Sugar Buns — Restaurant in Melbourne

I don't get a lot of time off so when I get the opportunity I look to take my children out whenever possible. Today I had my 12 year old son with me so under the recommendation of a colleague I visited Sugar Buns cafe in Hampton Park. I was greeted with a smile by the lovely Kat. She told us there were no seats available inside but we could sit outside in the cold until seats became available inside then she would move us. We were happy to oblige. Usually when this occurs at other places I always like to watch how the staff operate in whether they remember that clients are waiting or if the "out of sight, out of mind" situation occurs. Unfortunately this time it was the later. Approx 15-20 went by and we saw two groups of people who were waiting in line get moved into seats inside. Then our food arrived to our table outside. I commented to the waitress that we were forgotten about whilst we sat outside and could we be moved inside. The slightly embarrassed young waitress spoke to the manager who come out 10 min later with her fighting face and said "Those people had made bookings" and "It'll be 20 min until seats inside became available." Really? Made a booking? The waitress at the door didn't check a book or iPad for the booking. They just moved the clients inside to an available tables. I thought I was watching a Seinfeld episode. (People who watched will understand). I told her we had waited already waited 20 min and seats had become available. Again, according to the manager, they had been booked. Ive been around the service industry a long time and I always know when someone is deceiving me. Even my son picked up on it. I would've preferred them to admit the error and maybe compliment us our drinks and look to rectify the mistake ASAP. Unfortunately this would mean owning up and being accountable. Predicatably my son said he was disappointed and was starting to get the chills throughout his little body so we decided to leave half way through the meal. As for the food, it came out promptly and was reasonably tasty but when you are forgotten about and then lied to the food becomes irrelevant. Were there previous bookings? We'll never know but what I do know is we won't...

I actually hate leaving bad reviews and prefer to support local business instead of tear them down. I get that service and food is not perfect all of the time anywhere. However after my experience today I couldn’t not speak up. Firstly I’ll say I’ve been here numerous times before and they always have great coffee and generous açai bowls. However today I went here with my elderly parents and my two little kids. Kids ordered cheeseburgers and my dad a double beef burger. Food came to the table and my 7 yr olds burger was raw in the middle. We sent it back. While that got sent back my dad bites into his double beef burger and immediately starts dry reaching/gagging and couldn’t swallow it. He managed to eventually get it down (not wanting to make a scene in front of his grandkids) and said it tasted strange. He smelt the beef and it stank. I smelled the cheeseburger my 5 year old ordered and it stank as well (thankfully she hadn’t eaten it yet). All three burgers were cancelled. My dad had to actually wash his hands because of how bad they smelt from touching the meat. When paying, the manager apologised and agreed the beef was off after he smelled it but I can’t help but think what would have happened if my dad wasn’t there to try it first. I don’t eat meat so chances are my little kids would have eaten their burgers, one raw in the middle, and how sick they may have gotten. It was honestly the worst experience. Despite the apologies and knowledge they just served little kids off meat in the kids meal, we still paid 70 something dollars for a croissant, two coffees, chips, two baby shakes and a mediocre sour tasting cauliflower soup that I couldn’t even eat after smelling that bad meat. Our extras should have been free. Sorry to say but even after coming here for coffee and breakfast and açai bowls a few times before, I won’t be back. I’m really concerned about their hygiene here. Even their cake display looked unclean. I honestly would check everything before you put it in your mouth, if you plan to eat here. Really disappointing bc this place used to be great. Sorry to have to write this but if it saves another young child getting food poisoning,...

Very busy on a Sunday afternoon, the cafe was packed and was very noisy - definitely not a great place for a catch up or business meeting where lots of conversations are to take place.

We’ll start off with drinks, ordered 3 large spiced chai (no pictures but the mugs were huge!) which weren’t too bad, and one small cappuccino - wasn’t great, quite weak.

Açai bowl was alright, nothing mind blowing. Do think it could’ve used more fruits though.

Eggs À La Mer was amazing! everything went very well together, salad was fresh and the eggs well done. Brioche French Toast looked and tasted superb! No complaints there.

Smashed Avo Rosti had way too much salad, it was such an odd salad to carb proportion. As you can see, even though there are 2 pieces of (rather small) rosti served, only one had smashed avocado. Even though egg was omitted, i thought an extra rosti would’ve been added as substitute, clearly thought wrong. there was just so much salad which meant this meal could hardly fill your belly. Had to order a side of fries after this.

Service wasn’t great, there were 5-6 young girls who look like they were left to run the place on their own, you can clearly tell that they have had minimal to no training at all on waiting tables. They were running around with our plate of food, confused by the table number. No water was served to our table while most others did, cutlery was put out wrong (one of us got 2 forks, another just a knife), another table had to get their own from the counter because the wait staff were simply not paying attention. They didn’t try clear our EMPTY and stacked plates after bringing out additional food and drinks to us until they were told to. One of the girls ate WHILE they served and also in between serving tables - I think that is absolutely unacceptable and very unsanitary, especially in times of COVID. With that said, i really do hope that management trains these girls because they need to learn at least the basics.

📸 Açai bowl, Smashed Avo Rosti (left out the eggs), Eggs À La Mer,...