Omari Bendigo — Restaurant in Victoria

Reasons why you shouldn’t visit Omari! There is no reason besides my own desire to not have my new favorite coffee shop become so popular that I’d have to book casual coffee dates instead of just showing up.

If you only read one review, let it be this one. This place is amazing. I waited a long time to be able to visit this place. Just before Omari had their fire, my Mum and Aunt and myself decided that we were going to do regular coffee dates and try somewhere new every time until we tried every place in Bendigo that sells coffee (well dine in establishments anyway) well Omari was the fourth coffee shop on our list to visit and it was only the fourth and not the first because up until the 3rd place, we didn’t even know Omari existed. And then just as we were about to organize our visit, we found out they had a fire and had to temporarily close down and we were devastated for them but looked forward to visiting when they were back on their feet. In the meantime, we visited many other coffee shops, each of us giving the shop a score out of 10. This needed to include, the environment, the food quality, cost, and staff to customer interactions and so we had a pretty good idea by now what we liked and what we didn’t.

Finally, today 29/10/2024 we visited Omari! And we all gave them a 10, not something that had happened before. I don’t want to tell you how amazing the coffee flavor was or how generous the mug was, I really don’t want to tell you how delicious the scones and jam and cream was or the fact that you get 2 scones not just one!!!

I really shouldn’t tell you how comfortable and relaxing the environment is. Or how despite having many customers at the time, the set up is so perfect that no one really impacts anyone else’s experience. that this place is a gem and really should have way more customers than I saw today, in some of the other coffee shops we have felt pushed out or rushed, ignored or over served, and most of the time the enjoyment just wasn't perfect, but omari is so chill, and yes we stayed for hours and didnt get rushed at all, you wont find rickety rocking tables or get disturbed by riff raff that stalk the towns street, its just so relaxing, and the staff, they know how to match their customers energy, especially DAVID give that man a raise haha....Thanks for the banter mate my mum and aunt really are playful.

But honestly all the staff was amazing, the food we didn’t order that others did gave me FOMO (Fear of missing out) and it looked and smelled divine, they also have a loyalty program which, who doesn’t love that and I mean when your done you can just go for a strole in the park its just perfect, well-done OMARI! 10/10 we will be back and I secretly hope that my review doesn’t make you too popular…..I’m kidding Your doing that all on your...

Came here today with the intention of having Lunch. As a local business that has recently re-opened since being gutted by fire, I was excited to try this place and support their recovering business. The location, ammenities and scenery are fantastic. But that’s where it ends. Myself and one other walked in to ask for a table - 15 minutes later the waitress who lacked interpersonal skills directed us to a table on the deck (as we had dogs). No menus or water were given upon being seated, nor was there any offer for a drink to start. We sat for a further 10 minutes and watched staff serve table who were seated after us and clean the same vacant table 3 times. The employees are all well dressed in matching uniforms and equipped with earpieces and electronic POS equipment, however lack intentionality and tend to mill about aimlessly. There was a QR ordering system on the table and I did attempt to use it but eventually flagged down a waitress who was not at all forthcoming with information or proactive in greeting us and providing basic services. The menu looks fairly extensive. I ordered a smoothie as per the menu to start but was quickly disappointed when I was told they don’t offer those. My guest and I resorted to two small coffees and as we were already disappointed with the overall lack of attention to detail, we refrained from ordering meals as intended and opted for scones to share. The scones came out in around 5 minutes. The scones were not substantial, did not seem house made, and were served with very average jam and canned (fake) cream. They were ok but hardly startling. We finished our scones and still no coffees arrived, so my guest decided to go inside and request for them to be made takeaway. She was then informed that there would be a 15 minute wait on coffees as they were so “busy”. At this time the coffee order was then cancelled and we left. The place was barely half full. Overall, the location is all this place has going for it. It was a shame to have had a visit like this but the lack of interest and experience from the staffing group as a whole really tells. This place is being let down by fancy aprons and earpieces. Please work on polishing your customer experience and attention to detail. The...

*Edit following business owner reply to initial review - I've upgraded the service rating to 5 stars. They took the time to reply in a considered way and explained a lot. Great service from management. *

Visited with a reservation in a wet Sunday morning so they'd lost all of the seating out the front where we'd initially booked (more on that later). So inside was busy. Service was friendly throughout. When our server took our order she mentioned they were busy and there might be a wait. So we can't say we weren't warned, but fair to say she was correct. Coffee order took longer than you'd like but not critically so. It was the food that took a crazy long time. In the end it was lucky the front balcony wasn't open. I'd hate to think how long it may have taken with another 15 tables. All through, the staff were friendly and apologetic but gee it was slow. Food itself was good. Bacon is never bad right? Finally, not sure if Management read these or not but the AI phone system is a nightmare. All I wanted to do was check to see if the balcony reservation could be switched inside, but instead of being a quick 2 sentence chat with a person it became a dragged out frustrating experience with an AI system that insisted on verifying everything over and over. First off, I think if you're going to have AI answer your phone I think you should declare it at the start, but secondly for a simple request why do I need to spell my last name, give a phone number, reconfirm with a yes. It just went on and on for a simple task....