Hatters Tea House — Restaurant in New South Wales

We had an absolutely woeful experience at The Mad Hatters Teahouse! We booked for a large table with 3 children. We asked prior to coming if the children could have hot chips, as they wouldn't eat $40 per head of food. Scott (who claimed to be the chef) said it was fine, and the booking was confirmed. Upon arrival, we stood just inside the front door, waiting to be seated. Nobody greeted us, let alone showed us to our table. My mother had to go and ask is anyone was working so we could be seated! This aside, we were eventually sat in an area that would comfortably seat 6 - our booking was almost double that! We were told by the older man (who looked like he was in a bad mood already!) that "This is the only place we could put you!" Being made to feel unwelcome, and a burden did NOT go down well with anyone at our table!! We waited over half an hour to even be offered drinks (mine came in a chipped cup, and was placed in front of me on the stained table cloth!! I put it down to being human and perhaps they didn't notice the chip.... things spiralled downhill from there. Approximately another half hour or so after coffee (we had been there about an hour by now, and were starving!), a plate with enough food for 3 people was placed down in front of 4 people (so a plate to feed 3, was expected to fill 4 people!). Not happy at all!!! By this stage the children hadn't even been offered food at all!!! My teenage daughter had asked for a milkshake and was told "No we can't do them because we are too busy".... so all of the kids had water and a very mediocre hot chocolate. My daughter went to IGA down the road to get a packet of Cheezels, because they were starving! We asked where the kids hot chips were, and bad mood owner said "Well, the fryer isn't on today, so no hot chips!" We couldn't believe it! We were ropeable by this stage! Next minute the cook came out and blamed it on the other staff not writing it down and not telling her! She told us she could do fairy bread!!! Not good enough, as we were told we could definitely order chips. She then said quite nastily that she would have to go and get hot chips from the fish and chip shop down the road - and sent a staff member!!! Meanwhile, I went to the loo, washed my hands and noticed no paper towel or hand dryer. I politely alerted Scott, a waiter, and he offered me the tea towel which was slung over his shoulder, to wipe my hands on!!! He assured me it was clean! I honestly couldn't BELIEVE my ears!!! I told him that he shouldn't use it again, but he flung the tea towel straight back over his shoulder!!! How many other customers had he offered it to that day!?! By this stage the whole table was DISGUSTED! A man from another table was also not happy at this stage, and wanted to speak to a manager. The man told us to write a review because he certainly would be doing so! We understood! Unfortunately, we stayed for the scones (as we were starving!), they came out warm - but went cold waiting a very long time for jam and cream to put on them!!! When I cut into mine - yep, a big, long HAIR, was hanging from the scone, adhered to the dough inside! Again we alerted staff, who took the plate away. No apology was offered. Kitchen wasn't told. Our table all agreed to leaving! We didn't even want to see the desserts! Upon leaving, every table we walked past, mentioned how unhappy they were, how bad customer service was, how awful the staff's attitude was, how long they waited to be offered food, and how RIPPED OFF they felt! We will never come back, as this disgusting establishment RUINED our MOTHER'S DAY!! I will be telling all of my family and friends - and will not recommend this...

Absolutely disgusting. Went for Mother's Day High Tea (09 May, 2021) with group of 12 (9 adults, 3 kids). Was 5 other booked tables and not one table was happy.

Our booking was for 2.30pm and although we arrived around 2pm, were refused entry because it was 'too early', despite our table being ready. Went in at 2.20pm and about 20 mins later, we had our drinks order taken by the owner. After the 4th person ordered their drink, the owner started walking away without taking any other drink orders, so had to be called back to take remaining orders. This happened TWICE!!!! One of the drinks requested was a milkshake, but we were stunned when he replied 'we're too busy to make milkshakes'!!!!

Then at 3.10pm, the food FINALLY started being brought out, one plate at a time, however there were not enough servings to feed everyone. This was also the case with the next 2 servings. The 3 kids (12, 6 and 6) were offered NOTHING to eat at all and when we complained, were told by one staff member (Scott), that they would cook chips for the kids, however, when we asked the owner about the progress of the chips soon after, we were informed that they weren't cooking chips that day, which was shortly followed by a brief 'disagreement' between us and the chef. They then decided to send someone out to buy chips from the local fish and chip shop for the kids.

Some of the coffee cups and crockery were chipped, the employee (Scott) was letting customers wipe their hands on his tea towel he had hanging over his shoulder, after they'd used the toilet, as there was no paper in the bathrooms to dry your hands with, then continued to use said tea towel, food portions were insufficient to feed everyone, scones arrived to table warm, but were cold by the time the jam and cream came out and one of the scones had a long lock of hair in it!!!!

Diners at every one of the other 5 tables were all complaining about the service, food and owner's attitude as well as us.

Most certainly NOT worth the $40pp they were asking!!!!

Absolutely disgusting food, attitude and service and will...

Horrid.

We were a group of 6 people. We sat outside in the courtyard as it was a lovely sunny day. Two of our party ordered iced coffees. When these arrived the cream on top was curdled and tasted foul. They took it back inside to the staff to ask for the drink to be remade. One of the servers, the older gentleman, took a scoop out of the top of one of the drinks and said "its fine, theres nothing wrong with this" and gave it back to them. They came back disgusted at not only the treatment but also what was considered servable food.

Sitting outside we could hear them from the kitchen complaining that we were being a pack of whingers and that they only brought the cream recently. A good chef would consider that they overwhipped the cream or used the beaters without cleaning them.

Meals were slow to arrive with absolutely no one else in the cafe. My lunch, that was touted as a 'Ceaser Salad' was no more than rubbery chicken on a bed of lettuce. No croutons, bacon, cheese or dressing.

After our lunch we ordered desserts. We each got a piece of cake and asked for them to just come on the one plate as we would share. From the kitchen we could hear the owner complain again at how difficult we were being at "how was she to manage to cut these cakes into 5" even though we didnt ask for that.

I would not ever recommend this cafe. The staff openly talked about their customers in a rude and degrading manner, service was slow and quality low for the cost was extremely low. Many other fine places to dine on the...