Copacabana International

Haven’t been here for a loooooooong while. It is for what it is. But don’t come for food. Not worth it and you can get much better churrasco esk dining … the service here is gd with attentive wait staff. The choices of meat and salad is basic.
Venue is very runned down. Think kings cross strip clubs, crazy horse cinemas (Swanson st), the old fun factory (chapel st) and you’re there! Oh the toilets were disgusting.

We had a fantastic meal here and everyone loved it. The food was great, ambiance was good and the services was also very night. I would happily bring my friends here and recommend it!

A fun girls night out dampened by horrible management…
We attended the Copacabana last night as a group of 7 girls. Overall the night was enjoyable, fun and something different to what we would normally do together.
However upon paying our bill for the night, they had overcharged us one extra guest. As I tried to let them know of this, I was immediately met with screaming from what seemed like the 50-​something manager saying that I had been told once we confirmed numbers we had to pay. Following a huge process of bringing out the reservation staff member who took my booking, checking their computer for sent emails and even checking the reservation book many times they FINALLY admitted that they were at fault by not sending me the terms and conditions. Seemed like an awful lot to go through just to prove their point and find out they were in fact wrong. So after being screamed at by both the manager and another staff member, we finally had our bill adjusted correctly.
Later that night when ordering at the bar, the Copa had only 2 specials, $ 4 wines and $ 6 tequila shots. We ordered 4 tequila shots and the bartender charged us $ 11 per shot… when we called him out on it he innocently replied «Oh, but I poured you the more expensive tequila» …we don’t care– we didn’t ask for the more expensive tequila! After offering us more shots instead, we clearly let him know we wanted our money back.
We had a friend who was a vegetarian who found plenty to eat at the buffet, so no problems there. It was somewhat tacky, but if you take it for what it is you can definitely enjoy a fun night out with the girls dancing to latino music.
Overall, besides our issues, it was a fun night and was good to do something different. But we probably won’t return any time soon, if ever. This place needs more emphasis on better management and customer service if they want their guests to return.

The Copacabana kind of makes me think of what going out would have been like in the 50s — dinner and dancing in one quite pricey package.
Pay a cover charge, get a full meal, a dance lesson, and then the band plays while there’s a bit of a dance show. That’s the evening event, and in the afternoon it’s a band and a few beers.
It’s not tacky, so much as completely in the wrong era. I expect mustachioed men in short sleeved shirts to be drinking their cocktails in the corner, and ladies in fitted floral dresses to be coaxing them to dance. It’s odd to see people my age having a boogie instead.
Band room is tiny, pretty much just a corridor. Of that, I am not a fan.

Ugh… I’ve been trying to block out the memory of my night at Copacabana, but maybe it’s healthier if I just put it out there.
Right. Imagine a very large room filled to the brim with over-​excited, tarted-​up, screeching women and a few very scared looking men. Now add the suffocating smell of charred meat, crazy disco lighting and an awkward Ricky Martin wanna be gyrating on a stage. Now imagine you’re stuck there with a group of people you barely know for a minimum of 3 hours so as not to appear rude to the increasingly drunk and teary bride-​to-​be. That’s pretty much my night at Copacabana.
I’m a big fan of all things ironic and tacky, but unfortunately Copacabana is more in the realm of painful. It seems to exist for the sake of hen’s nights and other occasions that demand everyone behave like complete dicks. And on the topic of dicks, I really didn’t appreciate having a giant rod full of sausages being shoved in my face every five minutes. Nor did I appreciate the other food items on offer in the suspiciously low-​lit buffet.
Maybe I would have enjoyed it more with different company and many more units of alcohol, but I honestly don’t think any good friend of mine would make me go here. The best thing I can say about my night at Copacabana is «it’s over».
Note — vegetarians are likely to starve/​run out/​cry if you take them here.

I’ve a sneaking fondness for the Copa, possibly because I once performed there: a swing dance performance, a few years back. And, given that we were an intermediate class, didn’t draw a crowd and that no money changed hands, I guess it shows a certain agreeability on the part of the Copa’s management if nothing else.
That’s the other thing to like about the Copa, of course. They’ve got a proper dance floor, but aren’t really a nightclub in the modern sense. One of the few places in Melbourne that you can say that about. They hold dance classes (mostly latin), and most dancing you do is going to be to latin or jazz standards.