Garden Restaurant at National Gallery of Victoria — Restaurant in Melbourne

The NGV Garden Restaurant is in a beautiful location, with a great view and the food is delicious; the perfect setting for a pre-theatre meal. However, all of this was ruined by the extreme rudeness & lack of professionalism displayed by one of the wait staff; who appeared to be in a position of seniority (Diane).

My mother and I had finished our meals and were wishing to order a coffee before we left. I caught the eye of a lovely member of the waitstaff (Phillipa)as she walked by our table and asked if we could order coffees. She took our order and moved to walk away before Diane abruptly stood in her way and started to berate her for taking our coffee order. Phillipa explained that we, the customers, had asked her as she walked by. Diane loudly replied to this, in reference to us, ‘Well THEY can wait!’. We were shocked at the pure unprofessionalism & rudeness of this apparent senior staff member! Not only was it abhorrent to speak to her colleague like that, infront of the whole restaurant, but to refer to paying customers in such a derogatory way is not what we expected from a place of such stature.

To follow this, our coffees took 20 minutes to be served and my mothers coffee was cold as it had been left to sit on the bench for 5 minutes while my coffee was being made. Horrible service.

Despite the delicious food we were utterly disgusted by this behaviour and will not be returning to the Garden Restaurant nor recommending it to any...

Fantastic outlook, exceptional food, reasonably priced, attentive staff.

I returned to this restaurant today with my 90 yo mother and siblings for a pre Christmas lunch. What a disappointment today following the stellar experience 3 weeks ago. We were not seated at the table as requested and discussed with the young lady when booking.The service was incredibly slow and my elderly mother found this difficult as did we daughters. We saw other tables had been served bread and had to ask for ours, as the main meal had not been served before 2 pm. My mother's champagne didn't come until we asked for it again 1 hour after ordering, The bottle of expensive sparkling water was kept by waiter and only served on request if we could get his attention. The meals were not as tasty as my last experience, the $9 bowl of Pommes frites were nothing more than packet french fries with the smallest sprinkle of salt. Gave up waiting for our desert and left before it was served. If this was a cheap cafe I probably wouldn't mind so much, but this was an upmarket restaurant, I had previously tried and was happy with as stated above a few weeks ago. It was the 1st time my mother and sisters had been able to get together since my father's funeral in January. i cannot believe how such an enjoyable experience in a restaurant can be so different within a few weeks. my sister also said she had had slow service in the past.It is so unreliable sadly my family...

My sister and I had lunch here on Easter Monday and thoroughly enjoyed it .Our waiter was friendly,charming and helpful ...we shared a few humourous moments and he certainly added to our relaxed meal though the venue was fully booked the lovely staff still found time to accommodate folk who presented without bookings -very discretely changing table cloths and even tables to avoid disappointing hopeful punters .... somehow managing to preserve the elegant and peaceful ambience for those currently dining ! The menu though small had an excellent variety to please all palates with vegetarian options as well Our choices included the cheese souffle (yum) duck entree , the steak and heirloom tomato dish with divine and fresh herbal dressing . We had sides as well .Pannacotta and peach melba were also delicious . We have been here many times and always marvel at the lovely garden outlook and tranquil atmosphere usually very welcome after the fun and stimulation of the actual exhibition. When so many places dumb down or lose the plot ( for various and understandable reasons ) its great to have a totally reliable and sophisticated dining option which straddles old worn starched nappery and modern food expectations in such a very ...