Caffé E Torta — Restaurant in Melbourne

Was out and about in Melbourne and had some time to pass so was looking to sit down for a coffee, came across this place. It presented really well and looked great. That’s where the good ended.

I made my way in and was met with a blank look on the girls face behind the counter. She asked how could she help so I said I was after a cappuccino and an orange juice. The blank look continued and she looked to a colleague for help. The colleague asked what I was after do I repeated my order. At this point a guy came up to me and asked what I was after. For the third time I repeated myself and was told to follow him back outside and to sign in. I said I wasn’t from Victoria and didn’t see the sign (which wasn’t at the first entry door, it was at a second entry up the arcade a little bit) and said no one inside told me, His response was quite abrupt when he said “well I’m telling you”. That was it for me so I responded with “and I will tell you, we are off elsewhere”. Unfortunately this male was a bit rude so didn’t really deserve our order”. As I left I couldn’t quite hear what he said to a group in the corner but it was quite obvious it wasn’t nice when they looked in my and my 10 year old daughters direction and laughed quite loud. We had the last laugh though when we went to the arcade opposite and had a great breakfast and drink and were met with positivity and happiness. 2 stars only for the decor of the cafe. If you are in Melbourne you have plenty of other options. We enjoyed a great weekend in Melbourne where everyone was happy and friendly,...

Looked like and authentic European cafe so we chose to have breakfast here.

Big mistake. It could not have been further from the truth.

The menu is as basic as boring as could be (they don't even have basic things like bacon and eggs or eggs Benedict), the food is also mostly tasteless with odd ingredients that make no sense, the coffee is extremely weak and could easily be mistaken for tepid milk, the water tastes like it was taken from a swimming pool with the amount of chlorine taste it had, at best the service is indifferent bar one young man who was lovely (it was so poor, we had other patrons calling wait staff for us because they simply ignore you).

To add injury to insult, not only did a couple of sandwiches, coffees and kids meals cost what you'd pay at a high end establishment (I assure you, this is not one of them), but they have the audacity to charge an extortionate amount of surcharge for such poor service and quality (came to almost 20%!!) and then another surcharge to lay by card! Are you serious? Extortionate!

I can't think of a single reason to ever return to this place and I would actively recommend against going here when every single other establishment we've visited on this trip has been outstanding both in food...

As two tourists visiting Melbourne, we looked for a nice café on Google, and this café popped up, stating it opened at 8:30 am on Saturday. We sat there from 8:15 am, waiting for the café to open, and all the staff were already inside and saw us waiting.

At 8:35 am, noticing no movement but the café still closed, I went to ask the owner, whom I recognized from the website photos, what time the café would open. Without me even saying anything, he addressed me in an extremely rude and impatient manner, saying the café wasn't open. I asked what time it would open because I had seen on the website that it was supposed to be at 8:30 am, and again, he was very impolite, rude, and somewhat dismissive, sarcastically laughing and saying the website isn't reliable.

It's unacceptable for the owner of a business in a tourist hotspot like Melbourne to treat you so poorly. No staff came to us to say the café would be delayed in opening, offer us water, or anything like that, and on top of it, the owner himself being rude and unpleasant. I wouldn't recommend this café. Stay away from Caffé e...