The Ginger Group - , ACT

Jake S.

This was absolutely one of the worse cafes I've been to in my entire life. It's such a shame that such a beautiful location is letting a cafe like this provide service to visitors. Nothing stands out in this cafe, when we placed our order and went to pick forks and spoons, almost all of them were dirty and you could even see the food particles stuck to them. When I showed them to the manager, they didn't even bother taking them to wash and instead gave me one from the back. As you can see in the picture for the whole duration of the hour we were there no one bothered to come and clean the table. And this was over Easter holidays that everyone was getting paid at least double the usual amount. Absolutely no one cares. Even though we ordered an extra hot coffee, what we got was as cold as an ice cream. To be fair that could have been an iced coffee rather than the long black we ordered. The cheesecake we ordered looked great but as soon as you touched it it broke apart and had no structural integrity. Worse than that was the fact that I asked the cashier when taking the order if they are fresh which they said yes however, you could tell by just looking at the cheesecake that it had been there at least 5-6 days ago. Overall this was a horrible experience and believe that this cafe is exploiting the fact that when people come there to enjoy the National arboretum, they have no other choice but fo to them and instead of being greateful in an organizational level, they tend to disrespect the costumers by proving substandard service and mishandled and out dated food items. Very disappointing overall.

Ava A.

Ambience and views are breathtaking. As usual gets very busy on weekends and public holidays. Ordered the cured salmon which overall tasted quite good but was so disappointed at the amount of actual salmon in the dish - just a few tiny rolled up pieces on the edges and nothing in the whole body of the dish! Very disappointed. It was good to see some green salad appearing on the fish and chip dish. Whilst there is a public holiday surcharge it was good to see no credit card surcharge (at least none appeared on my credit card so far). Service was relatively quick considering how busy the venue was. Overall quite expensive meals but it's the only option if you want to dine at the Arboretum.

Renata L.

Amazing food, exceeded my expectations. Honest menu, extremely tasty options!! Not to mention the spectacular views

Ross

We hadn’t been to the cafe at the arboretum for quite a while. Whilst the building is a marvel, and the arboretum itself is amazing, the coffee and the service have been sketchy at best.

A few people had suggested new owners had turned it around, so we decided to split up a long walk with a visit.

It was quiet for a Friday, we even got a window table! Immediately heartened by seeing Ona coffee was being served, and the Maple blend at that.

We had a good coffee, split a delightful croissant au chocolat and set off to finish our walk. The service was good and, of course; the venue was amazing. Other table’s food looked very nice as well.

There will not be such a long time between this and our next visit!

Jess B.

Such a beautiful location to have lunch and enjoy the view of Canberra! We are visiting and this was one of the top recommended places to go. We visited on a Saturday and it was quite busy. The line was long but moved relatively quickly. Staff were friendly, helpful and efficient. They really did a good job. We ordered a few items and I got the eggs benny and some chips. They are super generous with their bacon servings in the dish, the sauce was great and the chips were delicious! The family had some coffees, calamari and a meat lovers pizza. The pasties looked so good but we didn’t have any more room in our bellies for more. Will come back again when visiting Canberra!

Joan T.

Came here when visiting Canberra a while ago but was a delightful brunch, tasty 🤤 recommended, good service

Grahame C.

Visited the National Arboretum on a public holiday so I am aware it was busier than usual. The cafe is run by The Ginger Group. It is essentially a cafeteria, with mostly pre-prepared food at full service cafe prices. Intended to have brunch but at 11.30 you could not get "breakfast" items and could only choose from the pathetically small lunch menu. I very rarely write extremely negative reviews about cafes but this location deserves much better.

Alexandria

Pretty decent food with a variety of options, overlooking a great view of the arboretum. It's very busy with customers and has plenty of seats where you get your own cutlery and water. Some of the dishes were great value for money, like the calamari and fish and chips, while we found that the soup of the day was a little pricey as it wasn't too big. The butter chicken and Penang chicken curry were great and flavoursome. Roti was a stand out, as like the chips, seems to be homemade.