Basin Cafe

TLDR: horrible service by very young, poorly trained staff and very expensive menu

I came up to the basin after a terrible week to write some New Years resolutions on the hill and treat myself to a drink. This was actually the first time I left the house all week due to health reasons and was trying very hard to cheer up. I ordered an iced latte with soy milk. I could have perhaps said iced coffee, on reflection, because I was a bit flustered after not leaving the house all week and being quite hot and depressed. I was surprised at the price of $8.50 but waited and then was served a soy iced coffee with ice cream and whipped cream. I can’t have dairy so I tried to say politely ‘I’m so sorry I ordered it with soy, a soy iced latte’ and the girl who took my order, probably around 16-17 was so visibly angry at me she got bright red and I could see the muscles tense in her neck and she snapped ‘you said iced coffee but it’s fine I’ll make it again’. I was not rude to her, in fact I’m told I am excessively nice to service staff, probably because I worked service for years. I have not had dairy in coffee for about 10 years so I think it unlikely that I asked for iced coffee but nevertheless, why would someone order with soy milk if they wanted dairy? At every hospitality place I’ve worked at if someone asked for soy or some sort of non dairy swap out I was always instructed to inform them that the item contained other dairy (I thought this was obvious?)
I have no idea what I did to this girl to offend her so much that she slammed around the make bench muttering to other staff about me and then didn’t even call out my drink, just put it up on the bench and scowled across the cafe at me. I even saw an older lady (manager?) trying to talk her down. I must have looked shocked standing there because another staff member said ‘sorry about that’ somewhat dismissively.
There had begun quite a line behind me waiting to order and I was too shocked but if it was quieter I would have asked for a refund. I paid $8.50 to be yelled at by someone whose job it is to be nice, over an iced coffee that took a minute to remake (iced latte is just milk and a shot of coffee). I ended up throwing the drink away after a few sips because I was a little afraid she’d done something to it. I just sat down outside and cried and left.
I’ve never known this place for great service, they rely on location alone and the staff have always been indifferent to me rather than polite. But it would be really nice if owners explained to them that they are hired to be nice to people - that’s the job, that’s ‘hospitality’, just be friendly, it costs nothing. I’ve had customers personally insult me, make outrageous demands, sexual advances - the lot - and I have never once treated them like this. It’s entitled and awful - do teenagers these days think they’re too good for the service industry?
Save your money and get a coffee on the way out of town.

Seriously wanted my disabled child to eat outside and me inside the cafe due to ordering different size meals shame it looked like such a lovely place it’s amazing how common sense sometimes doesn’t prevail.

Absolutely fantastic place to eat, service is great! View is stunning! We had the French toast, fries and cauliflower bowl & was the best food we ate in Launceston.

Jenny was so friendly and very accommodating. The restaurant was clean. We enjoyed our meal with a fantastic view.

Visiting from Melbourne with family.love this place. Food is exquisitely delicious, coffee is great, amazing view of the gorge from the cafe and fantastic customer service. Highly recommend.

Great staff. Jenny was an amazing host and she took care of us so well. She went above and beyond in ensuring our toddler got the food of his choice (even off the menu).

Amazing views and great food. I would say the portions can be a bit more generous for the price but the taste was great. Definitely recommend if you are at the gorge.

We ordered drinks and 2 were forgotten. We went up to see what was going on and they brought us back the wrong drink.
When the meals came out they missed 1 meal and it took forever to come out.

This would have been ok if they were busy but there were 2 other tables in the cafe with us.

It also would have been partially ok if the staff were nice and apologetic about the mistake. But one of the staff members basically yelled at us from 2 tables away to tell us our food wouldn’t be too much longer. And when the missed meal eventually came out, the employee that placed it down hardly said anything at all.

Poor customer service and we won’t be going back, nor recommending it….

Customer service was great however the food was expensive ($30 for a burger and chips). Quality of food was fairly good and the views of the cafe were pretty brilliant.

Food was not too bad, though you are paying for the view over the gorge. Service a bit slow though.

I prefer the cafe on the other side of the gorge, but apparently it's closed Mon/Tue! Crazy!

Waited over an hour for sub par food. Complete waste of a day. Do not recommend. Especially for the price you pay! $51 for a burger, a kids nuggets and a bowl of fries. The burger came after everything else and it was a tiny overcooked patty, the bun was hard as a rock, completely inedible. I returned the burger and requested my money back and the waitress looked shocked as if it was worth the $24.50 I’d paid. I could have gone to McDonald’s and spent less for a better burger.

This place is a scam, outrageously, overpriced, I got a small cheesecake and vanilla slice for $13.80 and it was very mediocre, bland and just go to a local small bakery for much better food and value. P. S my mates chips were cold for 5$

Disappointed at their chocolate milk shake, its just a very sweet chocolate milk…. The iced coffee was okay but was not impressed by the taste of the coffee itself.

Visited today, gorgeous day, gorgeous views. Wait staff were friendly, 3 different wait staff come to the table to take order in the space of 10 mins. Coffee was hot, meals were warm not hot, seafood chowder had minimal amount of seafood. No table water offered. After meals and plates were cleared we were not offered any further drinks or dessert, which was disappointing as we sat for a further hour chatting. Prices were average.

I ordered Chocolate Milkshake and I got cold cholcolate milk in steel glass!
I think to hide what is in.
When I asked if they brought my order correctly since it wasnt milkshake!
The waitress first said usually customer asks for making the shake with ice cream!
I told her when I am here for the first time and you didn't tell me how should I know!
Then she said this is the way we do it without ice cream!
None sense!

We asked for cook with no sugar they didn't have!
We asked for kitkat ice cream which was in their menu and they didn't have it as well!
Very poor service!
Not recommended

Waited for an hour for a meal. Service deplorable. Items listed on
Menu not available

Nice scenic view. Unfortunately this is where the pleasurable experience ends. Staff careless, and food mediocre at best. Poor customer service. Will not be returning.

I gave 3 stars as the gorge is gorgeous as always but not the cafe sorry. We went there as a family day out and lunch in cafe. The waitress was a truly lovely person no fault there she took our food & drink order. All tables were full and all pretty much eating their meals, there were a few people turning up also. After waiting at our table for our food about ten or so minutes the waitress informed us that she was so sorry but she was asked to let us know our food may take up to 40 minutes wait if we wanted to go somewhere else, or wait but it will take a while. Maybe they should have said that before taking the order and letting our family wait thinking our food was on the way. We got up and left but noticed they put other people from the door on our table straight away. Not a very good way to attract people back there. Such a shame as a awesome cafe in Launceston got our time and money well spent they had a delicious meal and more than welcoming a hugely packed cafe that couldn’t be more accomodating to us all. We will admire the basin over and over and it’s walks but the cafe deffinently not. Read the other reviews for yourselves, such an awesome spot guys.

Don’t bother, ordered food waited 45 min plus watched others get food who ordered after us, asked where ours was told being platrd waited another 10 then paid for coffees & left.

Waited a long time for our food, were given the incorrect coffee order and when we sent it back we were told by staff it was correct (it wasn't), good vegetarian options but food was fairly bland, some parts of the order were wrong and it was overpriced for what it was.