Village Bakehouse — Restaurant in Dubbo

We called into the bakery purposely as when I lived in Dubbo many years ago and went to Dubbo sth high and our family always supported this bakery. So going back after many years and also seeing it on great weekender tv show, I thought let’s visit whilst we visit the zoo. Omg. Cold pies that got microwaved ( btw I’m married to a baker pastry cook and we have owned and operated 3 bakeries myself)…. Yep microwaved pies. It’s a BAKERY and they microwave pies.!!!!!! They’re not cheap either. So along with an apple custard danish ( which was more like puff pastry filled with custella Bee sting custard) and was a disgrace to be called danish pastry btw. Put in more unsalted butter please and we ordered a flat white which was luke warm and a tea, and sat at dirty grubby tables, so you can see where I’m heading on this review. The background music was so loud. No prices on any cakes… people like to see what products cost and you’ll sell more if you display that! It could be so much better. The cabinets were lovely in the displays of products. Didn’t like the attitude of the staff as all very young and inexperienced. Better customer service training required. I notice you have 3 stores, that’s great but do one and do it well is my suggestion as this is certainly lacking. I don’t mean to sound fussy but all the money you have laid out in your cabinets,, signage, marketing is being let down by your choice of staff and poor quality on Sat 4/10/25. Disappointing to say the least. You’re not a bakery anymore...

First off, for anyone expecting this to be a bakery, it’s not. Not by my standards at least. Let me expand:

“Bakery” There is a section that sells bread, but it’s unstaffed. It specifically tells you to go to the cafe side to order, which is obviously inefficient, but the problem is also that there are no prices noted. Why would I bother waiting in line to get someone over to ask for the price of a bread that might be too expensive for me to warrant buying. Probably it would be, as the breads lay exposed and no one is really buying as far as I could see when I sat in the cafe portion to try their meat pie. The breads would not be fresh.

There are some other “fresh” breads, but those are just overpriced mass-produced artificial breads that you might as well get from the grocery store.

“Cafe”

Kind of a generic cafe but good range of choices according to Australian standards (no espressos). Meat pie was fine, also not very fresh. The issue I had was the extreme amount of waste they produce. One of the rare places that still sells plastic cups with neigh every drink.

Also they don’t clean. I was there for half an hour minimum and my table nor the table next to me was ever wiped and many more tables I could spot from my spot. The floor was full of crumbs. It wasn’t that busy, so I feel like they should shift some priority to this. All in all it definitely doesn’t feel like a “village bakery”, but more like a McDonalds...

I normally don't leave bad reviews for businesses as it affects their overall organisation but this time, it definitely warrant a poor review. Went to Village Bakehouse on 29/12/2022 at around 9.15am to buy a regular hot chocolate and a cheese roll. While I understand they are busy, the customer service is simply PATHETHIC. The elderly lady who served me just took my order and left. There was no smile to welcome customers and when i asked for a receipt, she just walked away. I took my hot chocolate and went to sit a table which was dirty. I requested one of the staff (a girl) if she could clean the table as I will be sitting here (the bakehouse was a bit full and not many tables were available), she was shocked and upset because I requested her to clean the table.

I went there previously with a friend and we order 2 drinks (one latte and one hot chocolate), the guy who served us got the order wrong and charged us for 2 hot chocolate. When we told him, he got upset by stating "that what you guys ordered".

While the food is good ( a bit overpriced), customer service is ZERO. None of the staff has a smile on their face and look like they are having a bad day all year round. Either they are underpaid and just there for a paycheck or they don't care at all.

Management need to have a serious look into their staff. Maybe they could learn from Dahab and Press cafe. Never going back to Village...