Portrait Cafe — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

Avoid, avoid, avoid, especially if you want a quick lunch. We arrived at 12.30 on a busy weekday, and sat down at a table that hadn't yet been cleared. It wasn't until we asked them to move the dirty stuff (when our own food arrived) that this disappeared. Ordered via the app as requested, 2 toasties, a quiche, and a slice of cake. 20 minutes later, all of this appeared apart from one toastie. Chased up 5 mins later, waitress said she'd ask. 10 mins later, still nothing. I went in and asked a staff member, she asked someone else and, in an annoyed voice, they said 'yes I'm just doing it now'. 10 mins later, still nothing so asked again and it finally came shortly after. A very short apology given when it finally arrived. Took us well over an hour to have a simple toastie. Place is clearly under-staffed but unimpressed by them getting a simple order wrong and not rectifying the situation immediately.

When mentioning this to a friend, they said the same thing had happened to them the day before!

Every other nearby cafe (e.g. National Library) has vastly superior food...

I so wanted to love this place, as its located so well, next to the gallery and gift shop. It's the natural place to gravitate for coffee or lunch after looking in the gallery. Its a narrow corridor style layout inside (bottle neck to order and wait) with a great long verandah area outside overlooking the grass and distant lake and high court. But inside, it's narrow and busy and chaotic. Very inefficiently run. Seemingly enough staff, but very slow with ordering and bringing out the food and coffee. Surly staff, food is meh. Even in a quieter time, after the lunch rush, things don't get any better. I can only put it down to bad layout and poorly run. (Staff can't be this busy and unhappy - it's got to be bad management) So they must make plenty of money, as its a trapped audience. The only place to easily get coffee. But it could be THE premium place to want to go for lunch in Canberra, because of its location and ambience. If only it was run...

Have had breakfast here quite a bit. It's a shame as the cafe used to be good but has gone downhill. It's an institution so people will always visit but just has so much potential that it doesn't live up to. Extortionate prices for the quality. Food review: Fruit cup was pretty inedible and not fresh. Chia pudding OK but had some suspect looking poached fruit in there. Beverages not too bad but the really good barista has left so coffee isn't what it used to be. Gluten free bread with eggs on toast was soggy and gross. I asked for scrambled eggs and they gave me poached which is fine if they can't do scrambled but please just say so as I would change my order accordingly. The one saving grace is the poke bowl but even then they have changed the sauce so it just isn't as good. Brownie tasted dry like it was a couple of days old whereas used to be moist...