Vaucluse House Tearooms — Restaurant in Sydney

We had a great time visiting the Vaucluse House this afternoon and decided to have a light and late lunch in the cafe located on the grounds to wrap up our beautiful Sunday afternoon. I wish we had decided to leave and not set foot inside this cafe.

Once we arrived, we waited to be seated and were sat down by a young waitress who was friendly and handed us menus. She informed us that the kitchen would be closing soon for lunch and that there were some items on the menu that would be unavailable. This was absolutely fine.

The issue we had was with a much older woman who we assume is the manager or perhaps one of the owners. (We don’t actually know for sure as she never introduced herself.) We begin perusing the menus and deciding what we would like to order. This older woman approaches our table and instantly asks us “Were you seated somewhere else?” To our shock, I responded with no and couldn’t grasp why this woman came over, who she was and what her issue was. We told her that we had just sat down at this particular table and were seated by a staff member. (I don’t know if it was because we weren’t supposed to be at this table) but instantly we felt uncomfortable. She then asks us if we were seated by someone. We were confused, as I think it’s clear that we were seated by someone already. Why would we walk in and seat ourselves?

Anyway, the woman then asks us if we are ready to order. But at this point, she appears annoyed and is coming across as apathetic. We tell her that we would like to order food, if it is still available which seems to be no problem. Fine. We decided to order two entrees (we weren’t that hungry) and three lemonades. But here is the kicker. Once we inform her of what we would like, she then responds with “Is that all?” In the most condescending and rude way I have ever heard. She then continues to insult us further by asking us if we are going to order wine. I’m sorry, we were not aware that we needed to order wine when coming into to this cafe. Clearly, this woman is concerned with only serving customers who would like to spend large amounts of money. Anyway, we place our order and she leaves. At this point, we are debating leaving the cafe as we instantly feel unwelcome and dare I say, inconvenient.

Shortly after, the lady returns and then proceeds to chastise us by saying “The next time you come, you need to order food for the table. Because now you will be charged three surcharges as a result.” So basically, what we gathered is this place requires everyone to order their own meal upon arrival. Fine. But what we didn’t appreciate is NOT being informed of this when she took our order and more importantly being spoken down to and treated with absolutely no respect. The icing on the cake was the fact that she tried to pin this all on the waitress who had sat us down. This woman took our order and at NO POINT did she make this condition clear. Do NOT make a mistake and then proceed to blame another member of staff when YOU are at fault. In addition, Who the hell chastises their customers and then proceeds to assume that they will return? My mother informed her that we were not informed of this condition once we were seated by her staff member to which the woman sheepishly laughed and apologised(she clearly didn’t like being put in place) We had never been here before and we certainly won’t return.

I have never been so disrespected and unwelcome when going into a cafe in my entire life. This woman could clearly learn a lesson or two about the hospitality industry from the waitress who sat us down and the girl who handled our check. They were the only saving grace as they were actually welcoming and polite.

By the way, the entrees we ordered were tasty but certainly not worth a bill that costed over $50 for two entrees and...

In summary: Great food and setting as always but abysmal service. Staff friendly but terribly incompetent. One of the rare times that bad service outweighs quality of food for us and left an overall negative experience.

Came on Sunday noon, 2 waitresses serving the outdoor area and clearly not coping with demand. Spent 10 MINUTES trying to find someone to take our order. Most of that time we couldn't even see any waiter at all. One waitress (#1) briefly came outside, looked in my direction as I was waving my arm and then ignored it, eventually I had to get up and go inside and ask for our order to be taken. Waitress #1 acknowledges and says she will come over to take our order, then proceeds to do 2 more tasks before coming over and finally taking our order. Bit infuriating.

Waitress #2 brings the food - arrived quickly with lovely taste and presentation. Apple juice comes with ice despite me specifically asking for no ice. One of the dishes is incorrect - we ordered the Vaucluse honey granola yoghurt but they brought the fruit salad w/ yoghurt. Waitress #2 kindly fixes it and brings out the right dish a few moments later.

However she doesn't bring a spoon, or the water refill that I previously asked for and promptly leaves. Now I spend another 10 minutes trying to find a waiter again to get us spoons and water. We literally cannot eat the yoghurt dish without spoons. Altogether I ask waitress#2 for water refill and spoons twice, she acknowledges both times and then continues doing other tasks and forgets both times. The 3rd time, after our water glasses have been empty and the yoghurt has been sitting there for 10 minutes unable to be eaten, I get up and go inside to get the spoons and water myself. Waitress #2 notices me and finally decides to bring them over.

This service really is unacceptable. I had to get up to serve my own table twice during the meal, and had to request water refill and spoons for a spoon-needing dish 3 times. Altogether we spent more time waiting for service than we did actually eating the food. You really do need more staff. I feel that one extra staff member during this time would have avoided all of these issues.

Sorry for being long-winded but I wanted to give precise feedback so that a place with such amazing food and scenery can bring its service...

I’m disappointed that I can’t give more than one star and I feel like this is being generous! We have visited this gorgeous location in the gardens of Vaucluse House on multiple occasions for a high tea. Todays experience began at 12:30pm with a 10min wait in a queue at the front when we could see the rest of our party sitting inside, after no one came to move people inside we decided to make our own way though, it felt unorganised and didn’t improve. Tea and coffee orders were taken, half of the drinks came out, a few more during the meal and one drink I had to ask repeatedly for and it came towards the end of the meal. The food tasted bland, hot food was barely lukewarm, macarons were chewy and soft…just not fresh at all, though the very scant offerings on the three tiered plate did look good. The scones were about the best thing and that’s what got this place the one star! Weirdly though for a table of eight we only had 6 scones and a small container of jam and cream. I requested more scones (twice) and we eventually received the two missing scones and extra condiments but where’s the attention to details and service? Again there weren’t enough small sandwiches for two each and I requested another plate (twice) which eventually came! It was just so badly run with staff who weren’t paying attention and couldn’t make sure that a table of 8 would have food for that amount of people. The wait staff were obliging yet when asked just took so long to come back and the maître d, well she didn’t look welcoming at all! This place just lacks the extra special touches that it used to have and the internal furnishings and bathrooms are dated. It’s just meh for pretty much everything except for the gorgeous garden it...