Pollen — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

This is a beautiful setting and a place I frequent regularly. So I decided to organise a birthday event for a special friend. When I booked by on-line I specifically asked if I could bring a cake. All I received was a acceptance of my booking, this made me contact them directly to check on the cake. I got two indifferent answers from the girl and when I pushed if I cannot I will go somewhere else but she assured me it was fine. The day arrived and I rang to confirm my numbers and check on the cake and was advised of the cakeage cost. I arrived with the cake and asked them to hold the cake in the kitchen for as it was a surprise. A member of the staff came to the table and said is this the table for the cake, and realised that she just spoiled the surprise. So when I advised her that we were ready for the cake, she came back and made such a big thing about the cakeage cost and I replied that is okay. Then she came back and said we had to pay for the cakeage before they could bring it out. They then proceeded to bring the cake out with the correct number of plates paid for with the cake still in the container, not on a plate or even a candle or two. I am more disappointed that there is a total lack of good service, and to ask to pay before they bought our cake to the table was an appalling lack of trust which shocked us all. The staff need a lot of training in customer service and the attitude needs to change so not to spoil a nice day out with friends. Such a shame, as the food is reasonable and the spot is just delightful. They are sitting on a Gold mine they just cannot...

Worst dining experience & very unorganised cafe. An hour after ordering and asking staff multiple times where our food was, we were told they had 'run out of food'. After a few minutes of confusion from the staff member, she told us that they could serve 3 of the meals, could maybe serve 1 but couldn't serve the last meal. Since it was after 2 o'clock and we wouldn't be able to get lunch elsewhere, we decided to stay. We were told that we would get a full refund even though we were still getting a few meals served, which they could not get right, we were refunded about 2/3 of the cost. One of the meals that they said they could definitely serve was never brought out, we had to follow up with the staff and wait, again. We asked for an extra on two meals, both of which we did not receive and had to ask for, again. We were charged a 10% surcharge for it being a Sunday, which we were not told of nor was it written anywhere on the menu, we were only aware when we ordered and it appeared on the register. I would not bother with this cafe as it wasn't worth the time we wasted, and the food is over priced and...

I have been to this well appointed café several times over the past few years. it is nestled within the Botanical Gardens though you don’t need to go through the gardens for access. On the whole the atmosphere is pleasant with some interesting choices on the menu. You order at the counter and queues can be long during peak periods especially if there is a special attraction at the gardens. For example, there has been a dinosaur exhibit recently and it was understandably busy during the school holiday period it was on. The service and quality of the food was definitely not as good as usual. The fixed menu children’s meals were less than ordinary and a choice of a a piece of fruit instead of a big biscuit would have been appreciated. Also, ‘serve yourself’ water was readily available so I could not understand why the children’s meals included bottled water. Apart from this one disappointing experience I have found meeting friends for coffee or lunch here enjoyable. Size of meals can vary quite a bit so if you are after a hearty meal check with the server. They do offer some tasty...