The Usual Joint — Restaurant in Melbourne

Decided to try this place as it isn't far from church and thought that it might be a nice place to start a tradition of post church coffee and cake. I tried to follow their signs which indicate that you need to wait to the left of the entrance for a table but after being ignored for 10 minutes and realising that people in the takeaway line were putting their names down for a table I joined what is supposed to be the "takeaway" line instead. Whilst I was waiting to order a couple who came in after us just walked straight in and took a table so I noticed that nobody seemed to be managing the tables despite the "please wait to be seated" signs.

I placed my order, put my name on the list for a table and then took the first table that became available since the couple that were ahead of me had just been seated while I was ordering. We were then told by the lady who came to clear the table that we should have waited to be seated even though we were on the list as she had checked. It seems that she was more concerned that she hadn't had a chance to wipe the table down than actually properly managing patrons that were waiting for a table.

Then, despite putting our name down for a table and knowing that we had been seated, our order was processed as a takeaway. We waited for half an hour for our order before my wife realised that they were calling my name from the takeaway counter. I had my back to the counter and was playing games with my son while we waited so I hadn't noticed. It did seem like we may have missed the calls (since we were expecting table service) as the food and coffee had cooled. After my wife waved the waitress over she just dumped the takeaway bag on our table and walked away. No cutlery, no crockery, everything just packed in takeaway boxes that I assume they expected us to eat with our hands.

I was going to leave this complaint in person once we had finished but when I approached the counter it seemed like everyone was all of a sudden too busy clearing our table to deal with the people waiting to place an order and I wasn't about to waste another 20 minutes just waiting to lodge a complaint.

The food and the coffee seemed nice enough but the level of service really left a sour taste in my mouth. From start to finish it seemed like we weren't really welcome there and they seemed all to eager to clear down our table once we were done. Which wouldn't have been too difficult since it was all takeaway containers that would have gone straight in the bin. I wonder if we didn't have the right "look" to get proper service here. Maybe takeaway containers are all that people that look...

finally tried out the usual joint (honestly im very surprised i didnt try this out when their cream puffs were doing really well during the pandemic)!

katsu chicken curry rice bowl the chicken was delicious fried so well the curry too was spicy but tolerable the egg was a bit interesting and not in a good way but besides that, hoenstly one of the best katsu curry’s ive had $18.5, 9.5/10 😋

beef bulgogi rice bowl the beef was not stringy enough tbh but it had a lot of flavour which was alright kinda reminded me of bibimbap due to the similar elements? not that memorable in my opinion but it’s yum $18.5, 8.5/10 🤗

tofu soba noodle tofu is bland as oh my lord there needs to be more dressing or some type of seasoning because wow the noodles were delicious though salad was alright too and i liked how there was a lot of seaweed salad as that’s one of my favs from Japanese cuisine $18, 7/10 ☺️

fries $9, 9/10 can’t fault it, like it’s fries that is well-seasoned too, what can i say 😋

lychee crepe cake very delicious like idk what they did but the cake overall was infused with lychee flavouring which is amazing more lychee pearls and lychee pieces please!! $12.5, 9.5/10 😊

pandas swiss roll flavours super intense which is nice but yeah that’s pre much it $7, 8.5/10 🫢

service though::: please, it’s not that hard to be attentive to ur customers. we asked for water 2 times and the waiter instead of grabbing the water for us, decides to go speak to another waiter that is ‘on break’ for 5 minutes and then basically forgets about our water request. we had to ask again and one of the waitresses finally gave it to us. it’s not that hard to do better with service like come on. even McDonald’s is...

They came with Desert first alas I wanted real food Tm so that was not good..

My friend had th his to say Vietnamese thai drink

Thai milk crepe. Delicate soft. The flavour is in the syrup. The layers look beautiful. Very cream, definitely need the syrup to enjoy the taste Black sesame cream puff The crackling on top The taste is beautiful not too heavy the choux is cooked perfectly with the light golden brown

Vanilla cream puff Perfectly sweet the cream was a perfect consistency Beef sliders The beef was tender and flavourful

I love e d the Katsu Sando, I think the BBQ beef sliders looked incroyable.

The black sesame and vanilla puffs were perfection and my Vietnamese iced coffee was great. Might not be sweet enough for some being Anglo I always ask for extra.

Not the most accessible but if steps are in your physio plan make...