The Paddock Bakery Geelong — Restaurant in Victoria

Had worst experience ever, service, food, atmosphere not good as should be expected from online reviews. Was really looking forward to going as im from out of state. So loud and noisy in there everyone yelling to place order which is confusing with 2 signs above counter... "order here" at both ends of counter glass shelves. Music at scream level! Worst of all this place is 100% NOT DISABILITY friendly! No ramp at entrance. If you are on walker or crutch, etc don't expect to get to this restaurant easy, even tho its right at, heaps of stairs to get down or back up, entrance to all shops in this section. I use a walker and had to walk all the way back out to street, walk to next parking lot, then proceed through that parking lot, neither of which has safe out of traffic walkway, down a narrow alley thru unattended bushes, back the length of main parking lot just to get to the front door! Whew! Then enter the unfriendly hard to open door to the chaos. Once inside no place to sit except tables up on "pedestal" area with NO RAMP access. Other wise eat outside, which was hot out and no tables left in shade anyway. Ordered food, managed, with help, to get up to table area to sit. Food, very expensive, was brought to us, looked nice but what a disappointment. Salad covered in oil, supposed to be lemon dressing, was really bad. Over cooked small handful of chicken, few grapes, all rocket leaf and few slivered almonds? Sandwich, veggie, pre cooked zucchini and green/red peppers in oil, smear of what taste like cream cheese, tough as week old sourdough bread, which was obviously not fresh. At $22 for smallish salad, $15 for sandwich, it was not worth the time or money. If I could give minus star point I would. Never go...

The Paddock Bakery has a vast indoor & outdoor space, with a glass walled bakery at its heart, it’s obvious they’d have a great selection of breads, pastries & baked good. We grabbed menus & chose a table outside. The menu is bigger than most with lots of unique dishes & use’s in house items.

We ordered a Rustic avocado, a Purple toast & a latte each.

The 7 grain whole meal sourdough is scrumptious with typical crust & chewy centre & the avocado was fresh & had lots of texture with the sunflower seeds, pepitas & pistachios, it did leave quite a bit of bread on display, while the radish garnish looked old + dry and the lemon wedge was missing! The sides - the egg was poached well & bacon was crispy too. The Purple toast looked colourful but underwhelming. The sourdough again was scrumptious with its crunchy crust & chewy centre while the beetroot & Za’atar puree was thin on the ground & 3 small dollops of goats feta. The eggs were poached well & the fresh rosemary added a pop, the honey walnuts were nice but ultimately stuck to my teeth. what was there was well made it just seemed skimpy. The chorizo had great griddle marks & had some zest.

Overall our breakfast was well made & presented. Service wise, you do go & place your own order - couldn’t find table water but cutlery & basics were in a crate on each table, the counter was staffed well & they were polite but you barely saw floor staff. Yes it is pricey ($72) & for the cost we were left...

A new favourite for me. The menu has plenty to choose from. The place is huge so of course lots of tables to choose from, plenty of high chairs too.

So far I've tried the sausage roll and salad, was yum and huge! The biscoff milk shake, again huge-yum as well.

And the following time I tried the Dubai cookie which was recommended, was extremely delicious, got the strawberry and white choc muffin for my husband, he said it was nice but not amazing. I tried their matcha strawberry drink,which was actually yum, im not usually a fan of matcha. It wasn't bitter which was great and the strawberry jam was yum and the teo mixed was perfect. She didnt put strawberry milk in like I'd seen on their insta post, but it was still nice. One thing that was totally revolting was the signature hotel chocolate which looked so cool in their posts, but wow, so yuck. There was way too much marshmallow and it wasn't toasted enough, and finally when I could remove some of that to get to the hot chocolate, that was so strange, kind of salty but very yuck. And I thiught ill mixthem together and maybe it'll improve the taste, it did not! So I would NOT recommend trying that one. I'm keen to try their other cookies and some of the other yummy lunch items. Don't worry the hot chocolate didnt put me off...