Bridgewater Bakehouse Bendigo — Restaurant in Victoria

Against my better judgement, we called in to Bridgewater Bakery in Bath Lane Bendigo with my elderly father today, as he thought this was the same as the original Bridgewater Bakery in Bridgewater…. As I had been there before and had a terrible experience with food, coffee and customer service, I tried to a talk him out of it…. It wasn’t busy, so that should have been an indication of what was to come… My partner had to ask for a cloth to clean the filthy table and when she moved the table to make room and add a chair for my elderly father the guy behind the counter went off! He leant across the counter, raised his voice and ordered her not to move the table… When we tried to explain he just got louder and angrier… The other staff behind the counter were obviously embarrassed by his inappropriate and aggressive behaviour…One said under her breath… “he’s always like this.” She told us this guy was the Manager. How sad for these poor staff members. This guys attitude, intimidating behaviour and the response from the staff obviously indicated this was nothing new and he obviously lacked any modern communication and customer service skills… We left and went down to the Bendigo Original Pie Shop at the end of the Mall (where I initially wanted to go)… It was packed and the the staff were happy to shuffle a table around and assist… The food was lovely, well presented and the coffees were great… The Manager delivered our order to the table and was happy to chat with my Dad, who remembered visiting the hole in the wall pie servery some 30 years ago… Steer clear of Bridgewater Bakehouse Bendigo and head to the Bendigo Original Pie Shop, You’ll be safer and enjoy the experience… The Manager of Bridgewater Bakehouse Bendigo is a dinosaur and a bully who is destroying the Bridgewater...

Oh dear.....my previous review with 5 stars (see below)... needs to be amended down to 1 star.

Vanilla slices purchased 9/11/2020 were so average. Changed/cheapened their recipe!!!! Icing now a simple sickly sweet thin coating instead of their previous luscious thicker icing that gooed onto your fingers (yum). The previous glorious layers of flaky pastry have been replaced by a thin layer!! The entire cake was just sickly sweet. That's all I can say - will not be making any further stops in Bridgewater or Bendigo for these. Don't bother.

This was my previous review after 5 trips and 15 vanilla slices last year ........

"Yum! Best Vanilla Slices. Why? Try one, even if you think you don't like vanilla slices - it's only because you haven't had a great vanilla slice yet! Delicious, luscious, generous, and filling! Perfect...

The rudest staff we have ever encountered in Australia. The woman serving was so horrible to us, and her face was so nasty she would have turned the milk sour. She turned the food warmer off when we walked through the door and said no hot food even though there was food in there. We were told it was too late for toasted sandwiches it was 1.45pm. I said we wanted to sit down and get some food and drinks, she refused to give us plates, put sausage rolls in bag to eat at table. Don’t know her name as could only just see her head over the counter not her name badge. Tables were filthy. My 82 year old Mother was quite upset by the experience. We told her to forget it and we walked out and will never ever return. Terrible experience. This place gives Bendigo a bad name. If I could have given it a zero rating of stars...