Cafe Vic - Melbourne

We arrived an hour and a half before the show was due to start. There was a delay taking patrons to their reserved tables. The place was full and the staff struggfling to cope. The staff were unfailingly smiling and friendly but the organisation seemed...a shambles with staff dashing in all directions. We ordered one dish each from the main menu and wine. My scallop pie must be the most horrible dish I have ever been served in a restaurant as well as being badly presented. The pastry was too touch to cut with my knife and the contents of trhe pie best forgotten although I think I did find a scallop in there. The wine did not arrive until some time after we had started eating.. We eventually got up and asked for a dessert menu. We ordered dessert as well as coffee but the dessert never appeared. The coffee was acceptable. When we went to pay we were given a 15% discount because of the non sppearance of dessert, which we appreciated. We realised that with the whole place filling up almost at once with theatre goers it was difficult for the staff whoi were doing their best but there seemed to be no system, no organisation and certainly poor food is inexcusable. We have dined here in the past and been happy but after last night we would never dine there again. The evening was to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Thank goodness the show was good because the dinner experience certainly was not.

In this day and age, booking a restaurant should be easy. If you have access to a computer, book online or if not, make a phone call. Apparently this is all too hard for Cafe Vic. We have often dinned there and our experience has...always been relatively good. I like the fact we can dine before a show knowing we 'll be out in time for the performance. On Saturday when I realised I couldn 't book online I called them. Couldn 't believe the message, please leave all your details, name, contact number, date time of reservation and show you will be seeing it was what came next I couldn 't believe, if you don 't hear back from us assume your booking is OK, we 'll call you back if it 's not . Seriously, it never occurred to anyone in management this was problematic. Given the reservation was for the following Tuesday night, I wondered over the weekend if my reservation was ok or if there was a problem and if so, when was I going to get a call? So after hearing nothing from them, my small party of 5 including my mother who is a wheelchair, luckily arrived earlier than our 6.00pm booking to find the cafe closed. I 'm sure everyone can appreciate at this point, it 's not easy to find an alternative place to dine, both physically and with such time restraints. Luckily for us Cafe Barre, another Bar/Restaurant in the Arts Centre, was open, however, it quickly became obvious we weren 't the only people inconvenienced by Cafe Vic being closed. Soon Cafe Barre was swamped with diners who needed quick service and food. They were seriously understaffed and we spent an anxious hour chasing up drinks, food and the bill. Had Cafe Vic simply had a reliable booking system including a confirmation call or text I would have not booked disabled parking at the Art Centre and would have parked and dinned at Southbank. Is this really so hard??????? Absolutely no excuse other than pure laziness and arrogance on Cafe Vic 's behalf.

Visited Cafe Vic before we attended the Production Company's performance of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Range of food and drink available was reasonably priced given that we were on location. All of the lunch time food was excellent quality and served with a smile. We were...able to eat and run and managed to get to our performance with time to spare. This place is likely to get busy later in the day. Book and if possible pre order if you are in a hurry.

Very disappointed. We were here for lunch before we saw Chicago and our selection of food was miserable. Prefabricated sandwiches, wraps, soup or spinach and fatty cheese in the pastry. Two of us had the salmon sandwiches that were cold and tasteless, one of...we had the ‘warm’ pastries with a tiny salad. The salad was cold and most it was off, dark and slim. The pastry was tasteless, dry and tepid. The coffee was good. This could be a big eatery if the menu should be changed and modernized. The people who want to go to shows either before or after eating, so please improve this cafe. Maybe dinner restaurants are better, you don't know.

We were in Chicago and decided to stop at this restaurant for a quick bite. I wanted to start with a cocktail, but the drink options were limited and mostly focused on Campari, which I didn't care for. However, my seafood chowder was delicious. My sister and mom both had the steak and thoroughly enjoyed it. The friendly staff provided good service.