Amazing Graze Tea Rooms — Restaurant in Melbourne

Hello there, Im writing this in regards to my visit to the Amazing tea rooms this Mon 6/11. I tried doing the booking online but no dates were available until 3rd of Jan so i had to ring to do the booking on the phone and it took me 3-4 attempts to make the booking only as the line had a lot of disturbance and also the person who answered was taking so long to respond and do the booking and didn’t have enough information about the cafe/menu or bookings. When he called back he didn’t even mention that he is calling from the cafe to make the booking, he said he is calling from the flower shop.After multiple attempts of me ringing and calling back to collect the info and make the booking he finally agreed to take details for reservation he couldn’t hear/understand me properly. When i asked him about Halal food, he said they have halal, vegan and but free which was complete opposite to what we got when we went there. Anyways on the day of booking, we arrived to the place right on time but there was no staff at the reception, 5-10 mins arriving to the cafe when no one greeted or welcomed us, we ourselves figured out which table could be ours and where to sit. We had to go to the flower shop to call someone to assist us, the lady who happened to be there was very least welcoming and seemed not interested to host. She brought us a collection of teas and left it on the table with the initials only, when asked about which flavours were those she responded saying that not all what’s mentioned in the menu is available and she doesn’t know the names either, we should only tell her from the bottle which one we want and she’ll bring us that, she brought the tier stand for kids and adult at the same time and when asked what type of filling does the pie have she said its meat pies I asked her if it’s beef or chicken she said beef i asked her if the meat is halal she said no its not halal.. u need to let us know at booking time about the requirements specifically and make special request with the surcharge of 10$ per person, which was not mentioned to us neither when we were booking not at the website. Then we asked if there is any other option available as we can’t eat all that non halal meat, She said no it’s only that what’s available. Then we told her to remove the meaty items and replace them by Sandwiches if vegetarian option is available. She then brought us 3-4 sandwiches to replace (Meat pies & Bao Buns) also there were No fries in kids high tea, she said the machine isn’t working. So the kids high tea was incomplete any ways, which was HIGHLY UNACCEPTABLE. We didn’t get the food that we went for and paid for also kids didn’t get the food that they went for either but we were charged with the full amount.65$ for adults and 45$ for kids $$$ The food that we got wasn’t even worth a fraction of what we paid for!!! We are extremely disappointed & disgusted by this service and how we were treated and not compensated or given any discount either. Online at 3-4 different places it mentions that this cafe has gluten free, halal and vegan. Please dont give wrong information if you cannot comply with that. This place doesn’t even have an email address to get in touch with someone in the management. Hence i had to write about our terrible experience here.

I will never go to this...

Had a small group (10) for my baby shower for high tea a few weeks ago and while the aesthetics of the venue were lovely, the organisation and execution of the day was seriously disappointing.

The whole event was completely disorganised, from ordering drinks (waiting ages, some got sent to another table and ended up back at our table cold) to food (no menus on the table so no-one knew what they were eating or what was available), to seating arrangements.

A week prior I had confirmed the number of guests, but they had set the table for 3 extra places and expected me to pay, then when I questioned it, the 3 places they took away for some reason translated to "The 3 guests with dietary requirements aren't coming" so nothing came out for them when the food finally did come out, 1 hour and 20 mins into our 2 hour booking. When it eventually did, they weren't even sure what was being served.

The most disappointing part was after weeks of promising phone calls back and forth r.e. dietary requirements, on the day they couldnt get it right and flat out REFUSED to serve anything other than drinks to one of my guests because of these requirements, despite multiple conversations confirming it could be catered for. The staff couldn't confirm if the food that they allegedly did make in-house was free from allergens, so even if she WAS offered something, why would she trust it? So she went hungry.

The rest of the food seemed like it had come from a catering company (if not, either way, why couldn't they confirm ingredients?) possibly with the exception of the sandwiches and scones which didn't come with enough jam and cream and when I asked for a little bit more they said it would be an extra expense... but at $59 per person (plus 10% surcharge for weekends and an extra $10 a head for dietary requirements that they tacked on last minute) it seemed a little stingey especially since the portions were smaller than the photos.

There was another event in the same room (no problems about that) but the music the venue had was so loud and the room was so echoey we couldn't hear each other speaking over the larger group.

It was in all honesty, the most poorly executed experience and not what I expected especially because the staff seemed so competent when organising the whole event, but when the day came it was absolutely chaotic. I didnt want to let it ruin the day, but after some thought, and no email address to contact whoever is in charge of this circus I think this review is necessary.

And don't get me wrong, no one was rude or nasty, the staff were doing their best and it was a little busy, but to the person in charge, don't offer an experience you can't follow through with because for the price and stress of the day (and no intent to apologise for the chaos) I could have just...

I booked my mother in laws 80th birthday for Sunday 10th March, 2024 for 8 adults & 2 minors.

My initial booking with Russell was clear & seamless .

We booked high tea for midday with an additional hour paid as we opted to build a flower arrangement to the value of around $170.00.

I dropped the cake, balloons & chocolates at 9:30, the staff were very accommodating at this stage.

We returned at Midday to an absolute disarray.

We were told we were going to do the flower bouquet first & we’re seated at an unmade table with 8 chairs & not 10.

Our table was finally ready to accommodate our 10 guests to be told there would be a delay with our food as there were issues with the electricity due to the hot weather. I am ok with this as the weather was very hot & out of their control.

I had to ask for our balloons to be bought out to be told there were no balloons ? They found the balloons & were bought out to the table.

Sparkling was served to a minor, even though our booking was for 2 minors.

We were eventually asked to create the bouquet of flowers. The bouquet presented lovely but did not last more than a few days. I was told it’s because we did not care for them in the appropriate manner. Rest assured an 80 year old woman knows to change the water daily, trim the bottoms of the flowers & keep them out of heat.

We attended this venue for high tea, at no point did we get asked what tea we wanted to drink ? We had to ask the wait staff for tea at the end of the day so my MIL could drink tea with her cake !!!!

There was no soft drink available for the minors, nor sparking water. Only tap water in which we were told to they could not leave the glass bottle on the table for our guests to top up their own glasses.

I asked for the cake to be bought out, again, I was told there was no cake ?? The cake was found & presented to my MIL.

A complimentary sparking was offered & was told they had new staff. New staff that clearly had no training at all. I felt sorry for our young girl who served our table. She was very stressed !!!

Our chocolate love hearts were not bought out for my MIL, a gift from each of her grandchildren. Instead when I called back after leaving the venue was told in 3 seperate occasions that someone would call me back. To this day, I have not had a return phone call.

There were issues with the billing & invoicing in which I could delve further into but I think my google review reiterates the poor service we experienced.

I am not one to leave a bad google review, I never have the time but on this occasion, I simply couldn’t allow potential customers not know my poor experience, considering I am still waiting on my return phone call & the return of my MIL love heart chocolates from her...