Great portion size and reasonable prices, especially if you're sharing within a group. There is also outdoor seating and an indoor kids playground. We had the Donnie Mix, the ribs and wings were all amazing.

We really enjoyed our dinner and get together at the Doncaster tonight. Jessica greeted us warmly when we arrived and Jayden's customer service throughout the night was excellent. The food was delish. In particular the beef salad and paella looked and tasted great.

We have ordered The Dinnie Mix. Pork ribs, buffalo wings, calamari, and arancini are all very delicious. Friendly service and comfortable environment. Definite will visit again.

The Doncaster hotel is a local family pub style bistro restaurant. It caters for everyone - families, young and old. There are plenty of tables indoors and people seem to order and dine quickly. Large groups can be catered for easily.

Meal choices are the common steaks, crumbed chicken schnitzels, fish and chips, pork ribs and pizza options. There are a few non standard items such as seafood paella. The meals are decent though don't expect anything gourmet and fancy. The kids menu includes nuggets and frog in the pond (chocolate frog in jelly). There is an ice cream display freezer that holds a selection of ice cream flavours from Peter's ice cream.

Drinks are ordered at the bar. The usual wine, beer and soft drink options are there.

There is ample parking at the rear of the building with the car park entrance from Victoria Street.

2 part review: We had lunch here on 29th December 2022. As I made the booking I was emailed a request for a review afterwards. I decided to email the hotel directly (sadly with no acknowledgement at all) and this is what I wrote:

Hi Team,

Rather than post a less than favourable review publicly, I thought I'd let you know how I found our visit.

Parts of our experience were good, other parts were quite disappointing.

The size of the meals were generous, both adult and kids meals.  My partners side salad was delivered without dressing. Maybe that's how you serve them but it looked as though it had started to dry out a little.  The kitchen staff did well getting our meals out at roughly the same time even though there were several orders from our table at the same time.

The toilets were clean.

What was disappointing was that at least 3 water glasses that we helped ourselves to weren't clean. I had to go back and ask for clean glasses as the rack hadn't been topped up. The house Sauv Blanc was not as cold as it could've been. I did go back to the bar and asked for a glass of ice. I was disappointed that the bar staff on several occasions were less than attentive when I was at the bar for service. I realise that some staff were assisting other customers and one staff member was making coffees, but the staff members who clearly weren't assisting anyone seemed oblivious to me standing waiting to be served (this happened more than once), to the point that one staff member who was making a drink for another customer was using her eyes/head to try to indicate to a fellow staff member that I was waiting to be served.

No empty glasses were cleared from our table in the whole time we were seated. Once we had all finished our meals our plates remained on the table for close to an hour. There were very few customers left in the dining room during this time.  Even when the children collected their ice creams they had to move their plates to have their dessert.

This was the first time I'd been to your venue. It was recommended by my cousin as it is family friendly with the  children able to enjoy the play centre.

Further staff training would improve the whole experience.

****Dinner on 29th December 2023****

We had a group of 9 adults and 3 children and several people in our group ordered separately.

Our main courses were delivered to our table reasonably quickly, but at no time during our visit were glasses, the wine bottle or plates removed by the wait staff. After about an hour of finishing our main courses we moved empty glasses, plates and cutlery to the empty table next to us.

The bistro was not what I'd call busy, with about half the tables vacant. Wait staff delivered food to the table but went back to the kitchen empty handed. This same pattern was repeated for all customers that I could see.

We ordered dessert and after some time my partner went to check on our order. He was advised the desserts would only be a few more minutes.

The desserts served warm had been heated on the same plates that they were served on, so the ice cream was either half melted or partly melted and very soft when it was delivered to the table.

This was really disappointing as the sticky date and chocolate brownie (to replace the creme brulee that was ordered, that we found was unavailable as the desserts were delivered to our table) could easily have been heated on a separate plate then placed on to a chilled or room temperature plate with the ice cream.

It is really disappointing that the service has not improved in 12 months. Not sure if we'll be back.

Wonderful experience for lunch from moment we were greeted to the lovely food that was served so promptly even though it was a busy Saturday Thanks heaps

It's a great place to have dinner with the kids.
Mark is definitely the host with the most! No matter how many kids my friends and I bring in, he always greets us with a smile on his face. So welcoming and very patient which is the reason why we keep coming back!
Good staff like that are rare...so thank you! 😀

Ordered 3 starters to share, and 5 mains, and 5 drinks. Front of house was lovely, as well as our waitress that was so kind, however waiting an hour for everything to come out, and this was only because we required about the whereabouts of our food and drinks. No apologies, just "what did you order? I will get the chef right on it." Only then did our drinks come out, other tables arriving after us received their orders before we did. We are also not a group to usually complain, but honestly if you're going to use a QR code system yo order and pay, then make sure it's done right.

Food wise, pork belly was massive, tough, and overpoweringly sauced. The book Chou was cooked to the point that it had lost all integrity, mush, kind of blended in with the mash.

Korean sticky ribs, also overpowering sauce, it was fall off the bone but no good if the cook is perfect but the taste isn't.

Burger was fine, a little dry, bacon was difficult to bite into, otherwise unremarkable.

The chicken wings were perfectly crisp and juicy, just the sauces felt a little like they were out of a can.

