The Pier Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

We went to this restaurant today. Please avoid! 1st reason was we received a meat patty on our meat platter that was not cooked through. We sent it back and the Chef proceeded to cook that exact piece and still not cooked through and served back to our child. We were in shock. we have been to this restaurant before and did not know it was sold to new owners. No wonder it wasn't packed like before. We ordered a Meat platter and a Seafood platter. Not sure what the heck we were given but looked like scraps, scrapped from a left over plates previously. Disgusting! Meat was so dry and not cooked through referral to the chicken, scary. Patty perhaps the only thing that was fresh and was definitely still mooing. Our child sliced it open and was terrified. Turned off eating completely, the mince was completely raw inside. We sent this item back. We tried to eat item's off both platters but scary. We asked for the Chef to come out after the waitress brought us back the meat patty that was clearly repeat cooked. The Chef that appeared told us he was the New Owner after we asked if there was New Management as we've been at this restaurant before and the food was beyond amazing. Greek char grilled flavoursome delicious food where we were met with the same 2 platters that were flavourless. Food did not taste greek at all! Dry, awful and even the presentation was off putting and gross. Service was none to see, no table service at all. we had to order at the front though there was staff. No plates given or cutlery before meals were served but much later. Shocking! When we asked for the Manager to come out because we were appalled by the raw mince patty situation. We were met by an Indian very rude man who told us He was the new Owner and the Greek chef 😂. Yelling at us telling us, we were wrong that a kofta is meant to be served raw on the inside. When I say yelling, I mean yelling. We tried to explain to him that it was not in compliance with safe food practices to recook food that had been already cooked. He just kept yelling at us. We were scared for our children's safety at this stage because of this person's level of aggressiveness and lack of respect. We paid over $100 for our lunch, our very young child was hungry and got very scared. Please be very aware when choosing this place about food safety and that the new Manager has anger issues. The toilets were also blocked and filthy, floors Disgusting and unclean especially down the bathroom hallway. Toilet sinks blocked and toilets stunk Disgusting couldnt use them. A toilet was also leaking in the female toilets from overflow gross, coming to the hallway to the restaurant. Cups for the water gross, ice given had a bug in it, as in frozen in to it. All in all the worst experience. This place has gone completely downhill. Even the staff looked a tad confused about their duties and scared of the owner who is very mean and aggressive so don't blame them. Please avoid this place at all costs, we were all sick on the way home. We will be reporting them for sure. A small child of all has been taken to hospital because of this restaurant, I hope no one else has to go through what we have because of this...

PART 2 OF 2 (Andrew Vicendese cont.)

After that, I had the following exchange was then had with what looked to be two senior members of the cafe's staff:

I explained that we had come to the cafe for breakfast and that a member of the cafe's staff had confirmed that with us; I empathised and said that we appreciated that the cafe was busy given the public holiday, but noted that we were disappointed that we had been misled on the issue of breakfast; The older female barista asked which cafe staff member had seated the group (because she said that they should have told the group breakfast was not available and that the menu contained a misprint as to the breakfast service time) and I, not being part of the group that was seated, said that I wasn't sure. In response, she remarked "well there's only two of them so which one was it"; The barista then told me that the cafe could not cook breakfast anymore because the kitchen had to "change over". I told the barista to explain what that meant and she said that the kitchen facilities had to be altered because the kitchen was a small kitchen; I said I understood that, but again noted that it was a matter of minutes after 12:00pm, and asked if they could accommodate our group on the basis that we had been misled by the cafe's staff, notwithstanding that the kitchen had to change over shortly; The barista told me she would speak to the kitchen staff as to my request: I thanked the barista and returned to the table; Shortly after returning to the table, another waitress told the group that, notwithstanding that the cafe has misled us (which she accepted), it could not cook breakfast for us; and We acknowledged the waitress and told her we would leave.

In light of the above, I find the following genuinely bizarre.

A cafe is a business almost entirely underpinned by quality customer service. Despite that, the cafe made no effort and showed no interest in accommodating a group of people that probably would have spent in the vicinity of $300 at it. Instead, its staff were rude, save for the waitresses who were as apologetic as they could be.

Further, in relation to the exclusion of bacon from a meal, it is incredibly odd as to why you cannnot just not cook something for the purposes of accommodating for someone's dietary requirements. Notwithstanding any views you might have on veganism and vegetarianism, the proposition that you can't (a) accommodate a paying customer's request; and (b) simply just not cook something, is entirely illogical and inconsiderate.

To cap things off, I will note that as we walked out of the cafe at about 12:20pm, we saw a number of breakfast menu items be brought out to other tables: an ironically poetic end to this extraordinary interaction.

Stay away from this establishment.

We went to Pier Street Kitchen in Dromana instead and had a polar opposite, excellent customer service experience in circumstances where the Pier Street Kitchen was coping with a Dromana-wide power outage. Go...

A few pointers:

Our reservation was at 8pm, we came on time and told the waitress we had a reservation for 8 people. The waitress said ok and left us standing there and did not tell us what was happening as she and the owner (Ari) made another table outside for another booking. We sat ourselves inside after 10 mins.

We ordered all our meals maybe 5 minutes after that. Our drinks that mainly consisted of no sugar cokes arrived 30 minutes from when we first sat.

We waited over an hour and a half for our food to come out. I personally ordered only a side salad, which, believe it or not came out last. The food did not come out at the same time either, and was given at different times - which didn’t make sense as people who were sat after us were being served the things we had ordered. 2/3 of the souvlakis were first served then the third one came out 20 mins later. My husband also asked where the food was at (very politely) and the male waiter with the glasses told him to “chill out”.

3 pieces of hair were found in our food. 1 in the souvlaki the other 2 in the deconstructed souvlaki. We called the owner over when the first hair was found in the souvlaki - she was ok with this and took it off our bill. We called a different waiter over for the other 2 pieces of hair found in the deconstructed souvlaki. The same man with the glasses joked about it and said something along the lines of “Take photos to take to court this is a CSI case”. Absolutely unacceptable. This is a health hazard.

Only maybe 2 out of 8 meals were eaten completely as we were all turned off eating after finding the hairs.

We went up to pay, but before we did we wanted to speak with the owner (Ari) before paying as the service we were going to pay for wasnot met. Irregardless if it is New Year’s Day or not, if you pride yourself off the service and food you provide you should meet that standard… or simply close if you cannot maintain the quality and standards for the day.

The young female waitress at the cashier was very understanding and kind. The owner definitely threw her under the bus to sort out complainers throughout the night (the family who paid before us also complained). We said we weren’t paying until we talked to the owner, Ari. We waited 15 minutes, Ari came out and she was so very arrogant.

When talking about our issues throughout the night we were very polite and raised concern about health hazards met in the dishes. Ari responded, mentioning the following: Do you think it’s fair that you don’t pay for your meals and my staff needs to pay for it for you? I am cooking and too busy for this Don’t expect to be served on NYD and not wait at least an hour and a half

We did not reach an agreement and she left her poor worker to do the rest. Very unprofessional. We wanted to pay, but not the full price. We ended up paying for all meals, but two.

The same male waiter with glasses then made a comment when we were leaving saying it was New Year’s and not...