Heide Kitchen — Restaurant in Melbourne

Mediocre place unfortunately. It started out very pleasant., They try hard but just can’t seem to bring it all together.

I ordered a basic Rueben sandwich (which mentioned all the usual elements including Swiss cheese) & half way through the first half of my sandwich I felt something was missing? I looked in the sandwich and there was no Swiss cheese.

I informed one of the waiters who took it beck to the chef and was told that there was cheese on it (??) but they’d put more into it for me.

The same sandwich reappeared to me (!!) with “more cheese” … I took I apart again & looked at it and it was a few pieces of shredded cheese (not Swiss !)

I told the events manager the sandwich was a let down but he told me the chef insisted it was right?

While paying a few minutes later the events manager then approached me telling me the chef concedes the Swiss cheese (slices, not shredded regular cheese) should have been on the sandwich (the menu said “Swiss cheese”) The meat was fried also and resembled bacon ! Very big let down from a traditional Rueben !

I then ordered a take away coffee while paying (which the waiter told me yes, she could take care of that for me) and waited (& waited) then asked if my coffee was ready and the waiter who took my order told me there was no take-away order waiting in the queue (????). I said to her, but you took my order after telling me you could take care of that for me, and I paid for it with my sandwich bill?

She said she never put an order in for take-away coffee for me??? Now I was really confused ? I told her that she took my order ? Nil response (blank look)

I then said ok let’s start again, she asked me (again) what coffee I wanted (geez!) I repeated the order of a medium cappuccino.

The coffee eventually came out - and handed to me was what looked like a baby chino ? I asked the guy who bought the coffee out to me if I had the right order as I ordered a medium size?

He told me they only had 2 sizes - small & large.

Far out what a schimozzle of a place !!

I wouldn’t eat there again- I’ll pack a...

This is a nice cafe with easy parking if you are there early. Also, the Heide gallery shop is right across the path, so you can go there for a browse afterwards. Easy online booking and no credit card was required for the booking, which is a big plus. You can also split the bill, which is very handy.

Atmosphere - it's familiar and comfortable. Great air conditioning. Friendly staff. The cafe building fits into the landscape almost as well as the gallery itself does. It makes for good ambience.

Cleanliness - The place looks clean. They have a tempting counter display of pastries and cakes, and these are behind glass - so you know that the food is being kept safe from coughs and splutters.

Toilet facilities - we were there from opening until mid morning. Female toilet clean but at least one cubicle out of loo paper by mid morning. Take your own tissues! Seem to have 1 x gender neutral plus Male and Female options.

Pricing - we paid just over $92 for two good sized breakfast meals (avocado toast + a poached egg and a rosti benedict + a side of bacon, two cups hot chocolate, one mug black coffee, one glass juice). It seemed like a fair bit, but when we checked back on the website today, it does say that Heide Kitchen charges 10% extra on Saturdays and Sundays. So, if you don't want to pay that, avoid a weekend visit. It also charges a credit card fee of 1.3% for Visa/MC and more for Amex. So take cash if you don't want to pay a cc fee. Both things I wished we had checked before we went.

Photos of the menu are snipped from the website; we forgot to take pics when...

Not a good experience from the get go when told upon arrival that a pre-booked outdoor table for 6 wasn't available due to a double-booking, as the staff member responsible for bookings was ill and unable to respond to the mandatory email reservation process. It is not possible to reserve a table by phone. After two staff were unable to offer a solution, a table outdoors was eventually allocated by a third staff member Dan. We found the quality of the dishes ordered was varied: the whole fish and beetroot risotto were very good, the chicken snitzel was tender but lacked flavour, the scotch eggs were similarly bland, the mushroom toasty was overly oily and the garden salads were very basic. We weren't offered a desert menu and there appeared to be only displayed pastries. The table service was efficient and pleasant. We had the misfortune to be seated at a table adjacent to a table for two occupied by a parent, child and dog. The dog was unwashed and smelt strongly and the parent (despite being surrounded by other diners) inexplicably stood up and proceeded to section the child's hair picking out head lice and flicking them onto the floor. We remonstrated that de-lousing a child's head in a public cafe was not welcome. The wire stools upon which we were seated were hard and uncomfortable. We wouldn't return to Heide Kitchen due to dogs being welcome - the strong odour of an unwashed dog whilst eating was profoundly unpleasant. Overall, it was a disappointing...