Sir Duke — Restaurant in Melbourne

Had a strange experience, which I believe the public/owner needs to be aware of. We attended this morning (have not been here before) after attending to personal matters at the post office to get coffee/tea and maybe something to eat. We did not order food as we were put off by the confusion/angst around our drink order. We were served by a girl who appeared to speak OK English and to understand everything we said EXCEPT for our tea and coffee orders. I do understand that some young people do not understand when you order 'white tea', so I patiently explained it was tea with milk. The girl was exasperated and did not know what I meant or had ordered. I had to point to the menu. My brother tried to order a latte and she didn't know what he meant by coffee or what a latte was. I asked if she had just started working (and therefore did not know the menu) at the cafe and she said she had worked there a long time. I then said that I found it weird that after some time, she did not know what tea or coffee was, especially considering it is a Cafe and tea and coffee was sold all day, everyday and is your bread and butter. She certainly understood what I was saying (not sure about the bread and butter comment) and responded by inferring we should go if we had a problem. She also suggested we were racist, which we are not in any way, shape or form. My brother changed his order to hot chocolate as she just didn't understand him at all. Later on, he successfully ordered a coffee by going inside and asking the barista who understood him. A second waitress brought out our drinks and we told her about the strange experience. She was not unpleasant but very defensive of the first waitress. She said she didn't speak good English, but did say she would talk to her. Both disappeared. We confirmed with the second waitress that the girl had worked there for sometime prior to them disappearing. The barista brought out my brother's coffee and asked if we would like some water. We said yes. The first waitress (the non coffee/tea one) brought the water out and was sullen and slammed the water down and glared at us. I own a restaurant. We recently parted ways with our relative who had been working with us for several years over similar behaviour (eg she was rolling her eyes at customers that dared to order a drink, she was super aggressive for no reason, slamming down food and drinks and had an intermittent history of this). I am writing this so the owner is aware that such behaviour is upsetting to customers. This girl needs to learn about what tea and coffee is. Whilst we are sympathetic to a new person not understanding certain words and someone struggling with English, we fail to understand how someone who has worked at a cafe for some time, is incapable of doing her basic job. Even if she happened to be new, surely someone would be with her for training until she is capable of doing the job. At all times we were unemotional, pleasant and patient. There is no excuse for behaviour blaming us when poor service has been given and for being aggressive without cause. If she has worked there for some time, why has management not picked up on and...

Tried these guys for the first time today, & left completely disappointed. Our drinks took quite awhile to come out, but we put that down to it being quite busy, & thankfully all the drinks were quite nice (aside from flecks of something brown floating in our water caraffe).

Unfortunately, our food took almost another half an hour. Once we realised tables that were seated after us were getting their meals before us, we followed up with the wait staff. Our food then came out immediately, however all dishes were likewarm. I ordered the sauteed mushrooms dish which apparently had a 'vegan option'; I assumed this meant they had a dairy free alternative to the ricotta, however they just removed the ricotta from the dish without deducting anything from the price - I hardly consider that a 'vegan option' when I could've just asked to remove this myself.

I also asked for the sauteed greens as an add-on, however they came out seemingly steamed, without any flavour or seasoning (mind you, they were $5 extra). I told the waitstaff my meal was cold, so they took it back to remake it; I also explained the greens did not appear sauteed & were flavourless. The waiter then stated that 'they were cooked in a pan, & are usually cooked with butter, but they had to make them vegan; & they had added salt & pepper' - this left me quite confused as the menu clearly states the sauteed greens were 'vegan', & I because I had added the salt & pepper myself! - this also then left me unsure about what they used to sautee the mushrooms??.

Once they brought my food back out, it appears they overcompensated on the sauteed greens because the seasoning now left my mouth tingling. For some reason, they also elect to smear the cannellini puree on the plate, leaving the toast totally dry. I'm not typically one to waste food, but I could not finish this meal.

We informed the waitstaff of the issues with our meals, & that we would not be paying for mine; while they comped my dish, they were not very sympathetic or apologetic, & collected our plates without further comment.

What's more, despite a sign on their front door indicating they had heating, I found myself shivering in my seat. I left with a sore lower back from the cold, & an empty stomach. Judging by the various other reviews mentioning cold meals & uncaring staff, we doubt our experience was a one-off & we won't...

Used to come here often as a local and would rate the overall experience as being 4 star on average.

However as of late, I have been left disappointed. Wait times were excessively long. Waiting over 35 - 40 minutes for coffee.

Ordered a bowl of chips and calamari on the latest visit. Waited over an hour for the food. Chips came cold. Calamari was lacking flavour and very greasy.

The Waitress ( same waitress I had twice) who allocated our seats, on both occasions was not inviting. It seemed to be too difficult to allocate a seat. I understand density limits at the moment but a simple ‘ yes sure, let me take a look what I can do for you’ would go a long way in terms of customer experience.

If I do come back, I’ll update review based on experience.

Response to business owners response:

Hi, thanks for your response. I understand the difficulties with the current climate. However this has not been one negative experience. It’s been the last 2-3 visits, hence why I felt it was necessary to write the review. If it was once, I wouldn’t have written this review as it would by atypical of my experiences here and most likely a once off.

Will update review if I have a better experience when visiting next...