The Herbert Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

Really disappointed. I have been here a couple of times now, with mixed experiences. Usually a nice outdoor quiet coffee and banana bread does the job. I came here with my partner and two friends visiting from out of town, expecting the same kind of experience... When ordering the coffee the staff seemed distracted and ignorant to me waiting to order - more interested in catching up with friends. I said hello and asked how they were doing. The response was something along the lines of 'Doing alright, we're just mentally not really here right now', said with a smile but honestly worried me already. I proceeded to order some coffee, toasties and a banana bread (a magic to be specific). My friend received his magic and it was as expected strong and tasty. I received mine and it resembled my partner's latte. My coffee was not correctly made, thinking it was a simple mistake I went up and asked if they could make it again. Within 5 minutes the assumed barista brought over the coffee and briskly plopped it in front me. It was made the exact same way - a latte. The toastie was brought out, pretty tasty. My girlfriend had ordered a toasty with extra ham. The ham was forgotten about by staff. The banana bread was very delayed as well.

All in all, decent food but bad ignorant service. Won't be...

After falling in love with the chai latte I began coming to this cafe twice a week or so to have one and do some work on my laptop. While one server with curly hair was always a bit rude to me, I tried to ignore it and not take it personally. However, after finishing my chai latte earlier today I moved to a new table to move and the same servers was so rude to me, more or less insisting that I order something to eat, that I packed my things up and left, nearly in tears.

Is it so unusual to order a coffee and sit and work for a while? I didn’t think so, I’ve been a free lancer for years and have NEVER had a cafe staff be anything less than welcoming to me, especially when I become a regular customer. Some days I have just one coffee, some days I order more. Some days I stay for one hour, some days more. I thought I was being pretty normal, but the server made me so uncomfortable I don’t think I can return.

Same staff member might want to consider that some people are dealing with their own struggles and that retreating to a favorite cafe might be a bright spot in their day. Instead of shaming them you could make them...

Their staff is not friendly at all. I asked a lady to collect the dirty plates from the previous customers, 10mins+ no one came to do it. The other lady who looks after the tables outdoor just never went to our area to see if they need to clean up the mess until someone thought we have finished our food and I had to tell them that those were from previous customers. This particular outdoor serving lady seemed she was having such a bad day, couldn't smile, didnt care, almost ruined my Saturday morning. When this lady finally removed all the plates from the previous customers she didn't wipe the table at all, leaving a big mess, she just didn't care. She got confused what colour we had for food delivery from the color stick left from the previous customers, she just asked in a quite unpleasant way, sounded like we were confusing her. We had to eat at a VERY DIRTY table. In general their tables didn't look clean. The 1 Star is for their chef and their coffee barista, food, coffee and price are amazing. Wouldn't spend all my effort to go there any more because of the customer service. SO BAD. Just feel that I was not...