La Vallee Cafe Essendon — Restaurant in Melbourne

I refer to my group visit today (27/03) and dealings with a male described as mid to late 30s, black framed glasses and bald head.

On arrival, we made it very clear that a group of 5 us were wanting to sit at a table. We were waiting for one of our friends who was yet to arrive.

The booth was suggested where we just added an additional chair on the end to save us from squashing together with the permission of one of your team members.

The above said male continuously would pass glares at our table as if he wasn’t making sense of why we had the additional seat when one area of the booths was vacant. That area was deliberately left vacant for our friend who was due to arrive shortly after. He appeared irritated by this arrangement constantly staring as if he wanted to say something given his inability to interpret the logic behind what was arranged - let’s be clear, there wasn’t any one invisible sitting there, we were quite aware of the space left for our friend who was due to arrive at any minute.

As we were taking photos, the same grown male interrupted us and asked “whose bag is this?” quite abruptly. I said “it was mine” to which he replied “move it, it’s in the way” to which I said “just a second”. I had literally left my bag to the end of the table beside me on the floor for a quick second to have a photo being aware that there was nobody passing by at that period. I didn’t appreciate his hostile approach.

After we placed our order, he brought everyone’s drinks and told them what they were then just put mine in front of me quite firmly without saying anything further. Being over his hostile nature, I clarified with him “whether it was extra hot” to which he confirmed it was.

Although presenting himself as a manager, this grown male lacked any proper customer service skills and dampened what was supposed to be a reunion amongst loved ones. Let me make it very clear that I have been known to walk out of restaurants when customer service hasn’t been there especially when I’m nothing short of amiable myself. If he’s disgruntled with working on a Saturday morning where I’m sure penalties would exist, then perhaps he should do us all a favour and stand down as if and when I visit your store next, I will be refusing him the ability to deal with us due to his arrogant and demeaning attitude.

We have spent some $150 between us which let me remind you, can be easily spent at one of your...

Visited La Vallée on Friday night 27/06/25 and unfortunately left feeling quite disappointed. For a busy evening, the dinner menu was surprisingly limited with not much variety to choose from But what stood out even more was the clear lack of staff ,there was only one waitress managing the entire floor. She was left to seat guests, take orders, serve food and drinks and clear tables. The poor girl was clearly doing her absolute best but was run off her feet. As a result there were long delays with service and we even had to flag her down just to place our order. This isn’t a reflection on her performance, she was working incredibly hard but rather on poor management. What made it worse was seeing a man standing behind the counter not lifting a finger to help while the waitress struggled to keep up. Then came the most frustrating part at 8:30pm, we tried to order coffee only to be told that the coffee machine had already been cleaned and was out of use. This was incredibly disappointing, especially since the restaurant is advertised as open until 10pm and there are still guests eating in the restaurant. No one gave us a last call or any kind of warning. On a Friday night cutting off coffee service that early without informing diners is unacceptable. We did manage to order a dessert from the glass cabinet but even that was a letdown as the dessert was clearly not fresh and the taste confirmed it. This experience left a bad taste in our mouths, not from the food but from the overall lack of care and customer service. It’s a real shame because the atmosphere had potential and the waitress deserves credit for holding it all together on her own. With poor menu variety, mismanaged service and an early coffee shutdown without communication, my table of 6 will not...

My Partner and I have been coming to Creme/La Vallee for a very long time(years) I'm very sorry to have to say that this place is going down hill. This used to be our favourite place to go too. We keep going back thinking it will be better today.... But lately,Quality Of Food/ Shortages,Frozen Butter and small plates is not right! And to top it off. I was not happy with my Tropical Squeezed Juice🧃 I'm not joking,I had 5 sips and it was gone. The ice they put in it was 3 quarters full in the glass. First I ordered a Mango Smoothie. The waitress came back a few minutes later and said they don't have any mangoes🥭So I said ok. I'll have a Berry Smoothie. She came back a minute later and said they don't have any berries🫐🍓I was shocked. Apparently the supplier told her they won't be having any fruit /berry supplies for around a Month!! When we finished. The Waitress came to take my glass. I showed and told her about the ice🧊 All she said was Oh!! At least let Whoever made my drink know what is going on. It's like she didn't care. I will say there are a few nice waitresses there who be nice to us when we come there. They will know who they are🙏🥇 I Thankyou all very Much And My Favourite Chef. He knows who he is too👍 Please try to fix these problems as It is not...