The Vintage Secret Garden — Restaurant in Sydney

Utterly disgusting and shameful service. Kavita the manager has hands down the worst service and management skills I have ever come across. We drove an hour and 15 minutes to come try this place out. We got stuck in traffic so we called and advised we would be half hour late and they told us that's fine the chefs will still be able to make us something of the breakfast menu as this was the whole reason we wanted to go. We got here 11:40am got seated after standing there for 10 minutes with no one in front of us. After being seated it took 20 minutes to be served by the lovely waiter Harsh who knew how to treat a customer and make sure they were comfortable and We placed our order with him. After waiting 20 Minutes my partners caramel latte came out with no caramel 10 minutes after my almond cap came out half spilt and did not taste anything like almond milk. We went to complain and then I see Kavita take a sip out of the coffee and then brings it back to tell me it is almond milk and then continued to raise her voice and try and argue with me very disrespectfully and even said she wanted to void our order and not serve us because we returned the coffees that were not right. 15 minutes after the commotion my partner got her chicken toastie which was more like a frozen meal waiting to be heated up. I ordered a steak sandwich with no carrot no onion and the photo you will see is what I got as nothing was in it but beetroot onion and beef and the meal was missing half the condiments. I sat for 15 minutes for them to bring me out the same sandwich with extra onion and a tiny bit more beef and no sauce. Then they tried arguing that this is what I ordered. So I removed all the onion as you can see in the photo and took one bite the meal was like it was sitting in the fridge. So we grabbed our coffees poured them into a pot plant and left. And they were not busy at this time. Service -17/10 (minus17) Food -4/10 (minus4) Atmosphere 3/10 Overall recommendation is - don't ever come here it's terrible food and service. Replying to the lies you are commenting on this review. - the staff were far from top notch and we all know that. If they had better knowledge of the menu it wouldn't have been such a problem plating up the correct meals. Yes the table is empty. That is because your staff took my plate saying they were making a new one never did hence why I got up and left the raw onions should still be on the floor where I threw them unless the lazy waitress/manager cleaned it up like she should clean her act up. You don't have to worry about us visiting you again because we don't recommend anyone should visit the pathetic place you call a restaurant when someone writes a bad review that isn't true about a place on Google the owner never replies hence how you know my review cut deep because it is true. Additional Reply - WE DID NOT STEAL - we left with out payment as the only thing that we tasted was salt and a bad attitude. Check your cameras my coffee was replaced once then the manager came out and argued after she sipped it then replaced it again. the steak sandwich was ordered with No carrot slaw, no onion is that asking for alot is it? Nothing was eaten the steak sandwhich was not replaced and the only thing that was on the floor was the onion which kavbitcha has a photo of as it was either she wore them or the floor, the coffee? check your cameras i spilt it in your pot plant because it tasted like water. And last but not least your pathetic excuse of a manager told us to leave with out replacing my meal so the only thief is you as you robbed me of 2.5 hours on the road and 2.5 hours in your Pathetic excuse of a 'restaraunt'. You are just pathetic the only reason you are responding is because you know my reviews recieve over thousands of views. the people giving you 5 Star reviews just want a $5 discount. again anyone thinking this is a good place it is terrible, there is over 40 reviews just like mine. 40% of their reviews are 1 star. I recommend that no one ever steps...

