Gold Leaf Eastern Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

For the life of me, I don’t understand why this place has four stars. I’ve been coming here on and off for a number of years and the food has always been okay and the service acceptable. However, I will not return to this place again after today and suggest you find an alternative - read the 1 start reviews they are accurate. if you were the owner of this restaurant, I suggest you read your one star reviews as I believe you’re five star reviews are friends and family. This place is most definitely anti- Australian, extremely racist and horrible. The food really is terrible. the dumplings are flavourless, packed with MSG, (which I don’t mind), overcooked, and just horrible. However the service is disgusting. I’m quite happy to go somewhere where there is average service if the food is excellent - however both service and the food are disgusting I made a booking for 12:30pm for Sunday Yum Cha, I even rang this morning to confirm and during both of those very rude abrupt phone calls - was never told there was a seating time arrangement. It was 6 of us there to celebrate my daughters graduation from university. 1:26 pm, a more senior waiter came up to us and told us we had to leave immediately as the booking is only until on 1:30 pm. What I found very interesting was that there were plenty of other tables where “non-Australians” were sitting, and we are the only ones asked to leave - an polite discussion insured , and I refuse to leave or refused to pay. I say ant- Australian, not only in view of what transgressed during this time, but also the way that our orders were taken (or not taken I should say) our drinks were served (thrown really) and how the trolleys miraculously had missed us several times and moved on to others for fresh hot @dunplings”. After taking my stance (and I was polite) - our family has owned restaurants for 30 years, and we know the Way the game should be played - for the customer! - and it’s terrible especially after Covid . This senior waiter returned to say “ok can stay” - no sorry no apology nothing!!!

This totally ruined our celebration, and as we all had literally lost our appetite. We left shortly there after. a bill of $300 for very little and very horrible food. If you were the owner of this place, I suggest you seriously have a word to your staff whilst you maybe busy now - in five years time, you may not be. I must say one waiter Ken Was reasonable. Other places can...

I have been visiting this shop regularly and had always expected a certain level of service. However, today’s experience left me extremely disappointed and angry.

The staff were careless and impatient — they gave me the wrong dish, and when I tried to confirm the order, the staff walked away before I could even finish my sentence. I asked to speak to the manager, and Alena came over to assist. While she did help replace the dish. I was just starting to calm down and continue eating when something unbelievable happened.

Alena suddenly came back to my table, slammed both hands on it, and said in a rude, condescending tone: “I was nice to you, but your mum took a video of me, and in Australia, that’s against the law.” She didn’t ask politely or clarify — she accused us outright in front of other customers. I was completely stunned and offended. Her attitude was aggressive, inappropriate, and incredibly unprofessional.

From the beginning — being given the wrong order, ignored by staff, and then publicly interrogated by the manager — the entire experience was humiliating. I felt like I, as a customer, was being blamed and attacked for their mistakes. It was not only upsetting to me but also deeply disrespectful to my mother.

To make matters worse, Alena showed no remorse or apology. She just told me to pay and leave. I hadn’t even finished my food, yet I was charged in full.

This level of treatment is outrageous. There was no basic respect, no professionalism, and absolutely no understanding of what good customer service looks like. It’s beyond belief that someone like Alena holds a managerial role.

I left the restaurant feeling shocked, disrespected, and completely let down. I will never return — and I absolutely do not recommend this...

Sadly, I couldn't give more stars than two. The food was lovely and most of the staff were great especially one of the female managers who went to great lengths to make sure our food was brought out in time. I think her friendliness was the highlight of our time there. Our experience unfortunately turned sour. My two year old daughter loved looking at the fish and wanted to explore the restaurant, which I appreciate was not pleasant for other customers and tried to usher her quietly back to our table. However, once my husband left back to the table and we were left alone, my daughter and I were accosted by an overweight middle aged male staff with glasses (likely the same one Sophie Xie pointed out in her review a few weeks before this review). He yelled at me in cantonese for failling to control my daughter and letting her run around the place because it was dangerous. I felt he was able to use that tone at me being a small Asian female hence I felt discriminated against on many levels despite being a medical professional. He certainly didn't point this out when my husband was with my daughter earlier. My daughter and I were frightened ( and I offended) by the experience and we would not come back again because of this. A little politeness from this man would have achieved the same (if not much...