Hunter Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

We found this place with all so amazing review's and drove out of the way to have our meal there only to be informed that they are just doing take way only. Fair

It was getting busier, which is good to see. The menu is pretty decent with choices to make.

With high hopes, we ordered following ;

Peanut Butter Latte ($5) : Highlight of our meal, very tasty, pic uploaded separately ; in eco friendly glasses which is good. The subtle taste of peanut butter just makes it a tad bit malty to give coffee that enhanced taste, beautiful.

Satay Tofu Bowl 🥣 ($16) : Pretty decent serving of the bowl, scoring high on presentation and eco friendly take away bowl, good chunks of tofu fried and had a good whizz of satay sauce and loads of veggies with different textures, well done. We were provided with serviette, 🥄 and 🔪 , however we wanted to return knife and asked for fork, which they don't keep....Lil tricky to enjoy meal without it.

Shawarma ($21) : While ordering shawarma, we were asked by the order taker that if we want Feta/Olives and other one option (can't remember now) in our shawarma, which we thought is a part of it. We chose Feta and the lady said okay. After ordering, we made the payment by card ( There is a small sticker next to the EFT-POS machine which has listed card surcharge ) and waited outside patiently for our order and making way for others to order, only to notice that we got ripped off an extra $4 for choosing Feta. I was a bit confused that the lady who took our order did not mention that chosing option would incur separate charge, how rude is that you simply trick customer with this uncanny way of service, not cool. It was a spoil sport moment for us but we didn't let that effect us as we did enjoyed our shawarma, which had mock meat in it. But unfortunately that's not even mentioned in the menu and we just couldn't imagine that what if we had ordered all 3 options, we would be getting on one of the most expensive Shawarma in Victoria.

We love to support our local eateries who must have coped it hard ever since the pandemic started but we do value our hard earned money and would appreciate that the order taker has courtesy to atleast inform people of extras before charging and start wearing mask (goes for all the staff) and follow DHHS rule to ask customer to wear masks and do check-ins would be good for community...

We travelled from far with high hopes to get some lunch but I'm sad to say this cafe was quite a disappointing experience. I felt the food offered was mediocre - lacking flavour (did not get the chance to try the menu as it was not offered because we arrived at 2.15pm so had to get the premade wrap/sandwich) and the service was the worst part, the order was taken just fine but upon receiving the food we were told its take away only as store will close in 30min, and there was no place to eat outside the cafe. I'd have appreciated if we were informed earlier so we could have gone to another place. It hurts me to leave such a review for a plant based cafe as there aren't that many of them but that was my experience from the visit. I hope the cafe owner improves their service or at least change opening hours on google so people don't bother arriving after 2pm and leave...

It’s hard to give this place more than 1 star after having an anaphylactic reaction to their sausage roll.

I just read another review 2 years ago that went through the exact same situation.

I ordered the sausage roll and a smoothie, asked about nuts and was told there would be nothing, checked the case where sausage roll was being stored and noticed no additional signage or labelling.

Imagine the disappointment when I got home and had to go to the ER straight afterwards, after calling up the lady told me it was a walnut sausage roll.

I love the progressive nature in which our world is heading but when did we enter world where sausage rolls (clearly labelled sausage roll) is missing the sausage element for WALNUTS.

Poor labelling and poor communication you’d think because it happened once they would fix this....