Fantastico bar-deli — Restaurant in Victoria

Long time customer here--who will no longer be going back.

I've watched the tone of this place from one of being friendly and welcoming to gets an neighbours to one of being increasingly insular and hostile to patrons.

You used to be able to freely walk to the bakery next door, but they decided to wall this off years back. You used to be able to use the internet freely while you eat. No longer. You used to be able to buy a pastry at the bakery next door, come to Fantastico, buy a coffee and some food, and sit down and enjoy it all together. No longer.

Last time I did this, a man working there zero'd in on the fact that I had a box with a sausage roll in it sitting next to my coffee. The box was sitting behind my backpack, closed, as I was bringing the sausage roll home with me. I wasn't eating it.

The man stood on his tippy toes so he could see over my backpack in an attempt to identify the box. He then walked awkwardly to the other side of the room to see it from another angle. Then, he finally approached my table and rudely told us that we were not allowed any "outside" food in the establishment. I told him that I had bought it for later and it was just sitting there with the rest of my stuff, and that I had purchased items from Fantastico, too. He didn't care, and told me not to do it again.

The attitude of the baristas is equally bad. They look visibly annoyed every time they take an order. No smiles. No pleasantries. They really seem to disdain people who go to the cafe. I don't know who does the hiring here, but it needs to change.

It's sad to see how far this place has fallen. The baked goods were never very good, Fol Epi, next door, is far superior. But it was still at nice place to grab a coffee and sit and catch up on some emails. No love lost though now that Fol Epi serves coffee too I guess. I'll be next door...

A nice place and with good drinks. Both my partner and I got tea lattes and they were well made and delicious, the two people working the barista counter were very nice as well. I’ve also ordered from the kitchen previously and had good experiences with the staff.

I don’t know if I’ll go back though, my partner and I were sitting on the covered patio to wait out the rain a bit and we were chatting, the patio had been about half full and after a while the other folks around us had left. An employee I hadn’t seen earlier came out and started loudly packing up the patio furniture. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt but it felt super passive aggressive and seemed very intentional to make us leave. (Like every time I would try to talk he would scrape the chairs around on the concrete much louder than necessary, hard to misread that as it being a coincidence) If he had used his words and said the patio was closing we would’ve happily moved on, but it was also only 2:20pm and their hours said they’re open until 4 (also when we walked back to our car about an hour later I thought I still saw customers inside?) so I’m unsure what the rush was to make us leave other than we were an inconvenience to him at that moment. It was very weird and unwelcoming. Normally I wouldn’t complain about this kind of thing but we were having a nice time and it definitely ruined...

Horrible experience today. Staff is confused. I ordered take out only to find out I could not sit on their patio as we had not ordered to sit in although they did not offer sit in when I ordered. No one was sitting on their patio at the time. I explained that I was meeting someone with physical disabilities and we needed to sit down. The manager asked me what kind of disabilities and suggested to sit somewhere else - as in a low wall nearby. She eventually allowed me to stay, but told me 4x that this was the last time she would allow that. When I sit down she asked me if my friend had arrived - basically telling me not to sit before he arrived. He showed up 3 min later and she found out that he is unable to hold a coffee cup and needs it on a table. I ll never come back. I have to say that I never go out of my way to put a negative review. My friend and I exited the seating area and sat in the stairs nearby as he needed me to fix his helmet. A young lady named Jessica walked by us and told us to move. I was a tad confused. She was quite rude and told me that they own Dockside and we needed to move. I fixed the helmet and departed. Ill wait to hear from the owner for an apology. If you go to Dockside please visit Fol Epi - stay away from Fantastico. See other recent reviews dealing with...