Lamb Koftas came out cold and gamey... honestly for $50 a head, this is terribly disappointing for Melbourne standards

I drove far to enjoy watching the Matildas take on France in the World Cup with my two young daughters. Unfortunately, we did not book and the lady apologised and said we had to leave as there was no room. As I was thinking where else to go. It started to rain hard. As we left the doors of the Doncaster Hotel, Jai (seems like the Manager of the pub), ran out and told me and my two daughters can stay and that he managed to create a spare table for us to eat on. Kids had the playground while I enjoyed a Parma and watched the big game. Kids certainly enjoyed their kids meals. Great food. THANK YOU JAi !!!!, YOU MADE OUR NIGHT!

Good taste and fresh meat ! Plenty, I order a beef burger, can't finish it

Bobs burger was great and filling; introduced to me by staff David who was cheerful and very attentive to my questions.

Clean fresh pub food. And play ground for the kids.

The burger is value, chips decent, lemon like bitters are what you expect.

Good experiences. Dine regularly.

Just arrived Melbourne, had my first western food at the Doncaster Hotel Bar . A very popular restaurant for the local people. Very nice menu for seniors and kids . Good service and good food. Will come back again.

We just decided to not go there anymore, as the treatment wasn't the best and also 3 families from 7 needed halal food, but they don't serve it. I don't understand, what are they are going to lose if serve halal chicken and beef? Extra people would be able to eat, they will have more customers, consequently they will exceed their profit 🤷🏻‍♀️. I just don't get it 😁

We couldn't get into our regular pub so thought we would try the Donnie. Steaks were amazing. Definitely go again.

We couldn't get into our regular pub so thought we would try the Donnie. Steaks were amazing. Definitely go again.

We couldn't get into our regular pub so thought we would try the Donnie. Steaks were amazing. Definitely go again.

We couldn't get into our regular pub so thought we would try the Donnie. Steaks were amazing. Definitely go again.

We couldn't get into our regular pub so thought we would try the Donnie. Steaks were amazing. Definitely go again.

This hotel has a smallish offroad parking area, and it gets busy on weekends. There is a dedicated playing area for children, which can be seen from the tables so parents can keep watch over their kids. Seating at the tables is quite comfortable, and their menu offers a reasonable amount of choices. Food is typical pub quality, with good-sized portions. Because this is a popular pub, it can get a bit noisy inside.

Caesar salad and Beef cheeks, Doncaster hotel recently changed their menu nd it certainly doesn't disappoint!

Would love to come back and try some other menu options that's new.

We've been a few times over the last couple of months. Staff were friendly and helpful. Our meals were tasty and freshly cooked. Then we came in looking forward to another great meal, so why would you serve roast of the day with roast vegetables that is certainly not fresh and also reheated, so sadly, we are disappointed. Such unpleasant meals, we would rather have been told you were sold out.

Great meal, large portions, clean restaurant, nice and helpful staff, cool layout and lively bustling restaurant.

I had the Eggplant Parmigiama with my choice of Vegetables and Salad. It was very well done and I enjoyed the meal.

Went there for a meeting and was very impressed. Food was good size, decent value and delicious. The staff were really considerate and looked after us every step of the way. I had the garlic prawns, perfectly cooked. Great place for families and intimate gatherings. Will def be back

So after reserving a table in an allocated time, the having 3 phone calls to say we had been moved to a different time (which was the same time all 3 times ???") finally got there and wow what a disappointment.
Went to the bar to order a drink, asked for a bottle of sparkling. Girl brought a bottle of sav (?) explained what sparkling was and then she brought it over and tried to unscrew it 🤦🏻‍♀️ Had to show her how to open it, and then she gave wine glasses. Adults meals came slowly but before kids and then kids desert was a disaster with all the flavors on display but only to be told two were available. Absolute disaster. Do not recommend.

I have no complaints at all its nice, clean quiet and friendly helpful staff. Ive just stayed in five star hotels so I was confused about the star rating system. I also answered the questions and would bring my children here if we were in the area. Tell you what ill give you an extra star for being on the ball but if you want 5 im going to need a spa bath in the room and on call masseuse 😁??'?

Had dinner tonight. 2 adults, 3 kids. Kids meals came out very quickly which was great, adult meals took much longer. If you have young children, particularly toddlers, they will eat their food and want to move. If the adult meals haven't arrived by then it's a problem.
I had the seafood basket which I thought was delicious.
Other meals were enjoyed also.
Staff did not return to clear our table for an hour. I eventually cleared it myself and dumped the plates on another table so we had room for our desert. Brownies are on the menu but not available.
I actually booked this bistro as it advertises an indoor playground. We were very disappointed it was closed. I understand this is probably due to COVID restrictions which is out of your hands, but a note on your website informing patrons of this would have been appreciated.
Overall a nice meal but I feel the staff let you down.

Came in tonight!! We are locals do come their regular but food wasnt good tonight Ordered 2 chicken Wellingtons and they were cold inside chicken wasnt cooked well at all !! Most of theDish was warm not hot at all !Look we should of returned them but we waited a long time and were hungry !!Very disappointing ! I might send anEmail. Sandy plummerThanks Debbie for fixing it upppppppReally appreciate the call !!Donnie is a great pub !

Had a good burger at Bob's bar. Not a great deal of choice but was good. Nice sunny day so we say outside. Just wish they would put the smoking people away from where we were eating

Good clean bistro. Nice food and cheap beer. Indoor play area for kids.

Great service, friendly staff and very nice food. The ambience topped of a perfect night with my spunky girlfriend!!

Great meals, they are large. The atmosphere is lovely. We often come here for family birthdays, etc.Some staff (waiters) need to get another job, it's like they DON'T want to be there.

Great place can never fault it. Staff always lovely, the crowd is not full of trouble always respectful people and gaming staff are always going above and beyond for their gusts A+++