House of Lulu White — Restaurant in Melbourne

One particular waiter is incredibly aggressive, intimidating, and rude towards women.

My friend, who is a woman of colour, made eye contact with one of the male waiters from across the room. She smiled and gave him a little wave to let him know we were ready to order (we had previously asked one of the female staff members for more time to decide).

This white male waiter aggressively stormed over and said to my friend in a raised voice (so that the table nearby us stopped talking to look over): “Just so you know, if you wave at us, we’re not going to serve you. We’re busy. We’ll get to you when we get to you.” Then he walked off.

What made his behaviour even more shocking was, less that 15 minutes later, a white, male customer sitting at a nearby table gave this same waiter a wave to get his attention. And guess what? The waiter walked over with a smile and served him. Huh.

So is it just women who aren’t allowed to smile and wave at this guy, or was it the fact that my friend wasn’t white that was the problem?

Either way, this entitled white male’s behaviour really ruined our whole experience by yelling at my friend in this way. The owners of the restaurant should make him undertake some unconscious bias training.

Or, possibly, if you are the owner and you’re reading this, save yourselves the effort and just fire him. As far as I could tell, his contribution was more ornamental than practical. While the three waitresses around him worked tirelessly, he spent most of his shift either chatting to the staff or looking at his iPad. He didn’t make drinks, he didn’t take orders, he didn’t help carry food, he didn’t greet people upon arrival.

And in terms of what he was even looking at on that iPad?! I genuinely have no idea. Most of the tables were there for 2hr+ sittings, so it wasn’t like he was trying to coordinate a high turnover of customers like a regular brunch venue. Nor was he using that iPad for orders (because he barely took any).

All I’m saying is that when there are barely 40 covers and four wait staff on the floor, that’s not “busy”, and the owners can probably afford to cut the Professional iPad Holder from the roster. Especially since he is...

Was a mixed experience, we arrived 10 minutes before our booking and the male staff member who greeted us was very sarcastic and gave us attitude. We were made to wait in front of the toilets in the back until our booking started which they did not come and get us, we had to approach them.

At 1:30 our table was not ready, they had to get chairs together and organise the cleaning of the table and setup of the cutlery and glasses. We had booked for 20 people and we had confirmed this over the phone multiple times but arrived to a table of 16. When we asked them to sort out the table they gave attitude and gave the impression they didn't believe us that we confirmed the booking.

One of the glasses given to us to drink out of was chipped, the staff took it away, threw it in the bin and replaced it. The staff did not ask how everything was when we paid the bill of nearly $1000 and I had to bring up the chipped glass with the manager, they apologised but did not seem sincere or like they cared or would do anything to prevent it occurring again.

The food was of good quality and reasonably priced and to our groups surprise they were efficient with topping up and replacing drinks. Not bad for $60 per person (food and drink). The waitresses were all really friendly and professional and provided high quality service. The apparent Manager could improve his customer service skills, professionalism...

I was unable to book the bottomless high tea as advertised on your website so booked a bottomless brunch to reserve the required number of places for the date online. I called twice during business hours and left a message in the lead up to my booking date asking someone to return my call and confirm if the high tea was available. On the morning of my booking I called a third time and was brusquely told high teas were no longer available and asked if I still required the booking and as it was too late to cancel and rebook elsewhere my party and I went ahead. The service we received from the hosts and the food itself wasn’t great or worth the $200 spent. We will not be recommending your establishment to others and on the whole feel quite disappointed as we were let down without time to book something better. I would strongly advise you to update your website to reflect changes to menu options as soon as changes are made. There is no excuse in 2023 to be lazy with technology when it comes to advertising accurately what your business professes to provide. Time spent in your establishment was time we’ll never get back and certainly did not adequately provide the celebratory ambience required for our family...