Waterside Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

We have purchased take out from this cafe a few times as I live right behind this cafe the vibes are awesome situated on the lake but we have unfortunately had a horrible exp each time. The food taste poor quality , besides the bonsoy milk and milk range the ingredients used in food products are questionable. I dont beleive its high end quality ( we have been ordering takeout coffees wet chai ,brekky ect from various cafes almost 4 times a week since my youngest arrived 1 year ago and both my husband and I agree that the food we've ordered for brekky , the eggs , bread and toasties cheeses used and the coffees and hot drinks tasted so poor that we rated it the worst cafe locally from our exp. It's a pity as it's the closest cafe to us we van walk to daily but we can't justify it anymore we just walk past every morning and opt to drive to some of our favourites. We spent about close to $150 each time for our family of 6x. The worst part was the fact that they did not have any takeaway utensils to offer ; have not purchased any takeout containers and the normal containers any buisness will use when offering take away on there menu. The food was packaged using aluminium foil and a makeshift lid we had to use fingers to eat our eggs and the food we ordered each time and the coff33 cups had no stoppers. They try and cut costs here which is sad, because we had a terrible experience the last 3 times that we will never forget. I am sure one or two meals might be middle tasting in there but the new owners , that srnt so new anymore really need to level up as many customers that I know locally arnt return customers. I've ordered in a few months ago with my kids and wasn't impressed either. Also they are one of the very few cafes that don't make real wet chai only use a poor quality powder. The eggs they use do not taste like eggs. Not sure if they've changed anything since our last visit 3...

I will start off by saying that the location of this cafe is superb, particularly during warm spring days as the view off the balcony looking out on the water is lovely and the area somehow feels secluded even though it is bordered by a main road. However, the food and beverages all fall flat. I ordered a soy cappuccino and the flavour was great but there was, without exaggeration, about two inches of froth. Considering the cup was very small to begin with I only ended up with 3 mouthfuls of coffee. My partner ordered a latte and had the exact same experience - I am not sure why they do this, it made it messy to drink and felt like a rip off. The food came promptly and the staff were very friendly to us but our orders were very bland and frankly overpriced for their quality. It was definitely edible but there was really nothing going on in terms of flavour. I ordered a broccoli and cherry tomato risotto. From the first bite it was very clear that the risotto needed to be cooked for a further 10 minutes at least - it was chewy and hard. The broccoli was beautiful and fresh but could have also been cooked longer to give some of the flavours a chance to permeate the meal. The worst by far however, was the completely whole and raw cherry tomatoes thrown in at the end. They had barely even warmed through! Cherry tomatoes explode when you bite them, it was mind boggling why they didn't cook them into the meal. Partners meal was a parmigiana that had been hammered too thin that it lost all succulence, topped with too much cheese and cheap tasting sauce. Chips were standard, salad was standard... probably should have just got this meal from an RSL- it would have been cheap at least.

Overall, the area is nice, the service was fine - the food and beverage was overpriced for frankly bad to...

Our coffee was brought almost cold, then was reheated ( instead of re make) brought to us poor looking type of coffee ( just like basic instant coffee) we decided to leave my sister went to the manager to provide feedback before we leave living our coffees and cakes ( which we never touched) behind, the manager basically said “okay see you later” I was shocked with his response so went to ask him if this is how they deal with feedback, he basically over talked me the whole time and offered me to reheat the coffee which would’ve been the 3rd time 🤢 can you imagine almond milk reheated 3 times? I always have had my coffee remade when not up to standard including at this place, this time they were busy and clearly decided to take it on us and claimed my sister was angry (not true at all) we actually decided to leave as the place was crowded and let the manger know that we are kindly living because of this, Clearly didn’t give a dam! We go there the view is nice food is below basic but we like to support local businesses, but not on expense been disrespect! Very disappointed ☹️ specially this coming from owner/ manager never going back and will put the word out there to local community and family as I am keen to have standers of local services to be lifted for...