Bibo Cafe + Restaurant — Restaurant in Victoria

I give this restaurant the lowest rating possible based on my experience.

Here is my experience of Bibo Cafe. It's fresh on my mind because i just got off the phone with their head / manager. I had heard from a friend who lived in Ballarat her whole life that there was a place that sold bottomless coffee. (I'm not originally from Ballarat and am a bit of a foodie) That sounded pretty interesting and her other recommendation of Turret cafe was really good. However I forgot the name of the restaurant and so I googled, 'Bottomless coffee in Ballarat' Bibo was the first restaurant that came up so with high hopes I called up. I was very polite and asked if they had an unlimited coffee option.

The man suddenly became a bit cold and felt slightly hostile. He started asking me things like. "what kind of place would sell bottomless coffee?" "Can I ask you, is this a prank call?" . "What kind of coffeeshop would sell bottomless coffee for $4.50."

I never mentioned at anytime a price of $4.50. Neither was I rude in any way. I was puzzled by his sudden change in tone. I work in customer service so I always try to keep a positive tone. I then tried explaining that this wasn't a prank and I was told there was a bottomless coffeeshop place in Ballarat. A simple yes or no or even just a polite "I don't such a place exists but i'll let you know what we have on our menu..." would have been fine.

Now that I think about it, bottomless coffee does not necessarily have to mean unlimited. It could be that they have coffee beans in a pot and pour hot water over them until the beans are all used up. Or viable if there was a time limit but besides the point. I kept telling him that I wasn't insulting him and wasn't trying to escalate the situation.

Then he says, "You insulted me more than I insulted you by asking me that question". I calmly told him that I didn't appreciate being talked to this way. Then he responded with this comment:

"Well I wouldn't have talked to you this way if you were dumb enough to ask such a stupid question"

These were his exact words. Personal comments are never nice and I felt quite insulted. Unfortunately for this man he picked someone who doesn't just get abused like that and forget about it.

I am posting this exact review on every site I can find, TripAdvisor, Zomato, Facebook etc.

What horrible customer service. He just completely changed my mood from chirpy to disappointed. And yes this was definitely the manager of the restaurant. While I don't have any comments on the actual food or the place I can tell you that if he treats his customers like this, he obviously treats his staff like this too, and I would imagine its a toxic work environment. Don't feed a business that will inevitably shut down.

If anyone wants to comment anything else please feel free to respond or send me an email.

IF i get an apology from the manager by PHONE CALL. Not text, not email. Then I will gladly take these reviews down and forgive you for personally insulting my intelligence.

Hope you realise that insulting a person over the phone without any provocation whatsoever is not acceptable. If you don't realise this then I wish all the very best of luck to whoever...

The food is overpriced considering the quality, and the dirty utensils are just the beginning. The customer service is absolutely the worst.

I visited this café on Christmas. It was very busy, and after being seated, they didn’t even provide us with menus for more than 30mins, so I had to get them myself.

When our orders came out, one item was missing, and after pointing it out, they just told us to just eat as it was. I tried to understand, assuming it was because they were busy.

However, when it came to payment, there seemed to be a mistake. When we approached them about it, they completely overreacted.

I still believe my calculation was correct. If your calculation was right, you should have properly listed it on the menu in the first place.

they got angry, threw the money at us, and said, “Take it. Is this enough?”

We didn’t even confront them angrily—we politely approached to clarify the discrepancy.

I’m not upset about being overcharged by a few extra dollars. What I can’t accept is being treated unfairly. What did we do wrong to deserve being yelled at like that?

Maybe you’re okay with being fools who blindly accept higher-than-expected charges, but it’s only natural for a customer to question the bill and want clarification. As a business, it’s your responsibility to meet that expectation.

If you’re too busy to properly care for your customers, hire more staff or don’t operate at all on a public holidays. Customers are paying 1.5 times the usual price, why should they have to endure such terrible service?

This was truly the worst Christmas experience I’ve ever...

I've been here twice so far. I'll keep going. First time I went, I had the seafood chowder. It was tasty; it had around 4 different kinds of seafood with some veggies in there: bit of potato and broccoli and I like that. Today, I had the prawns in tomato confit. It had little bursts of lemon flavour every now and again, and I liked the vegies in there too: spinach and beans.

The atmosphere is cozy and relaxing. It's a large old converted home with various interesting bric-a-brac decor here and there. I spent a bit of time reading one of the books. Perhaps it was there for display purposes only, but, I kept it clean and put it back when I was done.

In particular, I noticed the gentleman of the establishment - I assume he is Charlie - and he is why I am spending time writing this review. He's friendly and chats with customers if they wish and it's not too busy. He is kind; he gave me slices of cake to take to my elderly parents. I told them about my lunch and how the cake was a gift from the Gentleman. Dad ate his slice right away and the whole piece was gone very quickly. He picked up the last crumbs with a finger to get every last bit. Mum is saving her slice for later. Thank you Charlie, for adding a touch of love...