Mr Grumpy's Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

** reply to the nonchalant response:

What’s striking in the response he is using is “humour”rather than taking on constructive criticism. If he cared to re read and acknowledge our experiences as customers for years he would clearly understand the issues raised . To top it off the staff member ALSO confirmed that other customers were complaining about the issues raised re Asian Crispy Noodle Salad. Good luck, please remember humility and being generous wont go astray. At all costs please take my brotherly advice to stop being greedy 🙏🏻. God bless you

This place is living on past merits. I’ll take you back a few years ago when they were humble, friendly and obliging to make you feel more than just a customer. The customer experience was so superior I was left in absolute awe. Today, you are treated like a customer lining up for a freebie! How very sad.

Just recently, I went in with 4 work mates and ordered our usual Asian Crispy Noodle Salad which was significantly different to our previous culinary experiences in that the chicken was now crumbed (had a stale taste) and nothing like the fresh chicken strips we had devoured in awe. To us it felt like the left overs from their Big Bird Burgers left over schnitzel tossed into the salad 🤢

It was absolutely horrendous. Why change something that was so popular and loved is beyond anyone. When I questioned one of the staff members asking why the change? I was responded to with, “everyone is saying it”.

To top it off, this was not one person out of the four saying but all four of us immediately noting the stale taste.

Whilst I can appreciate economical pressures on small businesses like your this is NOT acceptable by any means especially when health is at the forefront!

As for your coffees, I can’t fault them besides the extortionate pricing you continue to charge! Why be so greedy? Remember your business name Mr. Grumpy, not Mr. Greedy!

Prior to all of this, I attended there alone and noted a woman which appeared to be his relative and or mother organising napkins which had fallen to the concrete flooring.

Rather than taking precautionary health and safety measures into practice by disposing of them she merely looked around to see if anyone saw her to pick them up kept doing what she was doing. Her own worker saw and looked at me in shock , her response was utter silence with her eyes rolled, obviously a sign of disappointment that this was possibly “common” practice.

If the above appeases you and you feel the need to attend here by all means do so, but if you value your health and sanity I’d say think...

We went to Mr Grumpy's on a spur and it was pretty bad. We expected something spectacular because of the reviews and it fell extremely short.

The cafe it itself is colourful and well decorated but, that's all I have that is good. It was overly warm due to the overhead heat lamps being on high the day we went, though it was nice to watch the rain fall on the see through roof.

We waited 25 minutes to be served, the waitress was basically asleep while taking our order. She would miss items, repeat back the wrong item and was, in the entirety of our interaction, unwelcoming and seemed to be bored. We understand how busy it can be in a cafe (especially since I have many years working in hospitality), however showing no interest in what your customers are saying and not paying attention to the degree of getting your order almost entirely wrong is saddening.

Next, we waited for our food for 20-25 minutes, concerned that we were not going to get the correct order. When the food had arrived, it was well presented and pleasing to the eye. However, it was overcooked, under seasoned and just plain gross. The eggs benedict had a thick coating of sweet sauce that was foul, not a glaze, a thick and viscous coating hidden under the eggs. The hollandaise was almost broken in texture and tasted like cheap butter. The big breakfast was mediocre. The toast was hard, too hard, felt like i was going to chip a tooth on it (was the same for the eggs benedict as well). The bacon had a strange sweet flavour to it, unknown what it could have been because it was pretty much unseasoned. The hashbrown was pretty clogged with oil, clearly the oil wasn't hot enough when the hashbrown was dropped. Our daughter got their cheeseburger, which she had enjoyed after we put salt and pepper on it (she is six so likes anything with salt and cheese) but, that was awful as well. It was sweet, way overcooked and a mess in flavours. The highlights were the eggs were nicely poached and the onion rings were pretty good, just saturated with oil like my hashbrown but, get past the oil and it has good flavour and a nice crunch. We ordered 2 coffees as well, they were awful. The beans were burnt, the milk was burnt and it was just an awful coffee experience.

For the money we paid, this was an overall unpleasant experience and we left knowing we will never come back. I wouldn't recommend until they fix up their menu properly and learned how to make a good...

Unfortunately I've had to remove my previous glowing 5star review of Grumpy's because after today's experience I most likely won't be going back for food.

In late 2023 Mr Grumpy's cafe changed hands and ever since then it's been a steady decline in quality. It started with little things like not seeing the same lovely staff, no merch for sale anymore and the addition of a very strange water fountain display in the back seating area (which is fine - I understand things have got to change and staff have to move on but it's telling of the decline). Now there's a different menu which is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors which just shows that the new management clearly just doesn't care about this place. I believe the new management is attempting to ride off previous success and it's just not working. Service is now also really slow and I had to do very basic things like get myself water from the staff shelf and set the knives and forks up myself which they used to do. Staff just seem to not carry a sense of pride like they used to.

Finally (and most concerningly) was the fact that after getting my partner's order for a milkshake wrong the first time they brought out another (total 20 minute wait). This second milkshake we discovered had little bits of plastic throughout. I told a female staff member of the plastic and she took it without a word - no concern at all for a person's wellbeing or an apology. We eventually got one at the time of payment where the milkshake was waived from the bill but that was the extent of it. Hopefully this was a case of general carelessness and not retribution for sending back an incorrect order. Food and coffee are still good but it's just really upset me this whole experience.

This place used to be a super tight ship but now this is not the case. So many lovely memories here and hundreds of dollars spent so it's been a good run but now I'll just be coming in infrequently for...