Blackbird Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

We came to this restaurant as a group of 4 on a lovely, sunny Sunday afternoon. We checked the reviews before deciding on this one as we had been looking at a few places beforehand. The waitress promptly seated us outside and was attentive with our order. Two of our meals came out first, and some time passed (approximately 30 minutes) before we began to suspect the other meals were not coming. We asked the waiter and he went to find out and said they were on their way. Other patrons who had arrived after us were being served their meals before us. When the remaining two dishes finally arrived, the lamb salad was not satisfactory. The grilled chicken seemed to be reheated. These two dishes arrived after the first two were almost finished. The first two meals were great, the squid and the fish cakes.

Upon getting ready to leave a staff member approached us, we raised the fact that the two meals were presented very delayed and we just wanted to provide some feedback to the business. This was done in a calm manner. The staff responded defensively and did not want to listen to what we had to say. She said she would “pass it onto the kitchen”. In doing so, she did not take responsibility for our level of dissatisfaction and her overall demeanor was “what do you want me to do about it?” There was complete lack of customer focus and we felt she was not in any way apologetic for what we had experienced.

Honestly I do not know how this place has received 4.5 stars. We will not be returning in a hurry and do not recommend this place based on the service, or...

If I ever write a review it is because the experience was great and I want to support the business. I have also worked with hospitality businesses so I know that it is hard to consistently to deliver 5 star food and service - everyone has a bad day. But we recently had breakfast at BlackBird based on the reviews and I feel compelled to bring some balance. The table was not wiped clean before we were seated inside and in fact the place needed a good spring clean. The service was prompt and the coffee was fine but the food was extremely disappointing. My husband had bacon and eggs which was edible but didn't look very appealing and not something I would have served up at home. I had fruit toast with the ricotta and honey. The ricotta was served in a small, 2 compartment dish with honey drizzled over it. On the other side was a smear of butter that looked like it had been sitting out on the counter for hours. The dish was dirty and I couldn't eat the ricotta. There were 3 generous slices of fruit toast, but they had a sight garlicky taste. The cafe always seems busy and the reviews were good. There is a chance that our experience was one in a thousand - but basics like food presentation and cleanliness are...

My partner and I wanted to take their mum out for mother's day Lunch. We attempted to book a table because obviously it was going to be busy, but upon calling, we were told that they weren't taking bookings because "there were plenty of tables free so just come in". We arrived at 1pm and nearly all the tables were filled and we were asked for a booking, we explained we didn't have one due to what we were told when we tried, fortunately by pure luck there was a table available. We sat down and ordered our drinks, two juices and a iced coffee. After 10 minutes our juices arrived, however it took another 40 minutes for only two of our food orders to arrive, and then another 15 for the iced coffee. We then had to wait another hour and 40 minutes to get the wrong order multiple times for my partner's meal, which was a simple bowl of chips. Eventually when their "order" arrived, it was the kid's serving of chips.

All in all, we were there for nearly 2 hours with only getting our food mid way through, and then the wrong item by the end. The food is pretty ok but not worth such a long wait whilst those around us would arrive, get their orders, leave, and then repeat. Not the greatest of experiences unfortunately.

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