Mercetta — Restaurant in Melbourne

We are locals and so have a great deal of choice for a great cafe. Decided to try it out and booked for brunch. Great looking menu at first glance. However, they claim to be gluten-free friendly but are just NOT. The only thing I could order was museli or GF toast with bacon/eggs etc. Or mass produced gf cakes which were blahh. So I asked the waitress if I could please have the French toast, made with their gf bread. She wasn't sure and said that she would the kitchen. Her answer was that they "couldn't do it". I asked her why and she said that she had no idea. I had to order a bland cake that I didn't eat. To make matters worse, we ordered three virgin bloody marys which we were charged for alcohol that no one got and didn't order! At the time of bill payment I raised the problem of having nothing for me to order and explained my attempt at getting gf French toast. He argued with me and stated that he thought that they were very accommodating for gf people. I explained that they were not. Apparently the problem was cross contamination of the egg wash! Now really this could have easily been explained and very simply avoided by cracking an egg and adding a dash of milk to a bowl! So the measure of any business is how they handle a problem.... Major fail. Instead of arguing with me he should have taken the opportunity to improve his business having been given honest feedback instead of just walking out and not returning. I really will not return due to the extremely bad attitude of management. In addition this pace is way overpriced and very expensive. I can not recommend this cafe to anyone. Go to one of the other fabulous cafes in Mornington.

UPDATE

Wow, Your reply is just as rude and arrogant as you were in person! I can not believe that you would call me a liar!

At no point in time have you actually " thanked" me for the feedback nor have you ever offered an apology for what was clearly a very bad experience. You have been very dishonest in your response to my review. A better manager would have at some point apologised to a customer who clearly is quite upset about their treatment and not continued to be argumentative. I assumed that we had been charged for the alcohol due to the exorbitant cost of brunch and having never been offered a bill - just a receipt. I have no idea what I was charged for. You have only offered LOW GLUTEN options on your menu which are useless to any true coeliac. That is not a gluten free menu. Not having one cook or chef in your cafe who could have cracked an egg for me to make gluten free French toast is appalling. I did not say that "every one else loved the place". I said that had your menu and customer service not been so bad they would have loved the place. None of us will come again due to your shocking treatment of customers and inability to deal with a simple...

My family and I wanted to have a nice lunch in Mornington, having traveled from far away. We came across this restaurant, and since I have an egg allergy, I opted for the zucchini fritters, which came with an egg for $23—already overpriced, but nothing else on the menu appealed to me. I asked the waitress if I could substitute the egg with a vegan egg that was on the menu. She said she would check and came back to inform me that they couldn’t do the swap because the vegan egg was more expensive to make and would be added as an extra. I understood this, so I asked if the dish would be cheaper since I wasn’t getting the regular egg. She told me no, without offering any alternative solution.

I then asked if they could add anything else to replace the egg, but she insisted it would be considered an extra charge. We went back and forth, and I became frustrated trying to understand why there couldn’t be a reasonable solution. Finally, I mentioned that I would leave a negative review if we couldn’t resolve the issue.

A few moments later, another worker, whom I assumed was the manager, approached and clarified who I was. She then said, "Threatening to leave a bad review is a low blow." She explained, rather abruptly, that they had already deducted $2 for the missing egg, but if I wanted the vegan egg, I’d have to pay extra. I tried to explain that the first waitress had said that the price would remain the same and hadn’t offered any solution, which is why I mentioned the review in frustration. The manager, however, kept interrupting me and was more interested in arguing than solving the problem. I actually had to tell her to stop talking over us, while all the other customers stared, I was mortified. If the original waitress had mentioned the deduction, there wouldn’t have been an issue.

This manager never gave me a chance to explain myself and showed no compassion—she simply found out who I was and began interrogating me. I rarely leave negative reviews, because I know how much it affects businesses, but this was the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced. I’ve worked in retail and hospitality, so I understand how challenging it can be, but this was unacceptable.

After that interaction, we were in a terrible mood for the rest of our wait. None of the staff acknowledged us, even though other tables were being checked on. We ended up waiting about 40 minutes for three small zucchini fritters, with half the plate filled with bland coleslaw. What should have been a beautiful weekend in Mornington turned out to be a major disappointment.

The manager needs serious customer...

Went here with family for mums birthday and I have been here before but it's been a long time since my last visit. Walked in from back entry/exit and was surprised at how they have set up the tables and chairs and their are alot many people can be here at once with the option of outdoor front and back seating which for this time of year is a great option. We sat down and as we started to look at menu a waitress came over and asked if we would like to start with drinks as we look through the menu and we did want coffees and I thought that service is perfect as a coffee while I look through menu is a great start. We picked our meals and the service is very good and all the staff are happy and friendly and that's great from a young staff group. When we arrived I noticed not many customers but that quickly changed and when we got our meals the restaurant was nearly full and that's around 10:15am. The meals were great and my breakfast burger was very nice and would definitely go back for that again or something different from the menu the rest of the family also enjoyed their meals. I will point out one thing that is not negative but definitely surprising as I've never seen it, my mum said she want a stack of pancakes for her birthday so that's what she ordered with the usual toppings for pancakes but when it came we were all so surprised at the extra topping it came with that was not mentioned on the menu and that is alot of fairy floss on top, mum did say it's my birthday so I'll give it a go and she actually enjoyed it but couldn't eat it all as there was alot on top so the rest of the family helped to eat it and was nice but very sweet. overall a very nice experience and lovely food and coffee and will certainly go back. I definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone who wants a good meal and atmosphere in Mornington, it's opposite the post office on...