SOS Cafe & Bar — Restaurant in Melbourne

Myself and 17 friends and associates attended the SOS Cafe X House of Lulu White on a Saturday night for their bottomless dinner offering.

I don’t often like to give bad reviews but there was some decisive and intentionally made bad decisions that severely affected our experience in a negative way. This ultimately left our entire party with a dissatisfying and disappointing Saturday night experience.

Firstly, like other bottomless offerings, the ultimate goal for the patron is to maximise their alcohol for the price they have paid and it is within reason for the establishment to not give out excessive amounts of alcohol to patrons that are drinking unreasonable amounts of alcohol in a short amount of time. However, SOS takes a distinct approach to this by handing patrons with a laminated bright red sheet labelled ‘policy’.

I understand some regulation is of course necessary for this operation but being presented with a list of rules straight away before undergoing a fun dinner event is not going to be appealing for anyone.

Right at the beginning of the night, my partner was embarrassed at the table after being ‘told off’ by the waitress for quote: “drinking her drink too quickly”. Leaving a bad taste in her mouth for the rest of the night.

At the start of the night, I notified our waitress I was not consuming alcohol and was told that there is no mocktail equivalent, this is totally okay but disappointing because there are many other venues that offer mocktails to non-drinking patrons. Instead I opted for a simple glass of water with bubbles or soda water and was dissapointly given a plain warm glass of soda water, I was totally okay with this though as I usually do not get charged for glasses of soda water and after unknowingly ordering 2 more throughout the course of the evening I realised that I was charged nearly $15 for the three regular glasses of soda water.

For the sake of easy reading, the following are other occurrences and grievances:

THE GOOD Food was good and presented excellently, it is obvious the chefs and cooking team has real passion and talent and it was most obvious in the plating for each meal The lighting and ambience of the restaurant was lovely with nice neon lighting decals Drinks looked nice THE BAD Rule requiring our entire party to all finish their drinks before another round was offered. When 2 of our party went to the bathroom and a waitress came around to take our orders for another round we were told that we could not order for them and so they went without a drink for said round. Not enough seats for our party; despite advanced booking we had to slot a few of us in-between others and on the corners of tables. The staff ultimately seemed unfriendly and frustrated by everything our party did The product is marketed as ‘bottomless’ yet most of our party received around 4 drinks, something that is not competitive to other venues offering a similar product. THE UGLY Bathroom had no seat on the toilet and forced patrons to sit on the ceramic bowl Due to the bathroom area being so near the tables the long queue lined up to use the bathroom was basically standing around the end of our table, making it very awkward. No split bills for bottomless. This meant that one person on our table had to pay over $1000 and go through the effort of manually getting transfers from another 17 people. This was only further complicated by the varying amounts of each meal plus the cost of non-alcoholic drinks from those that weren’t drinking alcohol.

If I were to change one thing it would simply be the approach made when directly interacting with the customer; people are coming for a good night out and putting so many restrictions and making the probably otherwise lovely wait staff come across as nagging teachers in a class room is not going to be enjoyed by anyone. My girlfriend has been to SOS cafe more than 4 times in the past, has enjoyed it every time and has kept coming back but this time was so distinctly bad that it has permanently ruined her love...

I have been coming here for three years and have never experienced the treatment and behaviour I have until today, 12th April 2025. I have just left that place and I am disgusted. If I could leave 0 stars I would but sadly there is no option for that.

Staff are rude and condescending and quite clearly do not like their jobs. If you do not want your job and have no passion for customer service, do not step into a customer service/service-focused job. Came here and booked a bottomless drinks package, we had a reservation booked at 6:30 pushed to 6:45, and then when we arrived, my phone had died during the journey there, and I fully understood that I had to provide proof of age so that I can participate in the package, the staff agreed to charge my phone but only for 10 mins maximum which I understood. But within that time I was waiting for my phone to turn on I did not participate in the bottomless package whatsoever, until 7:15 pm.

