Lux Foundry — Restaurant in Melbourne

Lux is the closest cafe to my house so I go there often (when desperate) and am consistently upset that I paid so much for such underwhelming coffee and food. I went again today and it was so bad I knew I finally had to write this review. SO...

The eggs Benedict are a joke. I don't know why some reviews suggest it's good. No shade, but maybe those people don't actually like eggs Benny? Because this was NOT eggs Benny. Starting with the most important part: the hollandaise. The sauce broke my hungry heart. There was only a tiny amount (on both mine and my partner's) and it tasted like absolutely nothing. There was a hint of apple cider vinegar.. but that's it for flavour. I know what hollandaise made with apple cider tastes like. I love it. This was not it. It was nothingness. Which obviously ruins the best part of eggs Benny. At lux, i've had this meal twice myself and friends have tried it in my presence. Consistently bad, all times.

The standard Benny is pulled pork. The pulled pork flavour is so overwhelming. It tastes like something that would be alright in a burger etc, but it has no place here. It also has so much oil it made the base layer (sort of a hash brown) soooo soggy. It was just a pile of mush.

The hash brown was thick but tiny. Most of the meal was the pile of pork.

This time, I took another chance on Benny but swapped the pork for bacon (which they charged me for even though it was instead of the pork). It still sucked. A proper hollandaise was needed badly. And even with the less soggy bacon, the Hash brown did not hold up as a base layer.

Finally, there were no greens at all. I know eggs Benny is not Florentine, but a little sprinkle of spinach or something is expected (and would have been appreciated). There was mushed peas below the hash brown but they added nothing except a little colour.

Coffee: Expensive and hit and miss. Sometimes cold. Sometimes burned. Occasionally alright but always overpriced.

Juice: Not freshly squeezed, boring flavours, tiny and expensive. Options were basic and limited.

Notes on service: Generally inattentive unless we are ordering heaps of cocktails. It wasn't busy today but it doesn't seem to matter if it is or isnt - the table water is never cold and you need to ask repeatedly for new bottles. Also weirdly, the water tastes bad?? It's Melbourne . We have great water. Why does this place have yuck water ?

There are two workers that smile and exchange warm greetings to customers and pups but there are way more that ignore small tables and chat to one another rather than meet your eye. Also different servers work on one table, so you can't just tip the ones that have done a great job.

Pets: very important! It's sooooo great they have a large outdoor dining space where pups are allowed. But they don't seem very welcome. The water bowls are never full or often dirty. It was 35 degrees today and I asked if they wouldn't mind filling the bowl for my dog. The staff replied that I could fill it up myself and then walked away. I would have happily filled it (and others) up... But knowing where the tap or water source is would be helpful. We brought our own bowl and water today.

Additionally, it's worth knowing that dogs are often off leash (which is cool with me if your pup is accustomed to that) but there are some pups that need to be kept with their owner as they disturbed other tables and their dogs / kids. At my last visit, one dog (unleashed) snapped at another (leashed). The leashed pup was so startled it pulled it's leash and scampered away. It ran to the train line crossing (which is very close) and luckily got caught by a kind human on the other side. The poor owner was so upset. I know it's not the dogs fault as the owner should monitor and care for it. But they really didn't. They thought it was hilarious and the staff laughed too. The other owner looked super uncomfortable. It was weird.

Ok that's it. I hope this helps someone. Please tell me where you get your fav eggs Benny in...

Worst brunch experience from start to end. This is why: We cheerfully walked inside the cafe and were excited to try it out. No greeting by staff, and had to wait for them to finish their conversation until they finally acknowledged us and nodded in the direction of where we should sit (not the most welcoming but we didn’t think much of it) when taking our order, the waiter failed to mention at the beginning that two of the menu items were sold out, unfortunately for us we happened to choose those two items, and he told us he was hoping we wouldn’t choose it. Is it not standard cafe etiquette to warn us at the beginning which items are unavailable so we wouldn’t waste our time picking it??? he did say sorry which we appreciated, but we needed more time to re-consider the menu, he said he would be back in 2 minutes but never came back. A long wait later we waved at him directly to signal we are ready to order and he ignored us and walked past. We then waited 5 more minutes for someone to serve us (bear in mind it was very quiet and all of the staff were in the kitchen or till area just chatting). Finally a waitress realised we were waiting and finished her conversation to serve us. when making small talk about the history of the cafe, the waitress gave short, uninterested replies and walked away when the conversation was not actually over. We had only asked how long this restaurant had been opened since we knew it was a stove factory some time ago. my mum ordered a WEAK long black and they gave her a regular long black. When she told them it was a mistake they did nothing about it and she had to ask them for more water. The lady seemed impatient and annoyed. my friend ordered an apple and pear juice, it never came. Yes they definitely heard her and wrote it down but it’s likely they forgot. they recommended my friend a poke bowl salad with salmon which absolutely sucked and she couldn’t finish it. I ordered a wagyu beef cheeseburger, the patty was really raw inside (was still bleeding) and there was an eyelash on my chips... no it wasn’t mine because it was brown and mine are black. cups were really dirty so we couldn’t even drink water. When my mum asked for a new cup because it was dirty the waitress annoyedly got a new cup and didn’t say sorry about the inconvenience.

The only plus side was that my mum’s bacon and egg roll and coffee tasted decent.

Everything else was appalling. We couldn’t finish the other two dishes and it was the worst customer service we have experienced in a long time. The waiters need to get out of their own bubble and pay more attention to their customers instead of talking to each other as if we’re not even there. We were really excited about this local cafe but it turned out to be a real...

Good food, atrocious service (oh and 15% extra public holiday chargefor the atrocious service? a JOKE.)

FOOD: I ordered the Singapore Blue Swimmer Chilli Scrambled eggs and it was excellent! The scrambled eggs were done to perfection and I loved the incorporation of the Singaporean flavour! The bread was toasted to perfection and the prawn was amazing! The only critique I have is that I wish it was a little more spicy!

SERVICE: Where do I even start. First of all please note that THEY CHARGE A SURCHARGE ON PUBLIC HOLIDAYS. Now I know some cafes do and I completely respect that but not only did they not state it ANYWHERE (website, visual menu, PHYSICAL MENU or even on their ig). I only found out once I was done with my meal and went to pay and saw that it was a 15% surcharge. And not only was there a surcharge, their service on its own was absolutely terrible. When I walked in and waited tor a table, 4 servers saw me and the one to seat me was a really unpleasant one. Then when I went to pay, I gave them the CORRECT seat number and apparently the cashier insisted I was wrong when I wasn’t so.... cheers to that.

Overall, I was super excited to try Lux Foundry as I was really craving some good scrambled eggs. The food delivered and the food deserves a 5/5 alone and in all honesty, if there was a surcharge I would be completely okay with it but it’s the non-transparency that makes me feel almost scammed. Sure, you’d like to pay your staff well but also make sure your customers know what...