The Public's Corner — Restaurant in Melbourne

I have always been satisfied during my past visits to The Public’s Corner, food wise and service wise. But yesterday’s visit was nothing at all like my amazing experiences here in the past. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine and I went out to order some food, she ordered a veggie burger and myself, a set of pancakes. We both got lovely service that day, food was amazing. Fast forward to yesterday, where we once again, visited The Public’s Corner for brunch. This time my friend ordered the sweet potatoes and zucchini fritters, while I ordered the homemade coconut banana bread. Keep in mind, that we got served by the same server the last time we visited. The server went around to take some other orders and the tables which she took orders from received their meals before us. We weren’t thinking much at the time, just waiting for our food. Moments later, an unfamiliar server came by with the fritters my friend ordered, as well as the pancakes I had ordered last time and set them on the table. This was the incorrect order. I told the unfamiliar server politely and she went back to the familiar server for clarification. The familiar server, who also served my friend and I during the previous occasion came up to the table and with a passive-aggressive tone, told me that I did in fact, order the pancakes. This was not the case and just as I was about to recall the order that I initially ordered, I was cut off and this is exactly what she said: “Well that’s what you had last time. This wasn’t my mistake, you wanted the pancakes.” Following the statement she had just made and may I add, with an incredibly rude and ill-mannered tone, was her telling me that she could not remove the order from the bill and that it had to be paid for. This was absolute nonsense. If she had repeated the order or asked for clarification from us this wouldn’t be happening. The couple nearby our table were also appalled, telling us that they wouldn’t be coming back ever again. We seconded that, that’s for sure. The long service time, the food mix-up, the rude service, the surcharge for a meal I clearly did not state when I originally had my order taken, as well as the food being terrible to the point where I was sick. Sure, people make mistakes, and this mistake could’ve been easily fixed, but no. I get told that I made a mistake by a server and may I add, in a derogatory way and I get charged an extra $20 on an order I didn’t even want. Where did all the good service go? Yesterday, not only did you lose my friend and I as customers, but the couple nearby our table. I have referred this incident to a range of people I know have visited The Public’s Corner and they, reassuringly, won’t be visiting ever again. Terrible service and definitely won’t be...

Very bad experience, let me start: Service: The girl who took our order was super clumsy. She dripped soda on our bags while putting on the table. Got the drinks order wrong at the very beginning. Later, we ordered a steak sandwich, and i specifically said steak grilled sandwich. After 15 mins, she came back with a club sandwich. Food: we ordered chicken mushroom pasta and a kebab plate. We found a hair on the second bite of the pasta (I should have taken a picture of it. I regret now). We gave it back and ordered a steak grilled sandwich. After 15 mins, they came with a club sandwich. When we said we ordered a different thing, she said this is a grilled sandwich. Their menu specifically have 2 different sandwich, maybe I added the word grill, but it was her responsibility to double confirm to get it correct. Lastly, after that, we said we do not want anything else, please cancle the order. The story is not finished here. They made an avo toast for some customer, and called for it for 10 mins, we all heard that. No one came to pick that up, then the girl came and offered the avo toast to us. That was really disgusting. At last, They wanted to charge me for the pasta as well, I said I didn't have it, as I cancelled it. They said yes, but we offered you a sandwich and a toast. You did not take it. Why would I take something which I don't want to eat? Honestly, it's the worst restaurant experience in Melbourne so far. Bad hygiene, tastes average, price high and extremely bad...

Today we had a very uncomfortable experience here, we have been coming here for many years with my husband, it is our go to place when we have time to go out and have lunch.

I brought my girlfriends here and one of the meals were spoiled/off. How I know this? Because spoiled food has a very distinct smell especially meat and that’s what we smelt the moment it hit the table. Not only did it smell it, it absolutely tasted it. What I can’t wrap my head around is how the chef and the waitresses smelt this and thought this was a perfectly ok meal to give to a customer ?!

Nevemind that, the issue at hand is how it was handled, the waitress we complained to called another staff- blonde white girl, which was very unpleasant and did not resolve our issue. Instead she defended how not spoilt it was and that the staff have also had the same thing that day and it was fresh and made two days before, and if we wanted a replacement or different meal we would have to pay for it, to be honest this took us by surprise as I don’t believe you being upfront and rude is a way to handle a customer issue. Anywho we didn’t want to ruin our day so we didn’t argue about it and my friend did not eat it. Your meal or a part of it was spoilt/ rotten and smelt it 100%. Disgusting customer service extremely disappointed and embarrassed to bring my friends to my not so favourite...