Sister of Soul — Restaurant in Melbourne

Skip past this review if you don't care about gluten free food!

I'm just writing this in the hopes that whoever is in charge of that kitchen will take a moment to think about what I experienced today. I asked for the Halloumi burger on gluten free bread. I was told "we don't have a gluten free burger bun" I said, I don't mind about it not being a bun, just sliced gluten free bread (which I knew they had as it's advertised on the menu!) will be great!" I was told they'd have to "check with the kitchen if they can do that" and outright told NO. I don't know why. It's two slices of gluten free bread with halloumi burger ingredients in between.

Myself and my friends were really dumbfounded at this flat out refusal. I didn't want to embarrass myself or the waiter by asking "why" but I would have definitely appreciated an explanation. How numb in the feelings as a waiter or a chef do you have to be to not know to offer your customer at least a sorry or a "hey, the chef can't do that unfortunately for reasons x, y, z" in a situation like this. I've since racked my brain for a possible reason as to why that chef said no and only come up with two, both of which I can counter. So all in all I'm quite annoyed and the massive gluten free chip I already have on my shoulder (lol) has grown enormously. It's bothersome enough to not be able to eat some food that you would like to when eating out because it simply can't be made gluten free. It's also bothersome to on occasion be told 'oh damn we've run out of gluten free bread, sorry!" but to be told "NO" for no good reason (when there was gluten free sliced bread available because I ate it anyway on a different meal) is just totally infuriating and poor on the kitchen's behalf. ESPECIALLY for an establishment that offers so many lovely options for many different dietary requirements. And ESPECIALLY when that halloumi burger sounds so freakin good.

Perhaps this was the chef's pride talking, and they didn't want their "burger" item served as a "sandwich"... well... I don't care! I was willing to pay extra for gluten free bread to have my damn halloumi burger in GF sandwich form so I could enjoy it.

Perhaps there was some other ingredient on the halloumi burger that in fact wasn't gluten free and I couldn't tell from the menu? if so, it's amazing that the chef knew to not offer it on gluten free bread if it wouldn't fully be gluten free, but for the waiter not to bother to explain that to me, or the chef not to bother to explain that to the waiter shows really poor customer service skills by all. If this was the case and it was explained to me at the time of ordering, I could have made my own decision about moving on to a different option or simply removing that non-gluten free item.

Maybe the chef and team won't care about this review or maybe they will, I just want them to know that this experience didn't go unnoticed today and you've lost a future customer. It could have been handled with much more grace and consideration and that's the frustrating thing, more than not getting to try your delicious sounding halloumi burger.

The scrambled eggs I did have on gluten free bread were also really bland and under seasoned.

But the latte I had was AMAZING. Props to...

It was quite an unpleasant experience. One waitress seemed very snooty & judgy.  Overall they just didn't seem accommodating.  My gf is relatively new to being veggo and also her tastes are quite bland so she essentially wanted a chik'n burger without the sauces, corriander, chilli and onion & was told it was not possible even though they were separate and it's not like it was mixed in.  I asked for her to check and saw her laughing with other staff at the counter, one of whom looked our way which is absolutely disgusting. My gf was told in a judgy tone she couldn't have a satay burger without the satay sauce.  But it's not like there was other burgers to choose from and other choices like tofu and jackfruit are very unfamiliar for her and she's not really a salad person.  She likes tvp but not with the flavours they had.  She then settled for chips.  Admittedly because the chips came out first I ate some because I was hungry.  As it wasn't a large bowl of chips she attempted to order another small bowl and was told they were now limiting chips to only side serves.  I asked if she could have a side serve considering we had ordered 2 main meals and was told no.  So my partner had eaten not even a full small bowl of chips.  By this stage I was so uncomfortable we left early without finishing my meal or ordering dessert.   I remember when even being vegetarianism was tricky.  I became vegan about 25 years ago and there's been times when I it's been difficult and I've just wanted to be accommodated as a vegan. I feel like vegan places should also accommodate new veggos or ppl who aren't used to the food can go there with the vegans in their life.  I'm used to having a hard time in non-vegan places but I'm not used to having a hard time in vegan places. The way the waitress treated my gf made me so uncomfortable we left early without finishing my meal or ordering dessert And actually I feel quite sad because I still get excited about vegetarian/vegan but this place has a very unfriendly atmosphere, the waitress was quick to say things couldn't be done but didn't in any way try to find something my gf might like and seemed very judgmental because my gf simply has bland tastes. I think ppl who have bland tastes should be catered for, plenty of ppl don't like coriander, onion, spices and various sauces and it should be possible to order without, when possible. Over almost 3 decades I've encountered cafes who haven't been accommodating of my dietary requirements and whilst the food I ordered for me was fine, it was awful to experience my gf not accommodated for and then denied more chips when she'd resorted to eating just chips. Also the food was quite overpriced and small We went elsewhere to another vegan cafe where there was much better service and food that my gf actually enjoyed. We most definitely won't be returning. Having now read plenty of other reviews of rude customer service for this place, I feel sad that staff clearly aren't bothered to improve their customer service. I've only given one star because I can't...

Beware! The place is all hype no substance. The decor is modern, but it's very noisy. As a vegetarian I was hoping to enjoy some nice great food at this specialist restaurant, but I was bitterly dissappointed. The service is terrible and they are sneaky with their charges. They have a surcharge for using your tap n go facility, which they don't tell you about until you see it charged when you tap. Btw, the surcharge is 1.4% for Mastercard and I assume for Visa too. Probably higher for Amex or Diners. This on top of their overly priced food. The portion sizes are reasonable, but the taste is poor. I ordered the Nasi Goreng, when it arrived it was burnt and that too did not arrive with the sriracha I asked for as part of the order. The Tofu was so burnt it was like eating charcoal. When I complained, they offered to replace it, but instead of making me another dish, they had the odacity to tell me that its supposed to taste like that because the wok is hot so perhaps I should choose another dish. As if I don't know the difference between burnt and proper food. Anyway, I then ordered the burrito, that was well presented, but it had no salt. It was so bland that I had to order the sriracha to make it better. The fresh juice on the menu, well it's not that fresh. It was just bottled and at $7.50, that's a hefty price. The other dishes my group ordered also didn't taste that great. The burger my partner ordered was soggy even though the food came out quick. The sticky date pudding we ordered seemed like it was store bought. It was extremely sweet and tasted like it had been topped with just sugar syrup. I would be staying away from...