Evangeline's — Restaurant in Melbourne

🚩🚩🚩 This place is an absolute dumpster fire. Firstly, the hygiene practices (or lack thereof) of this venue are beyond disgusting. They are washing their dirty dishes in the glass washer. Despite there being a dishwasher in the kitchen, they refuse to pay a kitchenhand, so they make front of house staff wash everything in the glass washer which is only designed to be used for glasses, cups and saucers. Food grime from the dirty dishes ends up as film on the glasses so they feel greasy and look cloudy and the glass washer is filthy. They have only one pair of tongs for front of house, meaning the potential for cross contamination of germs and allergens is high. The same tongs that are used for chicken and salmon focaccia’s are also used for salad, muffins, cakes, slices, pies, you name it, those dirty tongs touch it. Focaccia’s, pies (which they sell as “gourmet” are really just cheap packet pies), lasagne, quiches, anything in that front display cabinet gets heated up in a microwave 🤢 The floors and surfaces are disgusting, nothing is cleaned thoroughly or correctly. The management are rude to both customers and their staff. Clearly a language barrier but when asked to repeat themselves because they are making no sense they just basically whisper an inaudible response and both parties are left feeling confused. They’ve got no clue. They are passive aggressive, patronising and think they know it all, really they’re just embarrassing themselves. They do no work and are happy to stand around and glare at the casual staff that are trying their best, but have no support. Clearly the new owners have had zero hospitality experience and they have no idea what they are doing, the place is a mess, both literally and metaphorically. Word on the street is that they’ve had three different chefs in the last month because they keep walking out, I would too. And the PRICES! Holy hell, the prices. $10.50 for an iced late or powdered chai!? You’re dreaming. $7.50 for bite sized donuts. A sneaky surcharge for toasting the food, you’d think that’d be absorbed into the original price of things which is already high, but nope, they’ll sting you extra for that too. The whole menu is overpriced and underwhelming. Their excuse for the abhorrent pricing is that “everybody in the area is rich, so they can afford it”. 🫠 The music they play in there is also not at all appropriate for the demographic that they are mainly serving, bumping Jack Harlow and Skrillex to a cafe hosting people born pre 1960 on a quiet morning, read the room guys. If I could rate this place zero stars I would, it’s a truly awful experience. Save your time and money and visit one of the many other better places in the area. Steer well clear of this one.

Also, all of the recent five star reviews you see on here are paid for and fake. Mentioning “live music, cozy atmosphere, inviting decor and situated in the city center”? Turn it up, these people must think we’re stupid. Instead of focusing on buying fake reviews how about they focus on reading the real critiques and improving their service and standards, then maybe, just maybe, they’ll have a fighting chance of staying afloat. But who are we kidding? This...

The most disappointing aspect of our visit today was the young Persian girl who couldn't understand our request for a table with easy access for my mum with a walker. I kept explaining to her we needed space to keep her walker. Obviously new owners who are unaware that their main demographics are our respected seniors with special needs. It would help also if she had a working knowledge of English. Make sure you watch the till as she will upsize your order meaning you pay more. Good thing I had my eye on the till while she was happily ringing it up.Extremely over priced food which was less than average. Be careful as the food in the display cabinet had no prices. She may have charged me as she pleased. Sad that a once iconic cafe at Tunstall Square has gone downhill. Obviously under new management going by the demographic of the latest 5 star reviews that you rarely see in the cafe or Tunstall Square.😂😂😂. Definitely friends and relatives of the new owners as majority of the reviewers have only done one review ... viola this place Live music and kids play area as per the 5star reviews ..oopppssy must be the wrong place 🤔🤔🤔😂😂Don't be fooled by it.We will not be returning as there are far better cafes...

So disappointed - have enjoyed countless lunches and coffees over the past 30 or more years at this little local cafe and have seen it improve and prosper through a number of changes of ownership. My friend and I will never go there again.

At noon (lunchtime) last Wednesday the service was tardy to say the least (we waited 38 minutes before our sandwiches were delivered - the reason being that "the kitchen is busy" which seemed strange as there were only 15 people in the place); the coffees were good; the toasted chicken sandwiches were as dry as a plank of wood and the chicken was rimmed with globules of yellow fat. The tablespoon of salad on the side was welcome.

I think we should have been warned that all was not what it used to be as there were handwritten signs asking patrons to treat servers with respect and that rudeness wouldn't be tolerated (fair enough!) and a sign near the cash register stated that if refunds were requested, Evangeline's would keep 20% of the amount paid - a warning that refunds are often requested ?????? Such signs have never been there previously and the cafe and outside eating area are usually packed - as I said, never ever again..... ...