Montano's Patisserie Cafe. — Restaurant in Melbourne

We ordered staff lunch here about 3 times. Twice we ordered Spartan platter and/or Grazing board. Every time, although the food looked nice and inviting but was very very SALTY!! I am normally like my food a bit on the salty side (to some people), but I could not even handle the saltiness of their food especially the koftas, or any food that made of mince. Those ended up in the bin. Thought of calling up to tell the owner but thought it might be the one of mistake of the chef. But after the second time and reading some of the reviews on here, we were sure that's how they seasoned their food. I am amazed how they haven't change the way they make their food given many reviews regarding the saltiness. Other times, we ordered different dishes and they were alright, nothing made you go 'Wow'. However, their Orange flourless cake was superb! I think we would go back for their cakes but not their food from now. Unless they take people's reviews on board and go easy on the salt. The time when I went there to collect the order, they messed up the order somehow and I had to wait for ages. Other times we used their delivery service which wasn't an issue. My boss wanted to add that the person/manager (male) who took his order on the phone wasn't very nice, quite arrogant and not very accommodating when we wanted to add some more stuff to the platter to suit the number of people and requirements (he was willing to pay extra). I didn't want to write a review after the first try because it wouldn't be fair. Now we have given them the third chance and that should be enough for the whole experience. The stars given reflects the poor service and...

Frankly I expected better after reading all the great reviews. M impression is that they are understaffed and/or a little too disorganised for the number of tables they try to service. We dropped in for lunch (about 1:30pm) and were shown to a covered area at the back, we were given menu and a little later a waitress came to take our order. We ordered a wrap and a cappuccino each. All OK so far but about 1/2 hour later the waitress came back to say that they didn't have any of the wraps left. I dont know why she waited but i would have expected she could have told us with a few minutes. I assumed they were making it fresh and that's why we had waited. So, we were invited to choose something else by going to the counter at the front ."..perhaps a cake to go with the coffee that we had ordered..." (and had yet to arrive). So we ordered (and paid for) a cake each that was available and on display and returned to our seat. A couple of minutes later our coffee arrived, and we waited some more ..... about 10 mins later, as I finished my coffee we managed to flag down a waiter to ask what had happened to the cakes....... The cakes arrived shortly afterwards but by then I was firmly in Mr Grumpy mode.

In summary i think you need to book and be there when they open to get what you want it's not the sort of place where you can just drop in a get service. The cakes were OK but not spectacular. We came away wishing we had just gone to the pie shop...

What a shame an unpleasant blonde male server couldn't be nice. My friend and I came with our 5 yr olds. We came in via the car park to the new outside area. We politely asked if we could sit at a table. It was only 1/4 full. We were shocked that the unpleasant blonde male chastised us for not walking all the way to the front door to announce that we were here and wanted to sit outside in the back. Seriously! We've been here several times before and the food is always good and the service has always been good. In fact, they make one of the best vanilla slices we've had. The coffee is normally good but was rubbish this time. New barista? Watery and very weak. Neither of us finished our cups which never happens. Not sure if we'll be back. There's a lot of other cafes that treat their customers with a lot more kindness than we received.

Update In response to cafe response...my experience was about 3 weeks ago. What's your point? Not everyone writes a review the moment the incident happens. I'd be more concerned about how your customers are being treated and the terrible coffee than when they are writing their review. Pathetic. Definately won't be wasting any...