Light Years Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

Nice decor and visual aesthetic, decent but not amazing coffee, unfortunately poor service. None of the three staff on shift (including the barista who I presume is the manager/owner) seemed very interested in serving us - we weren't given menus when seated despite saying we were there for food and drinks so I had to get up and grab them myself (a small gripe admittedly, but in hindsight it did set the tone for our visit). I decided what I wanted and put the menu aside to make it clear I was ready to order then just sat there unable to get anyone's attention despite them not being busy at all (maybe 3 or 4 tables in, all already with their food delivered so nobody in front of us waiting to order). I'm not going to raise my voice or wave my hands around to be served, I expect staff to check in on me. One staff member was engrossed in cleaning tables and chairs which is fine at quiet times, but not at the expense of leaving customers hanging. After being ignored for more than a few minutes I decided that I wasn't going to spend my food money there and just ordered a coffee instead. The waitress seemed confused as to why I'd changed my mind about food and I didn't have the heart to criticize her as she was clearly very young and inexperienced - I'm not into belittling people when I don't get my way, that's bad form. I just told her I'd changed my mind and left it at that as I didn't want to traumatise the poor girl. Overall a bit disappointing considering I'd walked past the venue earlier in the day, noticed it for the first time, liked what I saw and bothered to come back with a friend after walking past many other venues on Burke St. The food menu did look nice though, and if I had something that was really good then this would be a 3 or 4 star review instead of 2, but as I've explained that didn't happen. Maybe I'll give Light Years another try one day, but based on what I saw today I'm not super confident of a better result. Melbourne hospo is really struggling right now with a massive skill shortage across the entire industry. It's quite concerning how quickly standards of service have devolved. Fine dining will never go out of style, but I do wonder what the future holds for casual food establishments like cafes...

So very disappointing.

Having been here a couple of times and experienced extravagantly presented, quality food. I decided to take someone to impress them with the WOW factor.

We ordered the "Croquette" & "Avo Smash".

The Croquette meal was just overall just so bland and tasteless, and the salsa (also bland) was refrigerator cold. The only flavour was the additional $5 Beef & Red Wine sausage, but it was very over cooked.

The Avo smash, the only thing actually fresh on the whole plate was the toast. The pomegranates were almost brown, the lemon wedge easily days old and the avocado itself tasted FIZZY.

The "Fresh" orange juice was actually the worst orange juice I have ever had.

Overall presentation of both was no different than any other average brunch place.

Very Expensive for what it...

I am writing this review to provide feedback on my recent dining experience today 23/03/2025. Unfortunately, it was not up to expectations.

Firstly, there was no greeting upon arrival. The coffee was average, and the meals were well below average. The chilli scrambled eggs had very little to no chilli, and the pork belly benedict was only lukewarm, suggesting the ingredients were reheated in a microwave, additionally, the pork belly was dry, one egg was over poached while the other pouched egg was cooked perfectly.

The waiter came across as very cold, as if he didn’t want to be there. He wasn’t able or didn’t want to split the bill for us.

A greeting with a smile goes along way!

I hope this feedback will be used to improve the quality of your food...