The Garden of Good & Evil — Restaurant in Melbourne

I booked for 2 people on a Sunday night. It wasn’t very busy anyway so we were able to walk in. They have a really nice courtyard/outdoor area which is shaded.

We ordered small plates, then a paella to share. We ordered the baba ganoush and bread to start. It tasted amazing, bread was soft but crunchy in all the right spots. Very fresh. Next came the jambon and we had this with the bread and baba ganoush. It all went together really well. The jambon was thinly sliced and wasn’t too salty (which I was worried about). We ordered cocktails - a plain mojito and the strawberry daiquiri. Both were really refreshing- mojito was stronger than we’re used to but it was fine. The daiquiri wasn’t too sweet which was nice. I wanted corn so I ordered this for myself - it was so good - the chipotle mayo went so well with it + the cheese. The last two were the snapper croquettes and the lamb cevaps - the snapper was probably my fave of the evening. Amazingly soft and the aioli that came with it was perfect. The cevaps were also really soft and cooked well. The pickle was sweeter than we would have liked but overall it was good. Last dish was the paella with chicken and chorizo - rice was soft, flavours really nice.

Overall we spent about 155 all together - This was reasonable enough given the ingredients in the food we were having, and the drinks.

Loved everything. Staff were great - attentive and friendly. No...

Went for Mother's day dinner tonight with my husband and my son and daughter inlaw..ordered our meal ..being Tapas you would think plates would come out one or two at a time ..our first Tapas plate Bravas potatoes came out an hour after we sat down..followed half and hour later by chorizo ..then pork belly and corn..they forgot our drinks and had to be reminded ...my daughter inlaw and i decided not to wait for the final dish to come out which was the sliders but to order the dessert which was the Lava cakes ..which if done right takes a good twenty minutes to cook so that when it comes out its googey inside ..hence the meaning lava cake..it arrived 5 mins after we ordered it( and it was not a lava cake..more like a packet cake heated up in the microwave) and before the sliders which we had order nearly 2 hours earlier ??? they then apologise and promptly brought out the sliders to which was 1 plate of 2 poor little sliders..( we had ordered 2) ..this whole experience was below average and sadly we had the privilege of paying $199.00 for this sad experience..so The Garden of Good and Evil is more Evil then good...dont waste your time and money on a special...

What on earth happened to this gem of a place? I was here with a bunch of friends tonight and we are absolutely disappointed with the food tonight. What a load of rubbish is the least to say. All of us had previously been here before and loved it so we thought the garden was definitely due for a revisit. "Peking duck pancakes were nothing but oily, fatty duck wrapped in a thin crepe with shreds of spring onion and a sweet sauce- I don't think there is anything Peking about this dish. We also ordered some seared scallops which were devastating as the scallops were no bigger than a 10cent coin each and there were two of these measly pieces for $5 per serve. Oh not to mention the dry, yucky sweet potato salad- nothing but a dry, unmemorable mess is what we agreed. The lovely waistress kindly offered to take the two sweet potato salads off our tab but seriously, she could have taken everything off the tab as our meal was nothing but disappointing. The food served is a far cry from what is posted on their Instagram account. All in all, it was a very underwhelming experience and needless to say, we will not...