was<br/> Rubbish service

Very disappointed. Haven't been here for a while and was in the area so thought would go have lunch. Food was good but can say the manager there has a lot to answer for in her manners on talking to guests/ paying customers! <br/>I got a glass of milk for my 2yr old daughter and when I brought it to the table it looked as though it was going off as it had small milk floaties around the edges of the cup. Took it up to ask if there milk was still in date and not off and was told by the manager "well smell it" I'm sorry but that's not an answer you give to a guest! <br/>Safe to say I can see why the bistro is so quiet if they speak to guests like that can say that has lost my business in going back there!

Re seniors meals. Dear sirs for the last few months we have been regular customers only because the seniors meals have been very good as far as pub meals go . you have now change the menu and offering 20% of regular meals only for seniors but the problem now is phil would not pay the extra and went back to the bayswater pub for his meal i stayed because i drove down from ferntree gully and tried the 20%discount meal but could not eat it all, when you are retired you dont need to eat as much ,so it was wasted , iam now eating back at the bayswater also . regards tony

Not a roast. Just came from Foresters Arms. I ordered a roast. It was not a roast. Be careful and ask for a real roast. As in you want the beef roasted not broiled. While your at it ask for Veges to be cooked not over cooked within an inch or their lives. In fairness maybe a bad night as I eat there regularly ad usually ok but it was a shocker tonight

Tried it a few years ago, heard the place was running under a new chef and was astounded by the change. Prices are great for the meal and the delivery was quick. We had a booking of 10, the staff were lovely! There were no mistakes and the food was to die for! Very impressed with everything and I'll be telling my friends and family so we can all be regulars. 5 stars :)

Expensive for the quality received. But there is a huge variety to choose from. Not bad

Disappointing. We read some good reviews, so we thought we would give it a try. The menu also sounded great.<br/><br/>However, we were really disappointed. The chicken in the Vietnamise Chicken salad was deep fried to a crisp. The Nasi Goreng was average, complete with frozen vegies from Woolies.

Great parma

Fantastic experience. We went to the Forresters Arms last week and had a great time. We went for the Parma night on Wednesday and I had the Indian Parma. My girlfriend ha the Hawaiian Parma. <br/>For $15 we thought the meals were tremendous value for money, and the food was served extremely quick.<br/>The drink prices were just average, but overall we would highly recommend the Forresters Arms.

Awesome Curry Night!!. I was lucky enough to stumble into the Foresters on Monday which I later found out was the first night of their new Curry Night.<br/>Haven't been for ages, and was pleasantly surprised at the value and size of the meals. The lamb rogan josh and butter chicken were sensational.<br/>Highly recommend. I'll be back.

Disappointed. 30 bucks for a small porterhouse with one scoop of mash<br/>Gotta say, they're pretty stingy and the food is pretty average but the waitress was pretty hot ;)

Top five worst meals ever. We ordered 5 Wagyu burgers, a steak and a bowl of chips. The burgers appeared to be processed and defrosted. They were not of the standard we anticipated. When we asked the waitress for tomato sauce she came back with one tiny ramekin. I asked the waitress for at least three more sauces for the rest of the table and she said that the kitchen didn't have enough and walked off. We had 7 dishes with hot chips and one tiny sauce dish to share.

Horrible.. Paid $21.90 for a parma tonight at 'the foresters arms' hotel. I'm pretty sure my greyhound could lay a bigger chicken than that which I was presented with tonight. There was around 14 chips, the cheese didn't cover the chicken at all, the sauce to cheese ratio was way out of whack and there was no ham. 0 stars out of 5. epic, epic fail. The waiters were also VERY slack and I was left waiting for nearly a minute at each trip to the bar. AND, who the hell charges six dollars SEVENTY for a bourbon? I don't want my pockets full of shrapnel. This pub experience was very, VERY poor, and I couldn't hear myself even think for all the noise, even at 5pm on a friday. zero zero zero stars.