Caroline's House of Chicken Cafe — Restaurant in Victoria

This is the second time I stopped at Caroline's House of Chicken with my family on the way home from Mt. Buller. Admittedly the first time was during Covid when Melb was in lock down but were treated quite rudely being directed outside before I could even put my EFTPOS card back in my wallet. Highly stressful time for everyone so l let it slide. UNTIL YESTERDAY..... tried again, ordered with my children and was informed if the shop became busy "it's ok because you are the only ones here, but if we get 10 customers you'll have to wait outside". 3 customers walked into the shop and the lady - presume the owner - told us we would have to go outside and wait in our car. Our car was parked some 400m away so my children and I tried to take shelter from the wind and rain while waiting. One customer grabbed his food and left immediately, the other 2 customers left about a minute later leaving the shop empty and my family still outside in the cold. Finally after standing in the elements our food was ready. The lady - who was WELL aware I was annoyed then proceeded to tell me she had to do it because of density limits. DENSITY limits that no longer apply, especially when they were not even close to the capacity she stated. The shop has no signs displaying this to customers, instead just the rudeness of forcing customers outside. When I told her - as a fellow shop owner - that this is no longer the case she proceeded to argue with me. Much to my dismay the chips were overcooked and my chicken was the driest thing I had encountered all day. Do NOT stop to support this business, there are plenty of other friendly, accommodating options to eat in this...

Visited there today undecided between chicken and chips or fish and chips. When I got there, there were only 3 pieced of cooked fried chicken in the warmer, so a wait was in in order for chicken, so fish and chips it was. After looking at the menu, having mild palpitations, I ordered a piece of fish $9, min chips $5, SM Dimmy$3, potato cake $1.20. I must admit that $9 for a piece of fish was surprising, not to mention the min chips. To be fair it was a large serve of chips, enough for four, not one. Just too much for a minimum. Less dollars, less chips would be better. Next surprise was a card surcharge, not even mentioned. I know this is a tourist town, but... The fish looked a good size until I found a 50mm air pocket at one end, the batter was falling off, oily (as was the potato cake), and it tasted as frozen fish does. The dimmy could have been hotter. Overall very average, and wasn't...

Ordered a half roast chicken and a hamburger with the lot. The hamburger bun was not toasted even though there was plenty of time for them to do it. This made it a below average burger. The worst part however was the chicken. It had an almost off smell and was very pink inside. When I took it back inside, the cook/owner says there was nothing wrong with it and it didn't smell. I begged to differ, it was smelly and not fresh. Her reaction was to become very angry. After a short time she agreed to refund the cost of the chicken when I said she would have to pay the medical costs if my partner ate it and got sick. After that we went to IGA and got a far superior properly cooked whole roasted chicken for less than the cost of Caroline's half chicken. They seem like a lot of tourist town takeaways who don't care...