1816 Bakehouse — Restaurant in Grampians

Edited to add - my friend has just received her hamper. It does not contain the products I ordered (it was packed by their wholesale team) and does not even have products to the value of which I spent. Nicole personally delivered it to my friend with no apology.

Absolutely appalling management — do not waste your money here.

I ordered a hamper from 1816 Bakery from Perth for my grieving friend in Ballarat. The staff I dealt with — Layla, Connor, and Will — were kind, helpful, and clearly doing their best. Unfortunately, they were left scrambling to manage what turned into an unmitigated disaster of a delivery.

Despite repeated calls over multiple days and promises that the manager, Nicole, would contact me, I never received a single call from her. Meanwhile, her team was left to deal with the fallout of a simple hamper order that somehow took five days to get out the door — all while she was apparently off over Easter.

The emotional toll of managing this from afar, coordinating with my friend during a deeply difficult time, and chasing down updates daily was exhausting. It should not take this much effort to get a delivery fulfilled, and the silence from management was inexcusable.

I will never support a business that shows this level of disorganization, lack of accountability, and disregard for both their staff and customers. No amount of award-winning sourdough is worth this level of incompetence.

To the frontline staff: thank you for doing your best under such poor leadership. To management: do better — or step aside for someone who can.

Not to leave this on a sour(dough) note, my utmost gratitude to will, Connor, layla, and the other staff whose name I didnt catch who did their utmost best to help navigate this nightmare. Your efforts are not unnoticed, and are...

I've been very eager to come and visit 1816 since it opened. I am extremely happy to report that it did not disappoint! 😊

It's got a great cozy atmosphere, has an amazing array of artisan breads that are just as good as what you'd find in the city my usual stomping ground, scrumptious pasteries (both sweet and savory) and is all set in an open space so you can sit & comfortably have a coffee without feeling caustraphobic.

I'm surprised by other people's comments that they don't have much variety! 😯 Having worked in a bakery for 3 years, I know that it takes a TONNE of time & VERY skilled hands to make everything from scratch and do it really well. Given that 1816 make everything in-house, I think they've got a brilliant variety of fresh food on offer to cater to everyone's taste!

I myself resisted the urge to buy one of everything 😂 BUT I did settle on a loaf of multigrain sourdough and a humble date scone. Might seem like basic choices, however, if you can't get the simple stuff right, what hope is there that the fancier pastries will be any good!?

The scone was great! Packed full of dates and almost lives up to my Nanas recipe 😆 plus, the sourdough was super tasty and great toasted for lunch!

Overall, I think this is an excellent addition to Ballarat and is the type of quintessential small town bakery people want to visit when driving through or pop in at the weekend. While there are other good bakeries in town, very few or none tbh do a good loaf of traditional bread & offer as nice a range of wholesome, high-quality products 😊

Kudos to you guys! Keep up the fabulous work! I'll certainly be a return...

1816 is an incredibly good bakery. The bread is excellent, as are the pies and baked goods such as the croissants. The brekkie roll is probably the one thing you should have if you come to visit ballarat from elsewhere - it really is unlike any other brekkie roll I’ve ever had - very delicious and if you’re lucky they don’t overcook it and the yolk comes out runny and gooey and perfect. That being said, the staff are really hit and miss, with some being seriously on the blink sometimes and totally cremating aforementioned egg yolk in said brekkie roll - thus ruining a possibly supreme culinary experience and reducing it to the likes of a MacDonalds McMuffin - sigh. Additionally, the brownie really needs work - had one today and in all my 40 years, I’ve never had such a bad brownie. The crusty pieces of croissant in the brownie do not give, it’s too big, there were no chocolate chips and it was essentially plonked on a plate from a fridge with zero finesse and slammed down infront of me as if I had said something offensive to the staff. I shall keep on coming back as I want to see this place succeed, hence...