The Riverdeck Kitchen — Restaurant in Victoria

Downright Racist... A very disappointing and disrespectful experience. Four of us went to this place around 10ish to have brunch - we were told the wait time is 45 mins (which we were completely okay with) as we understand Sundays are busy for everyone; even though the restaurant was relatively empty. One of us went to the counter to order and was told the orders would be taken on the table. Knowing that we are ready to order, we were still ignored for 20 minutes. Our server in those 20 mins cleaned cutlery, took order of white people who came after us, cleaned the glass door and roamed around. Anyways this girl smiled to everyone except us. Finally we place our order and the racist staff (female - 5'10 height blonde long hair); she kept telling us that multiple ingredients are extra (I can appreciate that people get upset when you charge them extra but we clearly stated that we're okay with additional charges) she still had the need to sort of portray that we can't afford the food there which by the way was very below average. We asked if our coffees can be served earlier by any chance and she said "The coffees will come out when they come out" Seriously I understand that serves are human beings and they can be stressed, tired or have a bad day but oh my god that does NOT give you a leeway to be racist to others or treat them disrespectfully. This one female who is not people aware ruined our entire Bright experience. Please train your staff - teach them customer service, educate them about inclusivity. I would NEVER go back to this place and would never recommend...

The place is dog friendly, but I wondered if they also meant the food? One bite of the pricey ($27) open style steak sandwich had me gagging, I quickly grabbed the beetroot relish and proceeded to try again thinking surely this will be something sweet to accompany the steak sandwich somehow, wowee was I wrong, hit with a blast of ANISEED oil. I then began to disect the meal, thinking the bread should be palatable, nope. Coleslaw and the fried egg were ok but was also tainted by whatever was wrong with the scotch fillet. I would not recommend the open style steak sandwich. It was an expensive waste that my dog loved. However, the coffee was great, and the side of sweet potato wedges were absolute top notch.The place is dog friendly, but I wondered if they also meant the food? One bite of the pricey ($27) open style steak sandwich had me gagging, I quickly grabbed the beetroot relish and proceeded to try again thinking surely this will be something sweet to accompany the steak sandwich somehow, wowee was I wrong, hit with a blast of ANISEED oil. I then began to disect the meal, thinking the bread should be palatable, nope. Coleslaw and the fried egg was ok but was also tainted by whatever was wrong with the scotch fillet. I would not recommend the open style steak sandwich. It was an expensive waste that my dog loved. However, the coffee was great, and the side of sweet potato wedges was...

I’ve been visiting here for years and have always had such lovely experiences, which makes this visit really disappointing.

On our first visit this trip, the lady at the front was lovely but clearly a bit lost and disorganised — turning people away to make room for those with dogs outside. We stood at the entry for about five minutes waiting to be seated, but she disappeared altogether, so we ended up leaving. It wasn’t even busy.

We decided to give it another go the next day and stopped in for a couple of takeaway coffees. The young lady who took my order was lovely — she’d just finished ringing it up when an older lady came over and abruptly told her, ignoring me completely, “We’re not doing takeaways.” The young staff member politely said they’d just taken an order for takeaways, but the older lady went to the baristas, came back and said, “No, we’re too busy inside for takeaways.” No politeness, just rudeness.

I told her that the last two days had been the worst hospitality I’ve ever seen at Riverdeck. I’m not sure if they’re tired or just cranky, but perhaps it’s time to rethink how they’re treating both customers and their young staff — they’re learning from you, and this wasn’t a...