Tea Room — Restaurant in Melbourne

My husband and I went here hearing good things about this place, but we got let down the customer service there was really disappointing, we had asked what time lunch had finish we got told 4:30pm so we though we give it a try, to be seated at a table by saying come here was a bit funny but we let it pass because it was a hot day.

Then we got given menus to find that there was only tea being served, we asked the girl if we could see the food menu and she informed us that lunch had finish, after we had just gotten told lunch was still on.

So once again we just let that pass. So we ordered prepayment tea and a coffee and asked what cakes do they have, the woman then replayed oh you want a cake ? I said yes is that ok ? she had told me that we have to get up and go over to the window to see what we wanted. So we had a look and then we had to wait for a waiter to come over, by this point my husband and I where feeling very uncomfortable, a male waiter came over and took our order we ordered 3 cakes thinking we would get a high tea experience. Once it all came out they had gotten the tea wrong and gave us our 3 cakes on 3 plates. By this point I really just wanted to leave. But we stayed it out as I though maybe they are having a bad day

As we wanted to enjoy our cakes we had no spoons or forks my husband got up and went to the desk to ask for some forks, as he was walking back towards me and the table I had seen one of the girls rolling her eyes, By this point I just had thought to myself stuff this I said to my husband we can't enjoy a nice time out with these people rolling there eyes or telling us the wrong information I said to my husband, let's just leave please we had ask one of the waiters if we could have a take away cup for my tea we were not allowed to have one. I just though oh this place has it all doesn't it. As my husband and I went to pay the manager came over so we could pay he didn't ask how everything went he really just wanted our money. They had no interests in what we had to say as we just said the customer service isn't the best and what had happen to us he just said that he will talk to the stuff. But we had informed him that he was the one who sat us down and told us that lunch was to 4:30pm He then wanted to charge us $40 or something but we just said sorry but we will just be giving you $20 because of how poor the customer service was.

I would inform all my family and friends not to go here there is no point. Just plan bad manger...

ORDERED: High Tea, Non-alcoholic ($69.00pp) Patisserie: 🥯​ Macarons, boutique selection (v) 🍰 Basque burnt cheesecake 🥧 Seville orange curd tartlet, candied orange ​​🍫​ Dulce de leche chocolate brownie Savoury: 🌮 Spiced corn empanada, lime mayonnaise ​​🥙 Duck & membrillo pithivier 🥧 Escalivada tart, farmhouse sheep cheese (v) 🍪​ Freshly baked scones, berry jam, double cream Sandwiches: 🥪​ Egg aioli, pimenton picante, chives (v) 🥪​ Huon smoked salmon, fennel escabeche, cream cheese 🥪​ Jamon cocido, cucumber, mustard pickle 🥪​ Poached chicken breast, citrus, parsley, romesco

REVIEW: It was great to walk around NGV prior to our high tea. We got to go through the free exhibits which was a great activity to increase our appetite while learning more about the culture.

The highlights were the fluffy, buttery taste of the scones with the sweet jam and double cream. You can't go wrong with scones for a high tea, and these were great at filling us up. The poached chicken breast with its slightly spicy spread was wonderful. Wish we had more of this, but nothing wrong with the classic sandwiches.

Next time, I'll need to eat the savoury first!! We went bottom up - which meant by the time we finished our sandwiches and made our way to the savoury food, they were slightly cold. 😔 Very unfortunate.

Didn't like the desserts though. They were too sweet for my taste, and felt like they weren't as notable as the savoury or the scones. Could do without especially when they were toooo decadent - like the dulce de leche chocolate brownie. Just pure fudgy - teeth sticking - and sickening chocolate.

Service was decent. The atmosphere is too casual; with stark bright lighting which case the food in an unappealing shadow, not showing the food off in the slightest. Really funny when galleries specialise in showing off pieces of art. The Tea Room uses bentwood chairs which looked out of place in an indoor, artificially lit setting. Wasn't my favourite interior combination since it felt like a commercial, mass-appeasing...

Hi there

I am bit afraid to leave this experience in here but I gotta tell you what I had an awful experience this morning. My 2yrs baby girl and I went to NGV this morning. After we had a good time in Jean Jullien exhibition, I wanted to buy some nice a cake for her. When we passed downstairs Cafe, it seems to be noisy and too open place so I would love to spend time somewhere is more private. When we went to at tearoom around 10:32am, only one table in the cafe and it's been a while to go there, it looks like only for a dining place so when a host lady turned up, asked her nicely, "can we have a drink". She didn't even look, didn't look welcome as well. She kept checking around the floor(why? Only one table) and checked the her watch(thought big booking coming soon so she would let me know but she didnt), checked the monitor then pointed out the table where is far away from the entrance, "you can seat there". My girl was excited to see all different cakes so let her see and choose before we sat on the chair. We were just happy before she brought the cake and putting this like doggy food on our table. Normally when staff bring foods or drinks, they say "enjoy or here you go" but she put it unpleasant service without anycomment. I am not concerned about the comment, her service manner was really bad. I just tried to understand and tried to not get upset but when another guests coming, they were sitting next our table and that host lady moved the table far away from us. We didn't make any noise(you can check the CCTV, If you want), my baby girl just had lolli pop at the end, she couldn't talk.

I was impressed about babychino, it was good but that host lady seems to get more training. I understand she might face to a lot of international people everyday, she should be more professional in this industry and shouldn't have given the feeling that I am not invited to her...