Mona Pavilions

The pavilion was great and comfortable. The grounds were great to explore when the museum closed.

This was my 5th time at Mona and 5th stay at the pavilions. Let me start with saying that this is a 5 out of 5 stay but I have chosen a 4 out of 5 to make sure that they fix the "issue".... There is no doubt one notices little cuts here and there. I have stayed enough times to notice a few things have changed (amenities...). There is also no doubt the staff is the best and friendliest in the universe. They are all one more amazing than the other. Also, there is no doubt the food is the big "issue" right now at MONA. For food I mean DINNER, no issue for lunch, as there are plenty of choices on site and they are all good. You used to get room service, blame covid now, the great excuse for everything that does not work these days or when you decide you need to make some cuts, and room service is gone. The Source is shut in the evening (who knows why? every restaurant in Hobart is busy, but the Source is shut). Faro (I had already eaten at Faro twice before, in the pre-covid days, by the way) has now become one of those places where you are not allowed to choose what you want to eat but someone else is: the chef. I do not eat what someone else wants me to eat, sorry. I find it incredibly rude not to offer - an a la carte menu. Also, with an open kitchen nearby in the evening, you could easily organise some kind of room service. Just put three commons sense things on the menu (steak, fish and chips, club sandwich even, sigh....) that everyone would / could eat (I am Italian 100% and GOOD food is a priority here!) and everyone would not have to get an Uber to go to town to have a dinner. Also, you do not spend this kind of $ to stay somewhere and then get told "you are allowed to cook in your room!" really? and I need to go and get stuff from the supermarket? like, I travel with butter, olive oil, salt pepper...? nope, I don't! and I cook in my room if I stay two nights? Or "you can order a takeaway"... really? Faro's (master)chef won't deliver to your room because "the food will be spoilt" (we were told), but it's ok to order a disgusting UBER thing and wait an hour for the food to get rotten in the carton box? And let's not even get to the lack of any suggestions. You should have a list of places to recommend, you should have some options. Haven;t we heard enough Tasmania is a food place? Really? (mind you, we tried to book a few places a good month in advance and everything on Sundays is either shut or fully booked). Then you say "have a pizza" What pizza? An american fake pizza version that an Italian could easily start a war for? Ha! But... thinking maybe the whole dinner experience was a test from Mr Walsh, we headed down to the Granada Tavern (yes, could be a mega instal with real people playing real people and cooking real food, etc...) and the food was actually ok, pub food, insanely affordable and not greasy,,,, so why do I complain? I have discovered that when you stay at a place for $800 a night you can just visit your local tavern and may

If you are reading this, you are thinking about visiting Mona. But stop thinking and start booking! 1 - Travel via the Posh Pit 2 - Book a Pavilion for the night and let Lauren and Michael look after you. They are our fav people ever. 3 - Go directly to the Void Bar for an espresso martini before you start viewing the art 4 - Listen to Ben Salter at 3pm 5 - Book the Lux Dinner Package (and view the extra exhibitions this package offers) 6 - Eat and drink all the food at all times! 7 - Buy the special bar of soap

We stayed in the Robin pavilion. Pros: The beautiful views and the spacious pavilion. Cons: Flies hovering everywhere in the pavilion and limited choices for breakfast. Video art feature was also not working in the pavilion.