The Hatters Cafe

3 Reviews on “The Hatters Cafe”

• Mellington

  Would give zero if I could. Came here for brunch this morning honestly one of the worst, most disappointing service and dining experiences I have ever had, and for anyone reading this, Id recommend Clean Slate a few doors up, in case youre looking for an alternative. The standards of Hatters Caf have degraded shockingly since I last remember coming here, maybe 5-ish years ago. We should have seen the three tables of people and taken it as a sign we should go elsewhere, given it was 11am on a Saturday morning and this caf could seat around 50 people including outdoors seating. In years gone by, this caf would have been bustling on weekend mornings, with most tables full.There was a server polishing the door glass when we entered, she ignored us until I asked if we should just sit anywhere. She seemed sullen, but whatever, I would have been fine with this if her rudeness has been reprieved by the food. It wasnt.Another server asked if she could take our order, then interrupted me to go fetch a pen, which seemed odd but I thought, maybe shes new at this. I asked for sourdough with my poached eggs and side of mushrooms. The food arrived, and I was disappointed to see one undersized slice of toast that was clearly NOT sourdough. For $12, this was an absolute rip-off. I can get poached, organic, free-range eggs with 2 generous slices of sourdough in Melbourne CBD for $10. Anyway, I checked with the server whod brought our food and she confirmed that it was sourdough. No – this was just white bread, or at best the fake sourdough from major supermarkets that dont make sourdough from starters but add some sour flavouring to white bread and pass it off as sourdough. This was gobsmacking, given that Hominy Bakery, which makes proper sourdough/bread is two doors up. The butter came in a plastic disposable packet, like youd receive in an aeroplane meal (come to think of it, our meals were far worse than plane meals, fact). I ordered a hash brown because there just wasnt enough food in my meal, and it arrived clearly a reheated, frozen hash brown from McCains or similar, not made in-house.None of our three meals were seasoned whatsoever. I poured salt and pepper on mine and only ate my meal because I was hungry and wed have had to pay for them. The mushrooms were completely tasteless, and close to finishing my meal I found a clod of MUD in them, which put me off completely, but it was too late to send the meal back (and I had zero confidence that the replacement meal would be any better tbh). My mother finished them off, because she hates to see food go to waste, even if it tastes terrible. The only thing Hatters didnt drop the ball on was that they poached their eggs properly (but again, didnt season them). Oh, and they didnt burn my almond milk chai latte, which should not normally be something I need to commend cafes on, but this is literally one of the most positive things about this forgettable meal. Neither of the idle servers came to collect our plates until after wed already paid the bill.Overall, there was absolutely no love or care put into any of the meals served to our table, let alone the added insult of lack of hygiene in food preparation. The service was inattentive and sullen, despite the lack of customers, and this is one of the worst ever dining experiences I have had, period. It tainted my familys day of planned activities and safe to say, we will never return to Hatters. I dont think a caf run with such lack of care can stay open for long. Hatters are clearly banking on the fact that most customers are tourists who will likely not bother giving a review on a site like this because they arent going to be return customers, anyway, which is clearly a terrible and unsustainable means of running a dining establishment. Go to Clean Slate (formerly Fresh Caf) a few doors up, or the Korean Caf, next door!

  April 13, 2020, 4:15 pm

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• Felix Xu

  Can’t even cook medium-rare. So bad. And takes a long time to cook shit. We wait like an hour to get our things, and nothing tastes good. Except cola and water.

  October 9, 2017, 10:33 am

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• Aneta Jovanovski

  Service was strange here, it’s like they didn’t want to serve us or something and when they finallyyyyuy did our orders took a long time to come out when there was two other small tables besides us who had already gotten their food. My dish was very nice! Though the preparation could’ve been better. The white hot chocolate was pretty crappy. I think the overall price was a bit too expensive for what it is.

  November 8, 2016, 5:31 am

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