Ballarat Railway Station Refreshment Room

I really value the fact that this old style station cafe is preserved, it has nice memories of decades gone by. There are few left, especially with the Transport Department's decision to remove the take away food kiosks at Flinders St Station in Melbourne we lost them and the charm they brought to the station. What I've found over the years though is the food quality is alarmingly good, undercutting what you might expect from a station cafe. I think their $7 Caesar salad which I had this time and have before is delicious and just as good as one you'd pay more than twice that for at a good cafe and I really enjoy their scalloped potatoes as well. I was very happy with the coffee I got this time too and the staff are really nice.

Visited on Sunday 28th August. Called in to get a takeaway coffee before catching the train back to Melbourne. Disappointed to see the place a little run-down but guess most people are in a hurry and don't hang around too long. Not sure I'd choose to buy food cooked there, the coffee was ok.

Sunday nights can be a bleak time, but we managed to get a piece of fish, a sandwich and a beer here. A pleasant historic room with much to admire, and we were not even catching a train !

Waiting to hand over child to mother after access visit on this freezing cold day father was asked to show proof of double vaccination. Worker refused to accept stamped certificate issued after 2nd vac, stubbornly refused to listen to the father's story of his proof and would not allow father and eight year old son to wait inside with their drinks, leaving them to sit outside in the cold.

Extremely rude staff that couldn’t even say good morning back to me. After not having customers for so long due to covid you would think you could at least welcome people back politely. Nancy really needs to learn how to speak to customers because ignoring people speaking to you and then only speak when wanting payment is going to result in less and less people coming back.