SkyHigh Mount Dandenong — Restaurant in Melbourne

Despite the "Be Kind" stickers adorning the restaurant floor, our Easter Monday 2023 visit to the establishment was marred by a rude encounter with a senior staff named “Deb”.

Seeking shelter from the rain, we brought our dog inside to wait for assistance finding an outdoor table. Deb approached us with a dismissive and disrespectful attitude, scolding my mother for bringing in the dog and showing contempt for our dog. Her condescending demeanour towards us was compounded by gestures of disapproval towards other staff members. It is concerning to think that she may hold a position of authority.

After my mother led our dog outside, I approached Deb to apologise for our honest mistake and explained to her that it was drizzling outside and we were only waiting to be seated outside and told her there is no need to get angry. I acknowledged that under Standard 3.2.2 - Food Safety Practices and General Requirements, businesses must maintain high standards of food safety and hygiene to prevent animals from contaminating food. However, we were not near the food storage or preparation area, our dog was on a lead, and we were waiting for staff assistance in finding a safe place to dine during the rainy weather. I did acknowledge our honest mistake and I apologised.

Despite my polite apology, Deb responded with anger and continued to berate us, accusing us of being irresponsible dog owners. She then banged items on her workbench in frustration. Despite my attempts to diffuse the situation, she continued to behave rudely and inappropriately. Her behaviour was unprofessional, and her unwillingness to apologise for her rudeness left a negative impression on us.

Although I remained calm and professional, I cannot excuse Deb's rude treatment of my family and our dog. As a senior staff member in a highly regarded restaurant, her behaviour was unacceptable and not in line with the restaurant's reputation. Even Ella, who witnessed the interaction, appeared embarrassed and uncomfortable.

Deb’s stress levels may have been high due to the restaurant being extremely busy on Easter Monday, but this does not justify her insulting and yelling at us in front of other patrons.

We did have a positive experience with other staff members though, namely: Ella, Brodie, and Claudia, who provided us with absolute top-notch service and made us feel welcomed. However, Deb's behaviour certainly left a bad taste in our mouths and detracted from what would have been a fantastic dining experience.

In light of this incident, we urge the restaurant management to take appropriate action to address the situation and ensure that such behaviour is not repeated in the future. We recommend that Deb be given time off to reflect on her conduct, as it contradicts the restaurant's values and principles.

We hope that the establishment takes this matter seriously and that steps are taken to ensure that customers are treated with respect and courtesy at all times.

Kindness holds great importance especially in today’s rapidly changing world and...

Since I am unable to directly respond to the first reply, I am left with no choice but to leave another comment. You truly deserve a negative review. For other people who do not know what happened here, this refers to the comment that I was accused by restaurant manager of eating take-out food and being rude.

If you had checked the footage and asked the staff immediately after seeing my comment, you would have easily discovered the truth. But no, you did not. You took 5 months to respond to my comment and use unfounded accusations to try to explain what happened that day. I believe you had gathered enough evidence to support your comment, if not, please do not fabricate the truth to respond my review.

Please provide your evidence that we have eaten take-out food, otherwise stop misleading other customers with false information. We were seated for less than 5 minutes. How could you have issued two reminders, plus a so-called third reminder by the manager? It seems more like you didn’t want to serve your guests and were more focused on monitoring whether they had brought food. The fact is, there was only one time a male staff came to us (your so-called manager) and talked to us. I don't know if he mistook us for another table, but he did accuse us and said we would be asked to leave if not stop eating. All along there were only two times that restaurant staff had come to us while we sat outside. First being the so-called manager came to us and accused us, and the second was the staff served us the food and coffee. No “we were being told twice by the supervisor” and that was the first lie you were fabricating.

You claim we hid the food under the table, but that’s simply not true. There was only dog treat and baby biscuits on the table all the time. This was the second lie you were fabricating. I guess now it was too late for you to check your footages as most of them are only kept for 30 days. However, everything would have been easier and clearer if you had checked your footage after my first review. Nothing was hiding under the table. If you checked the footage, you would see a black dog sat with us. That was what the beef jerky for, not deli food for human. We were so annoyed that we as customers were subjected to such unfounded accusations while spending money at your restaurant.

How dare you accused us for something we did not do after 5 months to comment on my review and tried to blame everything on customers? You keep asking us to respect your employees and follow their instructions. Shouldn’t you be respecting your customers first? Unwarranted blame, rude treatment, refusal to admit mistakes, and fabricating lies to cover up errors do not deserve respect.

Perhaps my first review was too polite, which made you think you could fabricate the facts here to show others that...

Day trip ruined by the Sky High Cafe staff

We had a nice day trip around Dandenong and thought why not have some coffee and enjoy the sunset at Sky High Cafe, to call the day off. So we have a dog and a 12 months baby, we arrived at the Cafe and ordered 3 cups of coffee and a bowl of fries, sat outside so the dog leash can be tied on the balustrade. We took out the baby snack (homemade little cookies for the baby), and a bag of dog snack on the table. 5 minutes later, a Cafe staff (perhaps supervisior) came to us and pointed at us and said " you've been told twice by the manager not to eat your own food here". I got confused and told him we didn't bring our own food. "That's food" he pointed at the bag of dog snack, and "that's food" he pointed at the can of baby cookies.

WHAT?! I understand sometimes outside food and drinks are not allowed for some cafes and restaurants. But baby snack and dog snack are not allowed as well? If that's the policy here, tell us straight and we will leave immediately. That's absurd. I told him it's for the baby and the dog. He didn't care and said if we eat food again we will be asked to leave.

The way he talked to us was so rude. He is so arrogant that the bag of dog snack has a big dog image on it and he saw it, that was dog snack but he didn't care, he didn't want to admit he was wrong even I said that was a bag of dog snack. And he lied. We've been told twice?! We ordered inside, and came outside to find a table, secured the dog and sat down waiting for our order. No one came to us. What do you mean we've been told twice?! Perhaps you told us in your mind without us knowing it?

If you are so confident and have evidence that we've been told twice and we were eating our own food, please I beg you to show it to prove me wrong, I even will come back to the Cafe and apologise to you.

Just to clarify, our baby is turning to 1 year old next week, and we are not ready for her to eat outside food so we bake our own baby snack, just cookies the size of the nail of the little finger. And the dog snack? just beef jerky bought from supermarket. If any type of food, regardless of adult, kids, babies and animals, are not allowed to be consumed here, please let me know. Strange thing is 6 months ago we came to Sky High Cafe, sat inside and fed the baby with formula, no questions asked.

However, later on the waitress that brought us our order was super nice. Nice environment, beautiful sunset and good service for that waitress,but...