Mamma Lina's Bar Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

Unfortunately my wife and i are done with this place. Have been coming here religously for almost a year. Every weekend even sometimes both days for brunch. Have spent so much money there. When the owner is there we receive great service. Also the waitness Emma left and she was the reason we kept coming back. Ive always made excuses for the issues we have time and time again. Rude staff (other than Emma and another blonde girl, shes great) food is completely inconsistant. Things constantly missing like the fetta. I always have to ask where is the fetta. Today was the last straw. Sat down and was greated. They know us there. Ordered a Capachinno and Mamalinas Sundae with a bottle of water for the table. Latta came out and thats it. 10 mins later i asked if we could get the bottle of water. It finally came. Glasses were full of tissues they had used to clean them. Then we ordered breakfast. Breakfast came and mine had plastic in it. I was over complaining so i just moved it to the side. Then asked what happened to the Sundae we ordered. I heard a girl say if you dont know how to make it ill do it and they rushed it. Came over and looked and tasted aweful. We have had it 4 or 5 times before so know how it looks and tastes. The girl who is usually rude made it and just put ice cream in a glass with whipped cream all over the top. It was running all down the glass. Totally rushed it and obviously had no idea how to make it. We didnt eat it and didnt pay for it. Left so disappointed as now need to find a new place to spend our money. Sorry Mamalinas but you really need to train your staff how to be friendly and give much much better service. Bring Emma back and she can train the rest. One girl in particular should not be allowed to talk to staff. I have a feeling she is family with the owner. Just an impression i get. Usually works the register and is always rushing and comes across so full of herself. We cringe when we walk in and she is serving. If shes important to your business keep her out the back please. Best of luck im sure you do very well with your regulars who are loyal but we tried for a year and just cant justify spending our hard earned money in a place that gives poor service, is expensive for what you get and has rude...

I will never go back so disappointed with the service. Staff were terrible- they pointed across the restaurant and said your table is that one over there, we had to follow up on drinks we had ordered twice to which the second time they said It don’t know where they are’ after our meal they threw out a risotto that we’d asked to take home when we asked what had happed the waiter just said yep I threw it out - No apology. Then the waiter spilt aoli all through my partner’s hair, on the back of her top and on her jacket. We had to ask for napkins as there was no offer to help and he said well you’re lucky it could have been worse. We asked for the manager and explained all that had happened and she said well I’m sorry but let’s move on and when we said the service and treatment had been terrible the manager said the waiter was just ‘off the boat’ and didn’t have good English and we should be considerate of that - lucky we didn’t have to tell him about any allergies. Unbelievable. No attempt to rectify the mistake. We insisted the manager do something there was aoli all through my partner’s hair and now large oil stains all over her top and jacket. I said I would post a bad review and the manager said I could do that. She also asked we talk quietly at the register rather than at the table so her other clients couldn’t hear - I suggested they were entitled to hear how poorly she was handling the situation. We finally had 15% taken off the bill but the way the manager (and her father who I guess is the owner as he made the decisions) managed the situation was disgusting there was no effort or attempts to fix the situation and we really had to push them. Terrible terrible way to run a business - and they’ve now lost me...

Very disappointing experience, glad to know never to go back here.

We went to brunch there this morning and were ignored when we came to the door. People who arrived after us were seated before we were. We checked in and were told to take a seat wherever we pleased. We waited 10 minutes to get a menu and then we’re rushed to order after 2 minutes of looking at it. We ordered a coffee, juice, and two meals. After 30 minutes we got our food, and were waiting on coffee/juice still. The juice came eventually and finally got our coffee as we finished our food so requested a take away cup, which took another 5 minutes to come to the table.

The most disappointing part of the experience was the way the female, senior members of staff spoke to the young, school aged looking man who was working alongside them. It appeared to be one of his first shifts or as if he was still learning the ropes of the job. They were yelling, rude and demeaning towards him and in front of customers as well. Good on him for putting up with them, I know if it was myself in his shoes I would’ve walked out and...