The Essence

We've eaten at this restaurant before and were a little disappointed. However, our more recent experience with the pre-theatre menu was excellent. Good service, tasty and beautifully presented meals, and good value for money. Would highly recommenced particularly if you have a show to attend at the Comedy Theatre.

A quiet Sunday night after the theatre. We were served promptly by the friendly and attentive waiter and shown to a seat near the window. The food was served quickly and was tasty. Yes, as one previous reviewer wrote, there is only one lamb shank and the menu says shanks, but that one shank is filling enough and perfectly prepared. The meat fell off the bone. Just like the beef check. The steak we had was prepared perfectly to request. One of the best places to go, particularly close to the Comedy or Her Majesty's theatres, or you can go there anytime. Just remember you can only access the restaurant though the hotel main entrance, the outside doors seem to be closed all the time.

Great food and very friendly staff. There were although a number of issues in relation to service that could be fine tuned. I was called twice telling me that the booking initially offered was not available over multiple weeks, no salt available in the salt shakers on the table and incorrect beverage menue offered initially to be told we need to consult an updated menue. Lastly staff serving stake are unfamiliar with the different types! Level of cooking. Staff did not know what blue meant. O/w reasonably good dining experience.

One of the worst experiences. Stinking oysters to begin with. When we complained, we were told: we will now bring out the fresh ones for you. That’s what you get - second class food if you have a voucher. It said lamb shanks on the menu in plural but we only got one. That’s only because we had a voucher it seems! My meal never arrived. No explanation as to why. When I asked, I was told because I ordered a medium steak not rare! But eventually the waiter admitted that he didn’t put my order through. And the restaurant was practically empty. How hard can it be!!! And to top it all off the restaurant was serving alcohol to a blindly drunk women next to us. I will never ever go back there. The standards are very poor and this is a restaurant part of a hotel chain Marriott!

Excellent quality and friendly service. The Captain is very attentive. The atmosphere is not much as it is in the hotel but the location is fantastic. That is our go to place when we have any theatre shows.

Staff are too slow to clean up the table after main dishes, didn’t fill up our wine glasses after 1st time, etc. You expect better service from a Marriott restaurant. Food quality is good.

We had a fabulous time at Essence, 4 Adults and 3 Children (under 5). The staff were fantastic with the children. We were treated extremely well. Food and drinks were great, a lovely time had by all.

Love the seafood stack! Good value, more than enough for 2 persons! Excellent service from the staff! Will try out other dishes in the menu next time.

Charlotte was amazing! The booking really worked and gave us a great discount. I asked via the platform to them to have something special for my stepmother's birthday and Charlotte did something amazing. Love it!!!

Food was delicious but what is truly memorable is the excellent service from Satinder Sharma and his colleagues who were attentive, friendly & professional. Thanks a lot!

I was a little hesitant about going to a restaurant associated with a major hotel chain as they are often quite a let down and can hover from average to poor. Well Essence based at the Marriott Hotel in Melbourne made that a false assumption. The main courses were delicious and ample servings one very render beef the other juicy prawns in a caesar salad and it had anchovies yes!! We shared a desert that I can describe as delightful dark chocolate with honey comb and passionfruit very good coffee to end it all. Our waitress was very attentative and all in all we left very pleased with what we had. Highly Recommended and for lunch not over pricey

The meal was absolutely lovely and delicious. Everything was just so tender. We both enjoyed our meal. Ambience was a little noisy. Hard to gain a staff member's attention. Had to physically get out of my seat and go to the counter. To top off the service it would be nice if our waiter had offered to lay out our napkins on our lap.

A very friendly reception on arrival. Food was fresh and tasty. Service became slow after receiving our mains and I felt there were not enough wait staff. Difficult to attract the attention of staff and had to ask twice for the dessert menu. However I would still return as I think the quality of the food deserves another visit

Pleasant meal. They were out of stock of the first two bottles of wine we ordered and the seafood platter for two was largely deep fried. Other than this it was pretty nice

Good food good service 50% made a huge difference with Fork app

Nice evening. We have the crispy duck and was delicious although the serve was small. this was followed by the tiramisu which was good too. Staff was attentive and the ambient was nice and quiet.

The staff were friendly and very welcoming and provided us with a good and an efficient service. The menu offers a good variety of dishes and drinks and our meals were tasty and enjoyable. The restaurant is conveniently located in the Theatre district and is an ideal place to go

I would prefer no chips with an extra piece of fish. I did not want the chips.

Great night out

Was a great dinner to have before the theatre