nature cafe bar — Restaurant in Melbourne

Had a Friday lunch here with my husband, my 2 year old and my bestie. As the token vegan in our squad, and as it was my birthday, I got to choose the location and nature cafe bar was a no brainer. Actual ambience and decor are spot on. As soon as I walked in I started getting new ideas for my own home haha. Chose a suitable table and was quickly attended to with a staff member explaining that when we were ready to order we could do so at the counter. I actually prefer this as I can be quite indecisive and feel a lot of pressure when my server keeps asking if I'm ready to order and I'm like "just a couple more minutes please" (repeat x5). It's also quite convenient if you need to pay separately. A lot of places don't split the bill so this avoids that concern. One of our favourite features was that instead of getting a number when you order you get an animal. Like a legitimate toy animal to put on your table. We got the lobster and you can bet your bottom dollar we took selfies with that bad boy. My husband was super excited to see that they had his favourite soda (Lemmy lemonade) and even grabbed an extra bottle as we were leaving. My friend and I both had a tumeric latte in a mug. I was torn between this and the blue latte but I will have to get that one next time. Anyway, tumeric latte was spot on. I don't often get them as a lot of places just can't seem to get it right but this was perfect. For our meals we all chose something different. Menu is extensive and caters for everyone even my non vegan peoples. My husband had the B.L.A.T minus the avocado because he's a heathen. It looked amazing in it's presentation and he thoroughly enjoyed it as well as the chips on the side. As an American he is something of a "fries connoisseur" so I always take his opinion on hot chips as fact. My daughter had a bowl of chips for her meal because she's 2 and only eats things that are white and carby. She ate nearly the whole bowl which was surprising and a little disturbing. She is also a chip connoisseur so this is praise of the highest order. My bestie had the Korean BBQ "chicken" burger with sweet potato chips. She was very impressed with both the burger and chips. I had the loaded hotdog which I had been salivating over since I saw it on the what's on in Frankston page. I was not disappointed. It was spot on and tasted just like the picture 😂 The onion rings that I normally avoid as no one does them very well were perfect. The whole meal was filling without making me want to curl up and cry for an hour. This is the sign of quality, fresh ingredients for me so massive thumbs up. On departing I got the honeycomb cheesecake and my husband got the snickers thingy (slice? Cake? Tart?). We ate these at home and all I can say is OMFG. They were divine. My husband kindly shared his snickers thingy with me so I can attest to both being the bomb. I also grabbed a vego bar from their confectionary section for later. They have quite an assortment of vegan groceries and perishables which I will return to have a look at another day. My 2 year old had discovered the kids area and toys by this stage and didn't want to give the bandicoot back so as soon as we got it off her we were out the door 😂 Also the entry area doubles as quite a spacious dance floor for toddlers and there is an outdoor area making the whole establishment quite sizeable. I love the layout in general as it is kind of divided into areas while still being open. My daughter enjoyed dancing from table to table visiting the other customers and I would like to thank the couple she stole a chip off for being so nice about her greedy little hand thieving from their table. All in all we had a great lunch. Food was fresh, tasty and well presented for a...

Not impressed with the food on the day of my visit or the menu presentation and choice. Pasta of the day --Ravioli with tofu, spinach, and leeks sounded promising on the board, however the presentation and lack of creativity spoilt a good meal. Unfortunately all the 3 ingredients were blended and stuffed in the ravioli parcels, cooked and smothered in acidic tomato sauce straight from a can, sprinkled with parmesan. What I had thought would appear on my plate would be spinach and leeks cooked and stuffed in small delicate parcels, cooked in a rich vegetable broth, and finally finished with nuggets of golden fried tofu and garnish of baby spinach leaves and sprinkle of parmesan.

Further one seriously has to ask this question of the chef or owners, why the menu pretends to sell chicken on the menu ? Yes we all know it is plant based, look alike however I personally find it unprofessional and offensive to see a vegetarian restaurant indulging in such marketing. Tried the award winning burger and I am sorry to say, it was perhaps a bad day for the kitchen. The so called beetroot bun, lacked flavor, the lentil patty in the burger hardly crisp, and the amount of mustard mayonnaise enough to drown a whale. Accompanying fried chips lacked detail.

So let's look at the positive side, enthusiastic service and friendly waiter. Tried his best to sell some of the desserts lined up in the display cabinet. Hmmm nothing to surprise or interest there. Suggest chef and owners to include ideas of vegetarian cuisine from Malay, Thai, Indian, Vietnam, Japan etc. My rating for this time around 3 stars overall as a lot needs to be improved, please stop using sauces and dips from bottles, and yes conclusively I enjoyed the acai and guava drink. Until my next visit keep chipping away. Master...

I’ve made the trek from Sandringham to Frankston just to eat here on several occasions & it’s always been really great food & just the best friendly, fun service. In fact so much so that I dragged half my family to try it out!

So today I had a day off & decided to treat myself to lunch here. As always, fabulous service AND for the 1st time, there were ‘bakon & egg’ muffins which I’d been hanging to try & were sold out every other time. I had to order one! And the nachos (I was hungry, k 😉). And a coffee. I was seriously excited!

The Good: the service as always & the coffee.

The Bad: damn...the muffin. Not great. Tough muffin, bland ‘bakon’, the ‘egg’ had no flavour & overall, I think the appeal is really the novelty of it. I wouldn’t order it again.

The Ugly: those nachos! They looked AAAA-MAZING. There was generous avo, but it was just in chunks & really bland. Plenty of vegan sour cream & (over)loaded with salsa that really didn’t make much impact, but something in there tasted, well, off. I think it’s the cheese they use. It smells terrible, & when I hit lumps of it, it kinda made me gag. I’ve spent the afternoon trying to get the disgusting taste out of my mouth...& still can’t! I left 2/3rds of it & left really sadly disappointed with my much anticipated (& not cheap at $27!) lunch.

If this were my first time here, I’d have gone with 1 star today & that would have been for good service. But it’s not my 1st time & every other time has been a ripper. So I’m hoping this was a bad day...but as I reach for more fresh parsley in an effort to get rid of that vile taste, I’m not so sure I wanna go back to test that theory...