Gardener’s Lodge Cafe — Restaurant in Sydney

We visited the cafe today because we saw all the good reviews and want to give it a go. The atmosphere is good, the food is good. But the experience for us is not a pleasant one. Your manager/ cashier lady need to more mindful on what is she doing!

We were there in the afternoon, not busy and as we got a pram, we choose to sit inside. The staff was very nice to find and arrange the table for us to be able to fit in the pram. We ordered the drinks and food.

Drinks come, atmosphere is there, we enjoyed it. But after that it turned into a chaos.

The minute when our food arrives, a group of 4 people show up saying they have a group of 8. The manager/ cashier lady came and asked if we can move to a corner table as where we sitting is the only spot that they say can combine the table into a large group table. We hesitated but we say fine as we understand its hard for business to get a large order.

But where she asking us to be are a place that is inconsiderate. She is suggesting us to put our pram at the corner which will block off the next table guest . We dont want to have it as we also notice the next table is with 2 kids and they are finishing as well. We put our kids seating on our lap and have us take turn in having the meal while one looking after .

Once we finish, the same lady just rushed in and take all our plates away, we are like being rushed to go. We look around and saw other tables also have customer finished their food, not having the plates collected and having a chat enjoy the atmosphere.

What pissed me off the last and ruined the whole experience is the same lady who collected the dirty dish, do cashiers came and trying to have a laugh, and Touch my son’s head with her hand without asking!

Seriously, pay some respect and ask before you touch anyone’s kid. You wont go to anywhere to touch any kid especially their head and face area when the family dont even know you well. A simple gesture or ask for permission is the most basic thing to do and You havnt ask us for any of it. You just go ahead and touch him while my husband is holding him having a fun time! We are shocked about how impolite and inconsiderate act performed . Totallg ruined the...

Couldn't believe it might happen again. I visited GLC before and I had a bad experience (overcharged, misled, receipt request refused). A couple of weeks ago I was requested by a restaurant to remove my google review and low rating because the owner changed and they invited me to visit their business again. So this morning - beautiful day, I checked new reviews and gallery which looked promising, decided it will be fair to try it again and change my opinion as I live nearby and is good spot to relax. I ordered khachapuri and coffee. Coffee came first. Have to wait a bit but acceptable, $5.80 for long black not the best price but coffee was very good so I was satisfied. Uuuu and then my khachapuri came. Pale grayish dough with two very very soft eggs on the top. I knew it was underbaked just looking at it but I tore the edge a little bit and I was right. Raw dough with an intense smell of yeasts. I noticed a waitress and she apologized me and quickly took it away. She came back in 5-10 min, apologized again, said they put it back to baking and it wont take long (until this moment I was a little disappointed but still willing to wait for my dish). So the waitress continued that it didn't happen before still apologizing and she added that the chef did not agree with me and the dish was supposed to be that - I was shocked at this point and I replied that I know khachapuri dish very very well and it needs to be baked like pizza or any other dish with the dough, not raw, but she continued with the tone suggesting the chef is right and they did nothing wrong. Everything sounded very arrogant and I'm not sure who was more unprofessional among the two of them. I informed her that I just wanted my coffee and I cancelled my order. There was no logical reason to me continue this drama. Still can't believe what happened there, I was really hopeful that they will change my mind but Gardener's Lodge Cafe is definitely not my place. Two times disappointed is more than enough for...

A glorious spring day so outdoors seating was packed out! Indoors is quaint but tightly crammed. Awkward getting in/out of the seating corner to place the order or get cutlery. Pretty difficult even accessing the self-serve area for a glass of table water, everything is just too tightly packed in. And with the noisy ice crusher we could barely hear the sweet smooth playlist, sadly, let alone one another, boo hoo. The food was delicious, really really delicious! I would definitely visit again but I'd want to be outdoors and enjoy a slow afternoon (indoors is just too pokey and uninviting, unless you're a solo visitor hugging one cuppa while working on the laptop for a couple of hours). But the 40-minute wait time, without explanation or follow-up is too much. It was a very busy service but no head-of-house to check on customers or upsell extras while we waited. Lost opportunities. Still, the recommendation is to visit and enjoy the sunny outdoors before summer gets here! We had Eggs Benedict (with bacon) and they were cooked to perfection, just the right amount of firm and runny. Followed by French Toast, wonderfully cooked with banana, strawberry, blueberries, vanilla mascarpone and a light drizzle of maple flavoured syrup to top it off. Light and not too sweet. Plus a large flat white and a tiny 'regular' chai latte, total $57. A worthwhile visit in any case. Next time I'll try one of the smoothies, they look adorable :-) and sit outdoors of course, with a...