I started my drinks package almost 30 minutes after the other girls, why did I have to finish at the same time as them at 8:45 pm if I had not gotten the green light, I would have had the right to start ordering drinks and food on top of that. The service in this business is very, very slow, our orders for the main meals did not get taken until 7:15 pm when we had arrived and were seated at 6:45. Another thing to note about the drinks service is that it is a Saturday night is most businesses are bound to get busy and packed, why did it seem like was there only one main bartender rostered to make the drinks while the restaurant was almost full with multiple groups?

When we had asked to start later because I was not able to drink until my ID was verified, we were told that since we booked at 6:45, we could not start later on the bottomless package, completely fair, which I understand, but why did I have to pay the full amount for the bottomless package if the full 2 hours I am guaranteed is not something that is provided.

The waitresses spend more time up at the bar talking to each other in groups and laughing about other customers in the store instead of being attentive and actively serving those in need of attention. To add onto this, I had found a bug floating around in my mimosa and pointed the matter out to the waitress and made her aware of the situation, and her response was, "That's just because there are bugs up on the roof" she took the drink and walked away, and no I was not given a replacement drink, and that was what she had considered being my "last round" so, of course, there was no compensation for that, I find a bug in my drink and now my drink gets taken away, and my bottomless package is also finished so what exactly can I do.

Almost every single time except once, we had to call the staff over and give them an indication that we were ready for the next round. They would all stand at the bar counter with their backs turned to the customers. I understand that bottomless brunch at this location is pretty cheap, so you get what you pay for, but that does not include the rude and slow service experienced unwillingly here.

I understand businesses and restaurants get very busy, so delays are usually expected, but when your service is delayed purely because your staff are standing at the bar in groups having conversations, as drinks are sitting on the counter waiting to be served out to customers, obviously there are gonna be some unhappy parties here.

A small note to add about hygiene here, I saw a staff member here change a bin liner, did not wash her hands at all and went immediately after to serve three drinks to a table group. Disgusting.

I have plenty more I could write about this terrible night at Sos cafe, but I'm just going to leave it as that for now. Also, do not try to hide this review because I know this business regularly responds to five-star reviews but seems to avoid the...

What can I say? Definitely not worth it. Before my meal has even arrived, each and every table in the place was utterly filthy! Sticky on the top and grimy underneath. I go to get a rag (I’m not adverse to giving a table a wipe down here and there especially if the place is unattended which this place was - except for the two Indian looking chaps in the kitchen with virtually zero English skills - again, not a problem or the point). They look at me, I look at them and a fourth customer looking just as ‘patiently bemused’ as the rest of us. I walk to the door of the kitchen- wow! I should have turned around and left there and then! Except I’d already ordered the “Chilly Eggs!” From the chalk board on the street, so I was committed. “Can I have a wet rag to clean the table with please?”, I ask. “Don’t worry, I’ll get the girl to clean it when she gets back” - from manning an outside coffee machine. “That’s ok, I’ll do it.”, I respond. I get given a new chucks wipe and what I thought was an all purpose cleaner. Nope, it was window cleaner; which I only discovered after I’d sprayed the table. Didn’t do a thing to the surface state of the table. The woman returns and I ask her for a cleaner. She says we don’t have anything else. We just use this on everything. Again, should have left but no, I had to enquire further. “Seriously?”, I say. “Yeah, the owner here doesn’t care and is never here, we keep asking him but…. blah blah blah”. After some soap and water the table is at least fit to sit at, but now my hands are sticky, grimy and in equal need of washing. So I go upstairs to the toilet - 😳 Flies buzzing around (and its the end of winter mind you - I haven’t even seen one since last summer). The stench was putrid and guess what? No soap and the the dryer is merely there for visual effect - useless and inoperable. Back at my table the meal arrives, drowning in swine flesh (thick chunky awkward looking slivers of???) Not what I thought I ordered. I take it to the girl and she says, “oh I’m sorry did you want just chilly and eggs?” I didn’t realise there was an option and certainly not one that should have been the default. She takes it back and I pretend to drink my now cold coffee. The second attempt arrives 😞 disappointing. The eggs smelled literally like wet fur and that flavour was only just masked by giant inelegant slabs of raw sliced chilly pieces. I couldn’t finish the meal or coffee. I sat writing this before leaving. Never to return ever again. If you choose to go there, do so at your own peril- SOS 🤣 is exactly what you’ll be desperate...