Lakeside Cafe - Epping

A good cafe, almost an oasis at the Botanic Gardens. This is a very pleasant place to meet with people, or take a break after walking through the beautiful gardens. Not open for evening meals, but has a very good lunch menu.

I am a zoo member so I go to the zoo quite often and now that they have changed to the Lakeside Cafe it has totally transformed and I almost always stop here for lunch. I normally get one of the salads as they are super cheap and quite fresh and every now and then I will get something larger like the pulled pork bun and maybe a wine or 2. It's quite nice when it's sunny to sit outside on deck over looking the Japanese gardens, have a cold beer and relax from walking around the zoo.

I would not rush back and would recommend bringing your own food if possible as it was not that great but it was eatable. The place was a bit grotty, the coffee was okay. The menu was okay but service was not so great either.

I had gone to the Zoo yesterday on 14/07/2015 and stopped by the bistro for coffee and chips. I was visiting the Zoo with my sister’s family who were from overseas. We were at the bistro in the mid-afternoon. My brother in law and I were queuing up to order and when it came to our turn my brother in law asked the lady who took our orders what the specific table was having as it really looked nice. The lady said that “I cannot hear you if your back is facing me!!” I told her that she does not need to be rude. I understand what she was trying to say but if she only could have taken some time to listen, she would have exactly understood what he meant. Unfortunately the lady was not wearing a name tag for me to get her name. She was wearing glasses. I am only identifying her clearing to ensure that feedback is provided as I was very embarrassed that someone from overseas had to experience this. This is definitely not an Australian Culture to be rude! Most importantly the bistro was not crowded at all so I am not sure why this happened. There were only 5 tables occupied.Apart from this the restaurant was dirty with food all over the ground. It was mid-morning and the bistro would have just been opened. I started to think if it was cleaned previous night. There were tables with food scraps everywhere. On another note – I have just noticed that there are so many bad feedbacks on this website on this restaurant and no one has done anything about this. Who is reviewing this and what has been done. I don’t see a point of gathering feedback if nothing is being done. I will be monitoring for some feedback and I do not receive anything I will get this escalated to gain some outcome from all the feedback.

Stopped by for some lunch as the outside kiosk areas were crowded. Went inside the bistro and the floor was filthy with food litter, tables vacant but dirty plates remained there for ages. We ordered 2 coffees and 2 meals. After 30 mins we realised those who ordered after us had all received their food. We went and asked about it and had to repeat our order. No apology, nothing. About another 15 mins later we were finally served our food and drinks, again no apology or recognition that we had been there an hour (waiting to order then waiting for food). The food was bad. Stale bread roll with the burger, and a soggy sandwich. We waited so long and once our food arrived, we couldn't wait to get out of there! Should've gone hungry instead!