The Mabel — Restaurant in Melbourne

We visited on Sunday for brunch after a night out and unfortunately our experience wasn’t as positive as we’d hoped.

My friend and I ordered two breakfast bagels, but after waiting around 1.5 hours, we were served the wrong meals (big breakfasts instead). When we asked about the delay, we were told it was because we were part of a larger group (8 people) and the kitchen wanted to bring all our meals out together. However, two of our friends who were seated at a separate table (we were asked to split into two tables) received their food much earlier, and the rest of us were served 45 minutes to an hour after that.

One of the more disappointing moments was finding a hair in my friend’s smashed avo. The staff were polite and replaced the meal promptly, which we appreciated, though we didn’t manage to take a photo of it.

A couple of friends ordered the soup of the day (pumpkin), but it was very thick in texture—more like a purée than a soup.

On a positive note, the coffees were great and the mushrooms in the bagels were nice.

Overall, while there were some good elements, the long wait times and a few food quality issues meant the experience wasn’t what we’d hoped for. I wouldn’t recommend this place for much...

It's a place for locals and locals only.

CUSTOMER SERVICE====== The lady serving was quite cold towards me, although that may be because of a miscommunication on a joke, but either way it felt like we were treated in a completely different manner to the locals around the area. However, I understand that and we were probably not their target audience.

FOOD ====== We ordered the chicken burger. For takeaway, it was on the expensive side, considering the lack of the environment a cafe provides. The chicken in the burger was slightly too salty, but still very delicious. Personally I wasn't the biggest fan of the chips, it had little flavour and a bit of extra salt would have been preferred. That said, the quality of the chips was definitely on the better end of chips and with a bit of extra flavour and maybe making some of the chips a bit thinner would make them into...

I have to say my first impression after entering this cafe was not great. Moments later I was placed on a bench with 0 room for my knees. After finishing my coffee in an extremely awkward position, I called a waiter to change my burger meal into a takeaway because I knew there's no way I can finish a burger looking like a toad.

What happened next was amazing. They finished my order in no time at all considering how crowded this place was. And the two complementary item they offered as an apology tasted heavenly, so was the burger itself. Might I add multiple waiting staff greeted me and asked if I was taken care of during my short time inside the cafe, which, again, is awesome considering how crowded this place was.

Will certainly come back on a...