Gracious Grace — Restaurant in Melbourne

This place was interesting. Went for Breakfast on Easter Monday around 10:30am.

There is no signage as to whether you are to wait to be seated by staff, or if you just take a seat anywhere you like - but at the same time there are tabled with "reserved" signs on them, so not clear for the customer. I noticed multiple groups walk in after us with the same confusion we had.

The cafe is neat and modern. The decor was lovely, the overlooking deck to the garden surrounds was lovely. The problem with the atmosphere was the "customer management" choices around the restaurant. There was a passive aggressive tone that was shown through notices and signs. For examples: One was on the accessible door at the front which explained that pressing the button would open the door for 90 seconds for accessibility - but it went on to say something similar to "pressing the button multiple times will not make the door close any faster and will prolong it being open", which gave the sign an unnecessary aggressive tone. Another example was all over their menu and their tables about dietary requirements. Instead of just advising customers to inform them of any allergies, they continued on to say that the can NOT (in capitals) list every ingredient and something else I can't remember, but the tone came across very aggressive.

That aside, when we went to order, the server was quite rude and surprisingly very disinterested in my explaining to her about my allergies. She was also unfriendly in her tone and unwilling to make any general small talk - not that that is a requirement, but cafe customer service usually has smiley friendly staff.

The server that brought our food out was lovely to everyone. She has medium brown hair and was attentive and made sure to acknowledge everyone.

The food was very slow to come out, approximately 40 minutes, and yet the cafe was only half full.

The food was stunning and...

We were at the restaurant on Friday 3nd Nov. Several of us had been before ..they had been very pleased on past visits..because of the good amount of GF options.. This visit they felt there were a lot less on the menu to choose from . We noticed that quite a few dishes included chilli in the ingredients.. All of us have difficulty having hot chilli .. We didn't see anywhere that the chilli was optional. (Could be removed). My cousin and I wanted the Potato and spring onion hash etc... Without chilli .. So when she ordered for all of us ..my cousin asked about the chilli . She asked if it was hot or sweet chilli. The person serving told her it was sweet chilli. So she didn't ask them to remove it. When our meal arrived...she tried hers 1st .. she only had a little .she said that I think this maybe too hot for you .. She took hers her food . I tried a small amount piece with the lovely hash . I was shocked at the absolute heat of it .. I had to remove it . But my tongue was burning hot ..even after water ..it still was hot for a long time .... We both keep all the chilli to the edge of the plate . The rest of the food was tasty .. We did speak to a waitress but there was nothing she could ..didn't know what to say .So we said we will speak the manager or send a review... Staff were busy when we left .. So I live a distance away so that's why I letting you know that all staff know the chilli is very hot . Luckily we didn't have serious reactions.. But the experience was not a good one... Considering we bothered to ask specifically about it...we unfortunately were there were 2 groups with young children. . One squealer... And the other table just very noisy. Just bad timing on our part. Perhaps the menu could give people the option to not have chilli .. As it's no mixed in the food . Please could there be a few more GF options . Thank you Rose-Marie...

Update June 2021 (3/5) : I returned to Gracious Grace again and unfortunately was somewhat disappointed. I ordered the lamb gnocchi, side of chips and a vanilla milkshake. The gnocchi itself was extremely soft, almost like silken tofu, the sauce was rich and flavourful making it the saving grace, the whole meal was also only just warm, it certainly should have been hotter if it was just cooked. The milkshake was a letdown, it had almost no thickness to it at all, barely anything more than plain milk with a touch of ice-cream. As for the side of chips they were superbly cooked just like last time with a lovely dipping sauce. I'm afraid that the cause of many of these problems was that the restaurant seemed to be severely understaffed and overcrowded with patrons. I understand there are extraneous circumstances currently.

March 2021(4/5 stars) : A nice modern cafe with some great food but seriously busy around lunch time. I tried the barramundi with salsa in tortillas. To my disappointment the meal felt like a bit of a letdown, it was a simple and basic meal that didn't taste bad but it felt lacking in terms of flavour and ingredients. Although what brought it back for me was the chips which I ordered as a side, which were amazing, perfectly crispy and came with a lovely sauce. I also tried some of the gnocchi with the capsicum and tomato sauce which my mother ordered. This by far was the best dish, the complexity of flavours and the homemade, expertly cooked gnocchi were just amazing. My final point of disappointment was how when I ordered I asked for 2 glasses and a bottle of water, which the lady said she could get, but unfortunately no one ever brought it...