AVOID AT ALL COSTS! Made a reservation for Father’s Day, very strict on their reservations page about card details for holding deposit and 1 hour 45 minute setting. We made that reservation at 2pm thinking abit more of an off peak time. Got there at 1:50. Provided my name but yet still had to show front desk staff my confirmation email as they could not find my booking. Finally get seated 2:05pm lady comes over dumps water and cups on the table, I say “we are ready to order” she proceeds to ignore me and walk away. 2:10pm ask someone else “can we order now please” I get a response “I’m not an order taker” and walks away. Finally 2:15pm someone comes to take our order after they take the order of two tables near us that was seats AFTER us. Could only presume this was due to discrimination of nationality we are compared to the other two tables and the stuff seemed very friendly to them. 30 minutes later drinks come out mind you only one had to be physically made, how that took 30 minutes considering it wasn’t that packed at that time, I have no idea. An hour later 3 of the 4 meals arrive (mind you the meal quickest to make is missing) My husband and I waited another 5 minutes as we were not going to eat until our child had her food. Still nothing, husband goes inside and follows up with the manager, that couldn’t decide if it was going to be 5 or 10 minutes and just fobs him off, I follow up with another staff member asking him to follow up, still no answers from them both. All while I observed a staff member take calamari off a plate to be served and eat it in vision of all customers! (hope he enjoyed that as by this point the 4 of us were starving) Next minute there are 4 staff members asking what the issue is so I repeat my self again, one literally laughed in my face and once I said “I do not find this funny and it is not funny” all of the staff through the manager under the bus and told me she will come out and see me, after threatening to leave and me wanting to speak to the manager an hour and 1:15 after making the order my daughters food finally comes out. Manager comes to me extremely disinterested “I already spoke to the our husband or whoever the man is that was here” then proceeded to refer to me as “babe” which then I had to pull her up on. Only once asking for the owners to contact me did she offer a 20% discount. We try the food and my gosh was it FOUL is the only way to describe it, out of 4 of us not one of us ate our full meal if any. But don’t worry still had to pay $150 (after the $30 discount) for the pleasure of horrible service, staff and management that have NO CUSTOMER SERVICE skills, no food safety or hygiene skills, food that was uneatable and paying 2 surcharges that we were only aware of one! STILL WAITING ON THE OWNERS TO CONTACT ME. Oh and when I brought to the managers attention the 10 google reviews from the one day at that point in time (now there is clearly more) no care factor at all. To everyone saying it’s under new management/ownership, she knows the owners they have owned it for 4 years apparently (her words not mine)

Look forward to hearing from the owners with a full refund. prior to taking this further, will NEVER return which is a shame as we were so excited to visit after the clever marking and promotional work on this location that clearly had us all fooled!

Enjoy the photos of the rubber pepper filled chicken, potato, asparagus and whatever that is that’s referred to as a meat patty with...

AWFUL!!!

Expensive for meagre portions, dirty surroundings and clueless (but affable) staff... It was a Keystone Cops experience from go to woa!

I'll explain... I had booked a table for 5 - weeks prior - but then phoned 3 days beforehand to let them know I would only need a table for 3. I arrived and was led to a table for 5, despite me pointing out a table for 3 was probably reserved for me. No! The table for 5 was my reserved table. Ok, so I pulled out my metal chair to sit down and saw a large triangular spike of metal sticking out the middle (an OH&S nightmare for anyone sitting on it, especially wriggly children). I looked at the adjacent chair. Same! I called the waitress over to point out the problem chairs, thinking she'd remove them entirely, but extraordinarily, she just moved them to an adjacent table and moved 2 safer-looking ones to mine.

OK, coffee time...

I ordered a piccollo... No, they weren't serving piccollos - only what was on the Mothers Day menu (cappuccinos). Yes, they did have an espresso machine, but they couldn't serve piccollos or long blacks because it was Mothers Day (the cafe was virtually empty at this time). OK... Well, I'll have a bottle of still water... No! They had sparkling or tap water. No, thank you, I'll just wait for my family.

Then it started to rain and I was getting wet. I stood up and asked the waiter to move me to an other table... No, that wasn't possible because this was my reserved table. "But I'm getting wet." I said. He looked flummoxed... "You can probably put me on that table for 3." I said, pointing to the table that I believed was reserved for me all along. He hesitated and then said he'd have to ask. I waited for some time and when he eventually returned he escorted me to, yes, you've guessed it, the table for 3!

Apparently, when my daughter and grandson arrived soon after, I looked grumpy. My daughter knew something was up... I recounted my experience and she at once realised how ridiculous the, "We can't serve piccollos was." She called over the waiter and asked him for 2 cappuccinos, but hold the milk... just serve that in a separate cup... I think he suddenly realised how absolutely inane the, "We can't serve piccollos was" because he hesitated and said, "Let me see what I can do." Well, after 15 minutes we did get 2 piccollos.

I had paid a $50 deposit, but despite this, by now, all I wanted to do was leave. They could keep the $50. However, my grandson was hungry, so I said, OK let's order for him.

We ordered 2 coffees, 1 glass of apple juice, 1 small bowl of chips and a Marguerita pizza (with a very sparse topping and no gluten-free options). It cost $75. This was more expensive than our usual Bathers' Pavilion Bistro in Balmoral Beach. Sadly, they were fully booked.

To add insult to injury, I received an automated email this morning: "If you enjoyed your experience The Vintage Secret Garden, Galston or your experience wasn't great, we want to make it right. Please let us know by CLICKING HERE as we are always looking to improve."

Well, I did CLICK HERE only to have my virus protection software interceed with a message stating that it had prevented me from visiting an unsafe website!

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