THE GOOD STUFF
We held our rehearsal dinner a few days before our wedding ceremony (September 2012). The location was great, as our ceremony is on the Main Beach foreshore and our guests could walk straight from the rehearsal to Zachary's in less than 5 minutes.
We chose Zachary's as the venue as we wanted a super casual vibe for the rehearsal dinner, and as we were paying for it ourselves we didn't want it to be too expensive. Not only is it cheaper for a pizza there than a main at other restaurants along Hastings St, but they also don't have entrees or desserts, so we knew it wouldn't turn into a costly three-course dinner. This also meant that we could have a quicker meal, as this was the event between our ceremony rehearsal and welcome drinks at a bar/restaurant further along Hastings St.
The food is really good: lots of different, exotic combinations of pizza toppings (the duck was amazing), and it was made really well.
NOT SO GOOD STUFF
I am a Noosa local but organised the wedding from abroad, so hadn't seen it in person. When we were first deciding on rehearsal dinner venues a few months before the wedding the person I spoke to on the phone said it would be fine to make a booking for 20 people, but when I called back to make the booking they said they don't take reservations. This seemed odd but we were quite keen on Zachary's for the venue, so I called back the following week and the person said of course it was fine to take bookings.
A week before the wedding I went in person to see the venue and confirm our booking, and they showed where it was written in the book and said that it was all fine. However, on the night, I was the first in our group to arrive to Zachary's and noticed that there was not a table for 20 set up. I asked someone at the bar about it, and they said they don't take any reservations. I said that I had made a reservation and confirmed it last week, and he replied "I'm the manager and I should know, and I said we don't take bookings." I told him 20 people were about to show up for a wedding rehearsal dinner and he checked the book, found my reservation, and then said sheepishly, "Oh, since we don't take reservations, no one looks in the book." (Not sure why they have a book then!) Anyway he had to shift an elderly couple to another table, and they looked super annoyed about it, and he was just moving several tables together when our 20 guests turned up.
As it turns out, Zachary's isn't great for groups anyway - when we sat everyone down we discovered they don't have table service, and with half of our group sitting on the lounge side, they couldn't get up to go to the bar anyway. It took ages for everyone to get their drinks. We also had to very quickly decide that we would just order 10 different pizzas to save the stress of everyone lining up for their own order (it was 5:30pm and already a big queue at the bar).
So what should have been a lovely casual evening introducing family and friends to each other turned out to be a very stressful and annoyed start to our wedding festivities. (Also, when it gets full at the restaurant, it is soooo noisy and no one could chat to each other easily anyway.) read more