Cafe Baci’s

Visiting from California and it was actually pretty good. Pizza was good, the meat balls not so good… Service was excellent.

On crutches last week, and seeing my lack of manoeuvrability the ‘mine host’ escorted mum and I to the nearest table, saw that we were well waited upon and even organised for the bill to be paid at the table instead of going to the cash register, awesome! And the affogatto was a delight, we’ll be back.,

This cheapo overpriced dump is sitting on some serious prime real estate. But for some reason that doesn’t make this establishment any more prestigious nor attractive. I would expect to find a place like in a backwater suburb than within casino grounds. To be honest I found the food court food more pleasant than here and that’s saying something.
We didn’t particularly come at an unusually late hour but it wasn’t busy and therefore seated fairly quickly. Although we had a full view of the kitchen at our seats. There was full staff, much more than expected and yet we had trouble getting prompt service even though they had seated us right at the front, next to the register. The people outside lining up for coffee were getting better service than we were.
Already suspicious of their quality of food, I didn’t want to order anything too adventurous, in fact I ordered from the kid’s menu. That’s called playing it safe. In actual fact I only felt like a nutella pizza, which turned out to be the worse nutella pizza I’ve ever tried. My «kid-​size» pasta was shocking. This is what they feed kids? My partner ordered a normal pasta dish and didn’t even finish it for once. There’s alot to say about a restaurant where my partner doesn’t finish his dish. It means never come back here. Do not recommend.

How could I not love this place, it was the only dessert place open after 10pm in Melbourne on a Sunday! I had the nutella pizza of course complete with strawberries and ice cream. It is naturally for 2 people and yes, after it came the waiter was kind enough to point out he would have allowed me to order from the kids pizza menu if he had known it was just for me…
I lied and said it was for 2 people as I didn’t want to look like a piggy… she ended up helping me eat it. They were very very generous with the Nutella.
Would be back in no time at all.

After reading previous reviews I was nervous about coming here but so happy that we did. I posted up all our desserts and they were all really delicious. Service was fast and polite. Really had no issues at all!
Would definitely come again.
One of friends came here for lunch and had a pasta and pizza dish to share and she gives it 4 stars too.
Perhaps Baci has changed a lot since the previous bad reviews.

Baci has the unparalleled and unrivaled specialty of being a Thesis feature venue.
How’s that? you ask. Well, I’ll put it simply; Order drinks. Wait for drinks. Spend upwards of 45 minutes waiting for 4 bottled beverages. Now, by my reckoning two options arise here; one; its a good way to waste an inordinate amount of time, or two, the time that you wait can be used productively like finishing a slab of a thesis. It does share the over inflated and far too expensive drinks with the rest of crown, and very pricy food for what amounts to small morsels of scrap food. I would consider eating here, but I dont want to take out a loan from the bank. Added to the which it’s within crown, a shrine to everything that can be detested within human behavior. Bill took another 15 minutes to arrive. Or better yet order a round of drinks and a few pizza’s take a 3 week holiday to hawaii and when you return they should just about be ready to be delivered to your table.

Horrible customer service and overall worst experience dining out ever. Came here with a group of 9 and the wait staff was pretentious, rude and did not want to do anything to help us. We had to fill our own waters, get our own plates and ask 5 times for drink orders. Food was overpriced and also not good– some of the pasta was too al dente and flavor was off. The only good thing was the focaccia which came out first even when we asked to have it with our food! And when we paid the bill– another 15 mjns for the check to come! Ugh! Wish we would have seen all the reviews beforehand. Anyway do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. Tried talking to the manager but don’t think that helped with anything! :(

Came here for breakfast, mostly due to lack of alternate options in the area. The staff were great and doing the best they can, and the food was ok. However, the food is over priced (add tomatoes for $ 5), the toast was not accompanied with butter (though it was provided on request), and an orange juice (bottled) was $ 6. Wouldn’t really recommend coming here for breakfast unless you didn’t have time to make it across to a laneway.

