Tao Dumplings Camberwell — Restaurant in Melbourne

TLDR: Bad food to begin with, but service left us totally dumbstruck.

Was not expecting excellent service from the get go, but you would anticipate to be treated with basic manners and common courtesy when dining out right? To be honest, most other staff were fine, but this one young lady acted like there was some lifelong hatred between us! Thinking this poor server was perhaps just having a bad day, I still remained polite to her during my time there, but this was certainly not reciprocated! Dishes were haphazardly dumped at the end of our table with no mention of what it was. Her attitude wasn't just cold, it was unfriendly and judgemental. Even the way she strutted between tables told me she didn't want to be there.

At the till, I was hoping another server would see me and process my payment but I was unfortunately met with this girl again. I asked to pay for my table and she just shoved the EFTPOS machine at me without saying anything. When I asked whether they accepted cash, she begrudgingly retracted the EFTPOS machine in my face and held her hand up with an okay sign. I waited for her to show me the bill or at least tell me the total so I knew how much to pay. Not a single word came out of her mouth during this entire process until I actually had to ask her what my total was.

I was so utterly speechless and shocked at my experience here. As someone who works in hospitality, I understand we servers are human and have bad days too, but there is still a bare minimum level of human decency you should show. It is not fair for paying customers to be treated with this level of disrespect. It's also a shame that one person's behaviour ruins the hard work of the other staff.

On another note, the place had nice decor and appeared clean. Tables are very closely packed next to each other and got a bit noisy since it was busy. Visited on a weekday lunch time. We ordered quite a few items, none of which were very enjoyable. 'Highlights' of the meal are as follows. Steamed Pork Dumplings were tasteless and bland, had to drown them in chilli and vinegar to get them down. Rock Sugar and Vinegar Pork Ribs tasted like blanched pork with a strange watery sauce (very different to how it's traditionally done). Peking Shredded Pork was too sweet and quite small portion. Even if the food was delicious, I would not be back just to avoid the possibility of potentially being exposed to such atrocious...

Hey guys, The reason why I am giving one star, wish I could give 0 stars, is due to many reasons. First of all the service by the waitress/waiter was extremely slow and biased. There was one lady who solely spent majority of her time with two customer whom knew one and another. We were next to their table and asked to order the food but she ignored us. I legit had to get up and ask one of the waitress to order our food because they were too busy serving other which come at a regular basis. Furthermore, the ambience of the place is very disorientated and I get it, the place was packed with people talking but a group of people behind us produced enough noise to create headaches for the people around who were trying to eat their food yet the waitress did nothing because of being ignorant. Another reason is due to the food hygiene. If you ever visit the restaurant, beware of the dressing(ie carrots and chillis and mints) they use, they store their dressing in dirty plastic buckets which they properly dont' clean. Respect to the one guy who actually tried his best to manage everything but the rest of the employees must be fired immediately. Furthermore, the food apart from the dumplings tasted atrocious. I had severe food poisoning from the 'boneless duck fried pieced', which undercooked for the most part. The dumplings were very good but apart from that the place sucks. Please beware, the place is best for dumpling but their other dishes lacks...

I went there yesterday for lunch and ordered two different orders at the same time. Foods, first order tasted ok but second order tasted really bad, not fresh and bad smell.

Seriously the service was terrible! My orders did not serve together. Second order came after more than 20 minutes of the first order served me. Then while I was eating, just one bit from the second order. A young lady waitress came to my table and asked me if I was finished. She said, “ if you finished please go out as other customers are waiting”. Seriously! I could not believed what have I heard. I thought I heard wrong. So, I asked her again. Sorry, what did you ask me I did not hear you clearly and she asked me the same thing as before, “ if you finished please can you go out as other customers are waiting and there were no seats available and said sorry”. Oh god!!! I have been in many different restaurants & cafes across in Australia as well as in overseas but I never ever met a this kind of customer service in my entire life so far. Very rude, disrespectful and unprofessional. Then I said to her why are you asking me only to leave as I paid these foods and I am also your customer. There were many other customers whom came in before me and finished their meals and still there but she asked me only. So I will never go there again or to recommend any of my friends, families...