Green Refectory — Restaurant in Melbourne

This is the worst cafe I have ever been to. First of all the place is a complete mess, tables were left completely filled with food and drinks for the entire time we were there without being cleared which led to pigeons eating the food off of the tables. The outdoor seating was disgusting the first place we sat there was a massive water leak that soaked through our shoes, a pigeon pooed on my friend, there was dirt falling from the planters above us that got all over my food and there was a weird petrol smell where we were sitting. Second the staff were actually horrible to us. They brought out the wrong food for me and then didn’t understand that we ordered full english breakfasts so we waited like 40 mins for food that never came. by the time the situation was addressed the waitress lied about bringing us the food and so we no longer wanted to stay because of how rude the staff were and the conditions of the restaurant. I asked for a takeaway bag for my food twice and had to wait 15 minutes. I then ended up getting up to ask for a takeaway bag and the waitress handed it to me and then walked past me again and said under her breath “not her eating half her food and asking for a takeaway bag”. just completely unnecessarily rude and the reason I didn’t want to finish it was because of how we were treated. to me personally i feel like asking for a takeaway bag is a very reasonable thing in a cafe. Anyways this is a horrible restaurant and I would never go back or recommend...

4/5 One stop shop for all your brekkie cravings. If I lived in Brunswick I’d be here for 2/3 of my main meals. Such a huge selection of pies, sausage rolls, sweet & savoury muffins, frittatas, brekkie rolls, even sushi, as well as a huge shelf of cakes, cheesecakes, vanilla slices, tarts, vegan polenta cake, brownies, etc. Price is about $5 each single sized pastry, you don’t find that anywhere else at bakeries these days.

I’m a pastry girl for brekkie so opted for the chicken, leek and mushroom pie as well as the beef mince pie.

Grabbed a beef sausage roll too. Everything was bloody delicious. It had that authentic taste with their homemade mince onion veggie mix in the sausage roll and beef mince pie that wasn’t the best but hits the spot. Shoutout to the pastry, i did see they used supermarket pastry sheets (idk if for the sweets or pies) but execution was superb with its flaky crumbs all over my lips. RELISH is recommended - so sweet and zesty, perfect condiment.

Had their cheesecakes (rhubarb one pictured only), but the rhubarb top is weird and stringy. I prefer the blueberry or lemon curd cheesecake. Defs would love to find the perfect timing to grab a sticky date cheesecake bc they are never available when I crave it.

When I have time, will sit in to grab their bigger lunch/brunch dish options but takeaway options is still relatively fast despite the huge queue.

Food: 4/5 Value: 5/5 Service:...

I had no problems ordering my gf and egg-free birthday cake online and also spoke with someone friendly and helpful on the phone before pick-up date.. I was due to pick it up at 11.30 on Saturday morning. I get there at around 11.45 and am told, after she'd checked, by a not-very-friendly member of staff that they 'were working on it now' and she didn't know how long it would be. Had it not been so crazy busy in the teeny, tiny café, I'd have asked her to find out for me how long. I went back after about 10 minutes, after having seen a few people walk out with their cake boxes, to be told by the same friendly(!) person that no, they haven't brought it out so no, it's not ready yet. Great. Sorry for wasting your time then eh!?

I must have come across as a little annoyed when I went in for the third time, and this was after over half an hour's wait. A (different) member of staff went to check and came back with a box and handed it over to me. No apology. No confirmation of the type of cake, no opening the box to show me and no ticket on box. Hmm.

Cannot fault the cake on taste. It was incredibly rich and tasted great for a gf and egg free cake. All enjoyed it.

However, I am not sure I'd be back, purely based on the customer service. I've never been here before but it is clearly a very popular place and has great reviews so it must be doing...