Phillip Island Chocolate Factory — Attraction in Newhaven

Upon arriving, I was intrigued about the tour but later decided not to go because it costs $18 per adult, $54 for a family, and concession prices only for government pension holders (kinda misleading)

The food; one word. Indian. The satay chicken is chicken with satay sauce, not the satay chicken skewers that you would expect for a Malaysian dish. The sandwiche, we found a piece of wood chip in the filling and upon complaining to the staff they also had no idea what it was and only offered a remake of the food instead of offering a refund. The food is most definitely the frozen packaged food from your local woollies. The curry of the day is a small bowl of satay sauce with small childsize bites of chicken and the Papadum to rice ratio is very unbalanced, only one singular small piece of papadum to one whole serving of rice. The salad that comes with food is also prepackaged salad packs from woollies.

Customer service; terrible. There's an older mature aged lady greeted us with the most uninterested very bothered expression and when ordering at a usual pace she told us to shut up and be quiet because we placed a complicated food order and she needs to restart the entire order because i ordered something that she's already processed. Additionally, when trying to add one more item on, she repeated back the order very hastily and was not very willing. She forgot the drinks to our order too.

As an individual who has experience in a fast-paced customer service environment, I think that lady is better suited to be in the back of the house, either ingredients prepping or washing dishes.

Overall, our experience here at the Panny's Phillip Island Chocolate Factory was very disappointing. The chocolate was below average, like the kind you can get for $2.50 at the Reject Shop. The coffee was mid like the coffee you get from a coffee vending machine in the hospital (sad and uninviting). The food was also below average, for the price you would be paying, better off going to an actual restaurant. The staff and the atmosphere of the cafe are understaffed and disappointing. Please rethink about retraining your staff in customer service. The only thing that was good about the place is the cleanliness of the bathrooms.

In short, don't waste your time. Keep driving. Save your money...

Getting inside the factory is a bit unorganised, caution to book tickets online a day before, as there might not be any tickets available on that day, Still if u hv a ticket it can be a long wait and if sun is out, it can be pretty tiresome to wait for long time, specially for families with kids, People who just want to use Café also need to wait for long time to get inside, the entry process whether for chocolate factory or to use café is quite troublesome, The booking times do not actually reflect the real entry time and it can mismatch by up to an extra half an hour...,, Once inside the facility it is pretty much DIY tour without anyone explaining or going in groups, there r a few interesting things to watch and some r related to chocolate manufacturing but theres no complete process cycle, or any step by step manufacturing being done, There r a few games to play but very hard to win..they give free credits to play..try ur luck to win if anything possible.., Theres one photo booth as well and u can self-click ur photos and later it is possible to get soft copy on ur email, say cheese..and click a nice pic..:-) Kids can also choose to make their own chocolate for 2$ and its a nice feeling to have made something by themselves, There r staff offering to taste free chocolate while u r going through different sections..the chocolate is free and tastes good too ;-)

The café has a very nice food variety to offer, its easier to get to cafe at the end of the chocolate factory tour, but it can be a nuisance if u only want to go to cafe, The trip to chocolate factory is also not exactly into a factory but bits and pieces of chocolate manufacturing and a few good things on display At the end of the tour there is a small shop to buy chocolates and other gifts, some hot chocolate powder...

The tour seemed very dear. It would have been $66 for us to do a tour, with no inclusions other than the tour the lady said (2 adults, 3 chn). The informational video in the shop had no sound so we couldn't get a grasp on what the guy was saying. It was essentially a chocolate shop and cafe experience without the tour. There was no free information on the factory side of it that we could see. The model train near the bathroom is cute, and the chocolate art displayed is interesting.

The cafe has a robot waiter so that was interesting. Kitchen closes at 3pm and dine- in orders for stuff from the fridge/drinks closes at 4:15 with takeaway-only until 5pm. They start clearing and cleaning the dining room at 4:15. Staff were reasonably friendly and efficient. It was supposed to be dine-in for our order at 4:10pm and they gave us takeaway.

The Nero chocolate cake was just a chocolate cake. I liked the ganache bits but the cake itself tasted/felt like it wasn't all that fresh or exciting. The kids liked the banana split in the chocolate boat but my daughter wondered why they put chocolate sauce underneath it in the cardboard box. The chai latte was nice and hot and quite sweet.

Unless you buy a whole box or bag of chocolate you don't really get to taste it to see what you think compared to chocolate you like. I had a bite of the boat from my children's banana split but it just tasted...