Courtyard Café at Old Parliament House — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

Nice courtyard to sit in, but they use bottom shelf alternative milk for premium prices. They don’t display prices so you have to either ask (fyi $5.85 for a tiny glass of oat latte) or get bill shock. Surcharge for credit cards even though they refuse to take cash. They break the law by refusing to take cash (illegal not to accept Australian cash as tender in Australia). IT IS ILLEGAL!!

Btw, they hide the brands of their alternative milks and when I asked the barista what they were serving, he rolled his eyes.

The baristas and staff rarely smile, all appearing consistently not that happy. Fish rots from the head, is the management not nice?

This cafe has a monopoly in being the only one anywhere nearby for many workers. They make the most of this by serving really bitter coffee, cheap rubbish alternative milk, really overpriced sandwiches ($15!?) and real misery gut service.

Update in Feb 2025 All the cate staff still appear unhappy (gosh rots from the head) and service is with a grimace. Large coffee (medium size anywhere else) is $6 plus $1 extra for alternative cheap Aldi or Woolworths milk. They have the monopoly being the only cafe around, so can sell the worst most burnt coffee at the highest price, just because they can. Depressing.

Also, they are breaking the law by refusing cash, a legal tender. Will only take card payments, with an extra...

Food: milkshakes and hot chocolate absolutely no flavour (not even joking it was like 99% milk), really disappointing, big old waste of money Service: extremely rude cashier legit as we walked up and said hello he was like “UM STOP NO, THE LADY’S CARD DIDN’T GO THROUGH” talking about the woman before us. Then we were like ok lol calm down bruv, so he kicked up a big ol stink about this, so he asked a colleague to chase the woman down and demand she hand over her bounty. Then after all that, we finally tried to order one drink, he demanded we stop once more. He started touching the screen his a lot (might have been playing Tetris I don’t know) and then eventually he took our full order. Later on (about 25mins) we finally got our drinks, but in that time he asked literally every table, bar one, that “oh did you order the skim flat whites?” And he missed the table that had ordered literally like 3 times (they have table numbers too so idk why he wasn’t looking at them???). It was crazy. Suffice to say I won’t come here again because I just paid $8 for a chocolate milkshake that is legit just milk, I got rorted. There was also a screaming baby that we had to move...

I only leave negative reviews when I don’t receive a response to my attempts at direct contact. I tried twice to raise issues with the courtyard cafe managers directly but got nothing. So.. although the outdoor courtyard area is lovely and you can feel a sense of the history of the building, management of the cafe is bad and it’s just not worth it. First of all, their cashless policy is against the law as they don’t advertise the actual cost to the consumer which must include the surcharge. This policy has to be implemented in line with the law. Secondly, there is a 10% surcharge on weekends. And if you happen to be allergic to dairy, you’re up for an additional $1 for alternative milk. So a small coffee on the weekend costs close to $7. Ridiculous. I get the sense the staff are also embarrassed by the additional surcharges and excessive costs, but their hands are tied with management policy. I wouldn’t waste your money at the cafe. Just do a walk through the courtyard and take in the setting for free. There are other lovely cafes in the area that don’t rip customers off as much...