Cafe Matto — Restaurant in Melbourne

Scary and abusive owner - will not be coming again.

I have read a lot of the reviews for this Cafe, unfortunately our family had a really unpleasant experience here that has ruined our weekend and our impressions of this area as being a family friendly place.

We come up to the Burgundy street shops about twice a month to have coffee and lunch. We have been to Cafe Matto 3-4 times previously for coffee and from memory it's been OK, but not great. Today we came up with our two girls and stopped for a minute underneath the red cover out front. We have not been here often and initially did not realise that there are two cafe's side-by-side (especially as the girls were complaining about being hungry we were really distracted and missed the "Cafe Matto" sign on top of the red cover).

The owner (a white haired older gentlemen) started shouting from inside the cafe asking whether we were going to Matto or the Cafe next door (Zein's). We quickly made up our minds to get something from the other cafe on the right and once the owner understood this he shouted at us to move, which we did very quickly. This should have been the end of it (we were now standing outside of the next door Cafe) and had followed the owners instructions to move to a different part of the street front. Unfortunately, the owner followed our family out onto the street and continued shouting at us even though we had already moved.

I went inside to order from Zein's and I could still hear him shouting at my wife and two daughters outside to the point where my wife lost her temper and tried to argue back. The owner then complained about us to some of the other customers (calling us "idiots" according to my wife). At this point my 5 year old daughter started to cry understandably confused as to why this stranger was shouting at us. Partly because my family was there I just decided to ignore him and not answer back but it took ages before he finally stopped harassing us.

To top it off the whole time he was shouting without wearing any mask either when he was inside his premises or when he was on the street. As a cafe owner during stage 4 lock down he really should know better. Fortunately the staff at Zein's were really nice and sympathetic which was a big contrast with the guy from Matto's.

I am so disappointed to have to write a negative review about a local cafe particularly in these tough times, but the behavior of the owner of Cafe Matto in this case was really extraordinary. Both patrons and workers in hospitality deserve mutual respect, and even though he may have told a number of people previously to move from outside of his premises he does not have the right to harass families and little girls out on the street when we did what he asked. My daughters have recovered now, but I really hope someone will have a word with this guy to moderate his behavior (and to start following the COVID-19 guidelines about mask wearing - he is putting everyone at risk).

As I said, I am sad to have to write this review, but acting this way in public deserves to be called...

🥰 Café Matto is a time-honoured local favourite for coffee, brunch, or more substantial meals. The owners are always there, friendly and welcoming. This is not the type of place where the staff stare at you blankly! Thank goodness! 😅❤️ In this age of vegan food and lots of experimentation in the hospitality scene with layout, decor, and presentation, Matto is a conventional Italian restaurant with very nice Italian food, all the usual pasta dishes, entrees, salads, house-made desserts, plus delicious chef's specials. That said, there's not much on the menu for diners with food intolerances or particular dietary requirements. Prices are perfectly reasonable but if you're on a tight budget you'll avoid the main courses. I'm on a pension and had a delicious Greek salad instead; the serve was enormous, all ingredients top quality and extremely fresh. That was $16. Apart from Sunday afternoons, the place is always open, the service is great, the ambience is fine. In my experience the coffee is adequate, but not up to the standards of Melbourne's upmarket coffee specialists: Café Matto doesn't offer a range of blends or single-origin beans. If they hired a hip barista and offered more coffee options, quite frankly they'd make a lot more money! 😉💲💲 I recommend that you make a booking for formal meals, as it can be very busy at times. For casual morning visits, you can just walk in and get a table. Cafe Matto is accessible to wheelchairs (there are no steps to climb). A quick mention that dogs on leash are welcome at the outdoor tables, which are on the footpath under a...

Came in with my client who has special needs and requires some time to figure out what he wants (take away), I told the women at the front beforehand that I'm a support worker and my client will take some time to figure out what he wants, and once we decide I'll let her know. After a couple minutes she was visibly getting agitated and forgot about what I told her initially, and because we felt pressured, I ordered a coffee type my client didn't want which in turn frustrated my client and started to raise his voice because he was on edge- what does the women do? Tells us to hurry up and make up our minds because she has other people to serve, which is fair enough, but I told her that I'll let her know when we're ready, I didn't tell her to wait for us to decide and then serve the other people there. Anyway, then the male barista told us to "take it outside" because my client was obviously not happy, insinuating that we were about to get into a physical altercation, which was humiliating. Maybe have a big sign on your front window stating "those with mental health issues and Autism are not welcome", because that's exactly how you treated my client. Absolutely disgusting and discriminatory behaviour and lack of compassion...