Hendriks — Restaurant in Melbourne

Food and prices good, sadly that's where it ends. We had 15 of us there last night celebrating our daughter's 30th. We arrived with a birthday cake and asked if it could be stored in fridge. We were told that they were unable to do so "As it may be contaminated with Covid". This made no sense (or had any scientific basis!) as there was plenty of other Covid related issues they should have been attending to. At no point were we informed that their policy was " No BYO cake ", so we took cake to nearby friends house for storage and then had it dropped off later to celebrate the occasion. Well, that's when the fun really started. . When we asked the manager for plates/cutlery , she proceeded to belittle in an aggressive manner , her staff member that had earlier passed on the story regarding our dangerous "Covid Cake". Still at this point, no mention that any Birthday/ Celebration. cakes were not allowed. We then proceeded to cut the cake and serve slices on napkins. At this point the manager approached our table and in an aggressive manner started telling us that " you can't do that, with Covid you can have us shut down " etc etc. It was not until this morning , when on their Facebook page they posted that Birthday cakes were not allowed , that we had any idea what the issue was last night. Even by Dan Andrews standards, " Covid Cake " ruling made no sense . Had this been conveyed to us at the start, we would have organised to make our way at nearby friend's place and have the cake there. What was supposed to be a wonderful celebration was soured by this experience. Every business has the right to run their operation in any way they like, but it would have been helpful if business chose to actually inform customers of such policies. Having read some previous reviews, this establishment is in some serious need of some proper management and an extensive course in hospitality / customer services. No person , whether they spend $20 or a group that spends over $500, deserves...

Good food, however manager has terrible customer service skills & based upon other previous reviews as well as witnessing her responses to feedback in person, she cannot handle negative criticism which is given to help the business improve. She cared more about us eating our own so called "covid infected birthday cake" off serviettes which we were never told we couldn't bring (only told we couldn't store it in their fridge, which we stored elsewhere at a nearby house and grabbed when we were ready to have it ) than actually breaching legitimate covid rules that could see the business fined or shut down. Manager was not wearing her mask correctly WHILE making food which is a very big concern, in turn this reflected down to bar staff also not wearing masks correctly. Patrons were also huddled up at the bar in large groups not wearing masks or social distancing, given we are in the peak of covid, management needs to control this better before it actually becomes a place of outbreak if it has not already. She then had the audacity to get another staff member (who we feel extremely sorry for as he had great customer service skills under pressure) to run a message to us that we would have to pay $2 per person ($30 total) to eat our own cake, which we would have been more than happy to do if we were provided plates and cutlery, however we were told we couldn't because of covid - realistically doesn't make any sense as the plates and cutlery we ate our meals off came from the same place as where extra plates/cutlery would've come from.. So if you want to have a birthday here & BYO choccie cake, I recommend you go elsewhere as no other bar/restaurant has a problem with it. If you as a business do not want BYO. birthday cakes, maybe consider informing customers of this when they book, as we weren't the only table on the night that showed up with a birthday cake...

Google recommended this relatively new cafe/restaurant as a brekky location, so we tried it out. Located in John St, just outside Lilydale Marketplace, it is in an old auto elec building. Very industrial but neat decor, is surprisingly quiet with little echo, it may be different when it is full of people. Greeted at the door, coffee order taken immediately and menus given to us. Good menu size with choices to suit the majority. Coffee came out in good time, very nice indeed, food order taken, but no water left on the table. Meals arrived in good time, very well presented, ample helping and water was brought over soon after the meals. My fork had bits of food still on it, so it was replaced, I think by the owner, who wasn’t too happy about it. I had chilli scramble and my wife had haloumi with mushrooms. My dish was loaded with onion, which over powered it a bit and my wife’s poached egg still had a bit of clear white and the mushrooms were large champignons, not normal mushrooms. A but disappointing really considering this place is competing with Hutch and Round Bird, the food wasn’t good enough on this occasion for the area. At $47 for 2, it is getting up to the higher end. Has great potential, but not quiet there yet, we will give it another try in...