New Leaf Cafe Bairnsdale — Restaurant in Victoria

We’ve been coming here for years, always loved the vibe, coffee and food. Today however (understandably it was a public holiday and people probably didn’t want to be working) we noticed a lack of care/ friendly service. Firstly, we walked in and sat outside, ordering straight from the barcode as we usually do. Then a lady comes out after ordering to tell us from afar that we have to come back and order off the limited blackboard near front register (although there was no sign actually saying normal menu not able to be ordered from, it just looked like an extra specials board). So we swapped our meals and sat back down. My partner is pescatarian (only eats seafood) so ordered the seafood chowder. In hindsight we should have asked about this being fish only, as it had bacon in it. My partner had to pick all this bacon out. When asking Sue/Suzie (lady bringing our food out) if all the chowder has bacon in it she had absolutely zero customer service or understanding and simply answered “yep” while walking away - didn’t give our question a further thought. We aren’t sure what what we did wrong to experience such a cold response. We usually love supporting New Leaf and their excellent food and service so this has left us feeling a bit...

Absolutely appalling lunch experience. First it took 40 minutes for a pot of tea to be delivered to the table, then my boiling water was poured on my lap by the waitress. 10 minutes later a microwaved scone was delivered. 20 minutes, after being so very polite and patient waiting, I went to the front counter to ask where the rest of our meal was, to be asked "didn't you get it?" Nope, we did not. What did you order I was asked? I told her my order only to be told again they'd already delivered it. Nope, still no food here. Finally a staff member thought to look through her receipts only to see that they'd spiked our order after delivering the scone, so the rest of our order has gone unnoticed. Then I was was asked what I wanted to do about it, I asked her in return what she could do to fix it, could she serve us some food? After some huffing and puffing on their side of the counter as if it was my fault, not their inept service and another 15 minutes later .... I had some food slapped down in front of me that looked as if it had been thrown together. So disgusted with the poor service and attitude...

My partner and I came in on Saturday afternoon, meal was fine just had problems with the drinks. We had to send our drinks back 3 times! We had ordered a small mocha thick shake with lactose free milk and a large chocolate thick shake, first time they came out both large and weren’t thick. Second time the chocolate came out as a small and the mocha one was not made with lactose free milk and was a large, then once I had to sent the drinks back the second time the younger 3 girls were all standing around talking and staring at us clearly talking about us!! The last time the drinks came out mocha still wasn’t a thick shake and was a large and the chocolate was still a small.

Very disappointed in the service. I work at a cafe myself so I don’t understand what the issue was. The customer service needs some real improvement, too many young staff that don’t smile or say anything when at the tables as well as clearly talking bad about customers and making them feel uncomfortable.

Overall extremely...