The Stables at Stones is a beautiful little place in a converted stables in the Yarra Valley on the estate of the Punt Road winery.

The restaurant boasts a kind of chic 'worn country' style which is very appealing. It's small, but not pokey by any means, and the night we were there for a family celebration there were several large tables, including one of about twenty people. It wasn't overly noisy though, and the ambience of the evening was nice.

The service on arrival was good, but it didn't stay that way as the evening wore on (but more about that in a bit). The wine list is small, and limited to local varieties. That's not entirely a bad thing - most of what's on offer is reasonable. Pre dinner drinks were organized quickly, bread and local olives (very good!) brought to the table and orders were taken promptly. Entrees arrived pretty smartly too, and were also very good. At this stage, if I'd been giving ratings, the Stables would have earned a full hand of four & five stars.

Unfortunately, things started to bog down. I guess it was something to do with the orders from the large table - staff became scarce and our main courses didn't arrive. We waited. And waited. For over fifty minutes, we waited, with no sign of staff, no explanations, no apologies. A tip, service people: a small gesture of explanation can go a LONG way towards getting customers to cut you a little slack. We were in a good mood - we just needed to know what was going on. There was not even an offer of further drinks (not that we wanted them, but at least it would have made us felt that we hadn't been completely forgotten). I was just about to go and investigate for myself where the meals were, when they arrived. I was very happy with my sirloin - very nicely prepared and a good cut of meat. Salads and sides were good also. Others at the table were not as impressed with their gnocchi ('rather uninspiring' was the consensus) and no-one at all was impressed by the two long hairs that were on one of the plates. We pointed this out, and though the food was removed to the kitchen there was no apology(!) - only an offer to substitute another meal or a dessert. Good staff should have a very clear idea of how to deal with a situation like this, and this was not the case with the Stables.

Desserts are not the Stables strong suit. The stone fruit plate was an unhappy-looking thing, some of the lovely flavours on it notwithstanding. The 'chocolate bar' was just that - a dense slab of sweet chocolate that was far too big and heavy for a dessert. A soft berry meringue was the pick of the three on offer.

I need to add one more small peeve here too - one of the staff waiting our table was a smoker. I didn't see her smoking, but every time she walked past me, I could strongly smell cigarette smoke on her clothes. Not good form, peeps.

I was ultimately disappointed by the Stables, which is a shame because our evening got off to a very fine start. I'll possibly give them another go, but there is some serious tweaking to be done here to get this place into the kind area where I think it can be.