Green Valley Strawberries Cafe — Restaurant in South Australia

My family have been a regulars of Green Valley Strawberries for a while and often bring interstate friends and family when they visit the hills because the food is delicious.

Today however, was an experience that made me question the staff culture and misleading menu…

Everytime we go, we order the same thing at the counter and today we were told we would be charged differently (I should also note, we did pay the higher price). When querying why, and that this wasn’t stated on the menu for the particular item, we were met with, verbatim:

‘You should already know this’ ‘Well, we can’t fit everything on the menu.’ In a tone that was very condescending…

Shocked, we waited for our food, which actually came out one shy a waffle we had ordered. The person who served our food was lovely, apologised, noted that she agreed that the menu wasn’t clear and we mentioned our experience with the counter staff + requested if there was a feedback form or manager we could talk to about what had happened (really wanted this solved in house).

Then the counter staff member came over and doubled down about us being ‘wrong’, saying she ‘didn’t appreciate us talking about her to other staff and that we should be good/professional people and come to her first.’ Customers with a valid query and an order that came out wrong should be able to make queries to the business without feeling unwelcome, or being told to be ‘professional’ (‘No you be professional’ a verbatim response) when we aren’t the ones on the clock and are paying for goods/service. We had tell her to leave the table.

It was bizarre. The staff member that served us went above and beyond with her empathy and said it was ‘not on.’ However, I felt compelled to write this review because:

The staff were talking loudly about our table when our interstate family went to order and they didn’t realise she was with our group. She, appalled, refused to order food from the establishment.

An owner was on the premises and walked over by us a few times and did not say a word which disappointed me and my family greatly. This either means staff are not adequately trained to delegate matters of this nature + requests to the manager/owner and have to go above and beyond their role, or, the owner was kept completely in the dark about the situation.

Apologies are lovely and appreciated from staff (that apologised on behalf of the counter server, not her directly), the food was delicious and our order was corrected. But the damage has been done. What was once our happy place to take my family has now become a place I feel judged for having dietary requirements and feel concerned about staff training, protocol and menu labelling.

I want to give the owner(s) the benefit of the doubt that they did not receive report of this situation, even though we requested to speak with them, and therefore hope this review enlightens them to how some of their staff are...

IThis feedback is with regards to customer service only. The food is very good, but after my experience today, I had to write this review.

I've go to Green Valley frequently with my partner and baby, and bring all my friends and family to come visit as the food is good and the service is (usually) also very friendly and polite as well.

Today, I ordered my usual vegan waffle option with 2 extra waffles (sharing portion) but noticed that the price was more than usual. I got a receipt to check after I got back to my table, and after checking against the menu which stated that extra waffles were $6 extra, I found I was charged $8 extra per waffle instead.

I spoke to the girl who served me, Bella, and questioned as to why it was more than what was listed on the menu, and immediately her tone was very abrupt and aggressive. She said that the vegan waffles were more expensive to make so that was the reason why. A valid reason, but I mentioned it wasn't listed on the menu that a vegan waffle was a different price to the extra waffle price. She said that there wasn't enough space on the menu to fit everything on, and that was a good enough reason, and that I was expected to know this.

Shocked by her attitude, I went back to my table and told my family about my experience. One of my interstate family members went to order, and they heard the staff talking negatively about me and our interaction. Because of this, that family member didn't order their food as they didn't want to contribute to such an establishment that talks about it's customers for simply asking questions about pricing on the menu.

When receiving our order, it came with one waffle less, and the server was very polite and arranged for the additional one to come over. We asked her for a feedback form, and began speaking about our negative experience at the till to which she empathised. Whilst talking to her, the girl from the till came over to us with the same attitude and doubled down on what she said earlier, and also went on to say that we weren't acting good or professionally and should have spoken to her directly about our grievances.

After all this, the only saving grace was the server who was there the whole time and was also shocked about the way we were treated by the other staff member. A manager didn't come out to see us, so either they chose not to, or weren't made aware by other staff members there was an incident and wanted to take the matter into their own hands.

I'm upset by this as staff should never talk to customers in that way for simply querying pricing, and also shouldn't aggressively come over to customers to insult them. The whole incident was oddly handled poorly from the start and believe this staff member either needs more training, or isn't fit to be in a customer...

A great combination of a farm, factory and cafe selling the core product grown - fresh from the fields strawberries. The cafe section is located on an outdoor deck with overhead cover and open views to the surrounding rural countryside. The menu is naturally driven by strawberries and you can have them in jam, fresh with cream or ice cream, in cakes, toppings and to buy fresh in punnets. $8 buys one punnet of about 500gms. Lesser grade quality fruit can be purchased at a discounted price. The strawberry fruit sold was fresh, well packed, very tasty with a rich flavoursome sweet texture. The high grade strawberries are large in size. Other standard fare cafe food is available such as bacon and egg rolls, scones, halloumi and bacon rolls, salads and a variety of other staples. Staff are friendly,...