Very ordinary overpriced pizza … Crown Complex what do you expect

Visited twice in the last week, on of those ‘it must have been a bad day for the staff’ moments made me return for a second time.
Both times very ordinary, first time, twenty minutes to get served, and then by a morose waiter. Food was reasonable, not outstanding as the price would suggest.
Second time, wait staff were even more surly, if that was possible. I did note that other patrons were discussing the staff and lack of service.
Won’t be going for a third try.
Joe

Although situation in a shopping mall, the indoor dining area was cordoned off from other shoppers. The food was OK, but nothing special. The other diners in our group were of a similar opinion.
Was very disappointed with the staff, although it was a busy evening we left wanting.
There are so many other options for dining within a short walk !

For being in an upmarket area next to amazing restaurants, the gelato was disappointing. You could tell they had not used the fresh ingredients as it had a slightly plasticky twang to the palate. I am an absolute pistachio gelato fanatic and was disappointed that flavoring had been used instead of ground nuts.

Service was quick. Seafood pizza had so much chili in the sauce it wasn’t enjoyable and not a whole lot of seafood… The kid’s pizza was the same size as an adult pizza, which seemed strange… The salami was so spicy my daughter couldn’t eat it… Not money well spent unfortunately…

Café Baci has recently undergone renovations, and has re opened with boright open spaces, a modern contemporary design, and an outoor area right by the flames of Crown Casino.
The Café/​Restaurant serves meals in a casual setting, with a predominantly Italian menu — pizza’s, pasta’s, the usual. It is also quite popular as a coffee and dessert spot, which is how I experienced the venue. With great coffee, and a large selection of both cakes and ice cream (mmmmmm, Icecream…) there is plenty to satisfy anyone with a sweet tooth. When I visited my coffee and Chocolate cake were both delicious, and though a little pricey for coffee and cake, I think you are paying for the location.
My only complaint would be that it took a while to get the coffee and cake — perhaps this was because they do regular meals here too and our waiter was caught up with other tables. Either way it was still an enjoyable experience.

Amen to the recent Crown renovations. Out of these recent renovations brought home a little piece of extra ice cream heaven in the yarra promenade; especially if you have come back from a walk around the gardens; or perhaps you have spent some quality time at the National Gallery of Victoria and your feeling like an ice cream; whether or not it is a hot day. Southbank is probably going to be responsible for putting ice cream back in vogue and on the radar for us Melburnians, and will give those doughnuts a good run for their money; and perfect timing too as we are heading into the warmer seasons.
What a clever plan. Maybe you don’t have to walk as far now in enjoying heaven in a crispy cup (instead of a plastic or cardboard one; a cup you can actually get to eat); and especially with the abundance of flavours available; give me their hazelnut one any day.
Also I don’t know why, however I adore that red lip that you can sit on right outside the store — in the outdoors area. It is a piece of art in itself, and has its perfect place along the yarra in more ways than one. A taste of Italy right there and then.

I came here with my cousin in search for a hot beverage and cake. We spotted the sticky date cake here and thought, yes!
I pointed at the cake and told the woman we would like the sticky date pudding, to which she responded ‘we don’t have any pudding, but we have a sticky date cake’- perhaps she didn’t see my hand pointing straight at the cake.
We sat down at a table and our cake arrived shortly. The first thing we notice is– no caramel sauce! Just a dry bit of cake with a dollop of ice cream on the side.
The second thing, it was cold! They had just sliced it and served it.
I called over a waiter and asked him to heat up our cake to which he responded with «If I heat it up, the ice cream will melt»…no kidding, seriously? Are you that dumb that you would put the ice cream in the microwave with the cake?
He brushed us off and took the plate, and returned shortly. The cake still wasn’t warm– the top maybe, but the middle/​bottom was still cold. He must have only microwaved it for less than 10 seconds. Also there was still so caramel sauce (heating up the cake usually causes the topping to melt and become the sauce).
We also had a lemon sorbet from here, which wasn’t very good either. The texture was inconsistent with clumps of ice– it was as though it hadn’t been mixed properly.
Overall this place was dumb, and the waiters were dumb. Who serves cold sticky date? Also very expensive (considering the poor quality).