Paperbark Cafe Mount Evelyn, Melbourne

Paperbark Cafe Details

Paperbark Cafe Address

Kuranga Native Nursery
118 York Rd
Mount Evelyn VIC 3796
Map
Paperbark Cafe Menu
Paperbark Cafe Website

Paperbark Cafe Contact Info

Phone (03) 9760 8100
Fax No (03) 9737 1968
Emailinfo@kuranga.com.au

Cuisines

Modern Australian, Native Australian

Prices

Average Meal Price 23 - based on one main course only (entree could not be calculated)
Mains $15.00-$30.00

Hours

Mon to Sun 8:30am - 4:30pm

User Reviews of Paperbark Cafe, Mount Evelyn

Displaying: 1 - 2 of 2 reviews

1 of 1 reader found the following review helpful

3 Below Average

Food 3 Ambience 3 Service 5 Value 1

Almost nothing good to say, feel sorry for waitresses, neither of the dishes ordered from the menu were available, received substitute with no prior consultation or warning. Pie, strongly resembling a Four and Twenty was cold and tasteless and poorly presented. Disgusting value. Friend's quiche was also cold. Ordered house white and was charged $9.00 a glass (later reduced to $5 following a complaint). Need to lift their game considerably if they want to maintain a steady business. Not happy, Jan!

Aug 17, 2011

angrybird
1

6 Average

Food 9 Ambience 5 Service 2 Value 8

We went for our work Christmas break up after having been assured that the food was 'gorgeous' and the prices were great. Candour compels me to admit that the food was brilliant and the prices were very attractive. The service though, that's what they really need to work on.

It was a Friday lunch, the place was reasonably full but moving at a good clip and there seemed to be sufficient staff. Their problem, however, came from dealing with a group. We were a party of 20, which is bound to be challenging but shouldn't be an issue for a restaurant/cafe that can fit 60-80. First disappointment came with the table. They'd obviously tried to squish us into the smallest number of tables they could, hence, we were very intimate with our work mates once we all sat down.

Additionally, we had booked and requested an outside table yet were seated squishily indoors. If there was an issue with this, then letting us know would have been much more polite. Second disappointment was partially caused by our party in that we needed two different billing systems. Part of our party are members of our work social club, others weren't, so this required two different orders for the one table. That seemed to be okay except somehow their electronic ordering system lost the bigger party's order and this didn't become apparent until the others meals had arrived.

Hence, most of the table got to watch the others tuck into their food, while our order was retaken. Surely on a table of 20 it's not that hard to get orders arriving at the same time, especially since they had to have known that approximately 15 orders just disappeared. The ‘ready' meals should have been held back until the others were ready.

I had a third personal disappointment which was when the main lot of food arrived. Somehow, my order had been lost. A part of my order had been retaken, which was for some extra bread, and that arrived but the main dish didn't arrive. When the waitress checked she informed me that they only had 5 orders of chicken for the table and then asked 'Did I want the food?' Well hello! I've been sitting there for an hour, watching others eat, and true, enjoying company but to then ask "did I want my order", was downright insulting.

Of course I wanted it and I didn't want to wait. Thankfully someone from my work split their chicken dish with me (and we asked for an extra plate and was told it would arrive quickly. 5 minutes later we went fetch it ourselves). And then I split my chicken with her, when it arrived, in less than the time the waitress indicated, which was just as well. This was a big disappointment though and the waitress handled it extremely poorly.

You do not imply that the guest did not order it, not on a table of 20 people of which at least 4 were present in close quarters when the order was taken and not after you have stuffed the order up once by losing it.

After having spoken with others from the office, they had similar problems with service. Not that the dishes ordered never arrived but smaller things, like "Oh I'll just get that for you" which then never arrived. The case in question was to do with dessert. Desserts were displayed in a glass faced fridge so that you could pick out the yummy cake you would like. They had run out of apple crumble but after being told that there was none left, another waitress announced that "there's some out the back".

This new apple crumbled was asked to be fetched to ascertain it's yumminess but it never appeared. So either they had run out or they hadn't. The lady in question had another dessert in the end. While it's a small thing, it does detract from the dining experience.

In consolation the food was lovely. There were buffalo burgers with mozzarella, chicken with wild rice, salmon, dips and fresh baked bread were popular with our table. And for dessert the Lime Chocolate tart was a definite table favourite. The serves were generous and the prices good (though I wasn't paying they were good prices to which I would have had no objection paying).

The emphasis is to try to use local ingredients or something definitively Australian and this provides a great touch of freshness and originality to the menu. I enjoyed my meal a lot, when it arrived.

I'd go back as the food was good and the prices reasonable but I would hope that the service had improved a lot or that smaller groups weren't as problematical for them. One wonders sometimes, if some restaurants shouldn't rediscover paper as an ordering method.