Baaaaaaaad experience had here. We booked for 6:45 and arrived on time. We were seated promptly and left (for some time) to peruse the menu. We ordered drinks, entree and mains at the same time. Drinks arrived fine. A long time after ordering, one of our two garlic breads arrived. There were 5 of us and 4 pieces of bread per serving, so it was demolished pretty quickly. The next garlic bread arrived with an apology saying our bread order had been confused with the table next to us and they got our bread and delivered to us was a serve of their 'cheesy' garlic bread. They offered to replace this but we were hungry so we took it. ONE HOUR after we had placed our order (and after asking about our order a short time before it reached the one hour mark) a waitress came out and informed us they were out of mushrooms in the kitchen. Three out of the five of us at the table had ordered the mushroom salad!! We were fairly unimpressed, how could our order have sat in the kitchen for one whole hour with no one even looking at it to then finally be ready to make the food only to find out the main ingredient was missing? Very very poor. We were offered more avocado to replace the mushrooms, but this was not a reasonable substitute. We asked for the menu back and replaced our order. 15 minutes later our three new meals arrived but the two other meals were still behind. Food was ok, but not spectacular. After all of the waiting we had a visit from the manager, just a general casual, "how is your meal tonight?". We explained the drama with our meal after a quite ridiculous wait and she apolgised and said she had no idea this had happened. She told us the three replacement meals would be discounted ($3 off each) and both kitchen and waiting staff spoken to. We finished our meal, ordered dessert, paid and left. The reason for the extended waiting time was put down to a busy night and few staff in the kitchen. Very disappointed with our visit and we will not be rushing back. I can also note we were not the only table having problems with the service, many complaints were witnessed that night. The young wait staff did well though apologising and copping the brunt of average management and a slack kitchen.

Approximate cost: $13 - $30

I was taken on a Neighbours Tour for my birthday a few years ago. I already lived locally to the street where they film but love the show and wanted to take the official 'tour'. So we drove to the city to catch the novelty Neighbours bus back out to the suburbs to look around. The bus then was kind of old and a little crusty on the inside, but fine. We watched old Neighbours episodes on the drive there and lollies were handed around for a snack. It was pretty fun being on a bus with excited UK tourists. It was great having free range of the street to take photos outside of the houses and not feeling like a loser whilst doing so. We also drove to the highschool they film at and past the studios (just on the outside, did not get a look-in as it was the weekend). The tour guide was alright, though when asked where they film the outside of the Erinsborough Hospital he told us Knox Private, which I know to be not true as I used to work there. Guess he didn't know himself at the time.

Anyways, at the end of the tour we were bused to St. Kilda to stand on the side of a footpath to meet with a former Neeighbours star - Max Hoyland. This was cool, but as he had left the show a little while ago, it was somewhat less cool than if we'd met someone still on set. I recommend this tour for Neighbours fans, and I have to say it seems the tours have improved since I went. The Neighbours website has had a lot of work done on it and it seems now on weekend tours you can actually go into where they film the outdoor sets like the Local Store, Charlies etc. Makes me want to go again!! It was lots of fun and made for some great photo memories of a great Australian show!

Approximate cost: $60-$65

We've had lots of things mended and altered here. Service is fast, well priced and well done. The ladies in the store are really nice. They have a lifetime warranty on zips too.

Had a bad experience here where we ordered about 4 or so pizzas one night. We did not check inside the boxes before we left (should we really have to?) and when we got home we did not have the right order! I'm vegetarian and unfortunately it was my pizza missing. Upon calling the store back to tell them the situation and requesting they perhaps deliver the correct pizza so we did not have to go out again, they refused this request and told us to come back if we wanted it. I wasn't about to eat meat so one of us went back while everyone else ate what correct pizza's we already had. This is terrible customer service. I have learned to check pizza boxes now but it was their mistake and they lost our business over it. Will not go back.

The Cruelty Free shop is based online (though if you live in Haberfield I think you can pick goods up). Jessica, the woman who runs it, sources all things vegan from food and cleaning products to cosmetics and gift hampers. Stock can sell quickly, so if you see something you like, don't wait! It's a great site with great products. Easy to buy online and you can pay with Pay Pal. Purchases I have made from The Cruelty Free Shop have been well packed, delivered quickly and it's great stuff you often can't get from your regular supermarket. Jessica is great also if you have any questions about a product or your order. And, the best part of all, it's entirely cruelty free shopping! The site also supports many other animal friendly organisations and hosts a 'charity of the month' where people can donate to help other people helping animals. It makes me feel good to support a business like this. Great work!

I discovered Aduki Press online. They are a small press based in Melbourne who publish perhaps more 'alternative' based reading. Their website says they run their business sustainably printing all their books on 100% recycled paper, which doesn't surprise me. I have been signed up on their mailing list for a while now but just recently purchased two books. One of them, "The Melbourne Veg Food Guide", is a book of reviews for vegetarian friendly eateries in Melbourne. It is superbly written and a great book to have out there for vegetarians and vegans alike. Buying online was easy (I used PayPal to pay) and delivery was quick. They have lots of great books (and a regular lifestyle magazine) on offer and a great website.

We had our house sprayed Jan 08 for cockroaches and spiders. We found Complete Termite Systems in the local yellow pages guide. They offered a 1 year guarentee on their service for just $110 (cheaper than others we looked at in the area). The first spray, which is the first time we've had any pest control, seemed a little ad-hoc. A younger and possibly less experienced guy was on the job. He was polite and on time and all was fine, he just didn't seem to quite have the knowledge we expected to answer our questions (we'd never had a cockroach problem before). A few weeks after the spray we still noticed a few crawleys around. We called the business back to ask if this was normal. They sent someone back to the house for another spray just to follow up. Since then the only bugs we've been finding have been dead ones. So the product works! We've just had them back again due to seeing some more cockroaches and being close to the year mark we thought we'd get in early before Christmas. The guy today was polite, professional, informative and we're pretty confident it will solve our problem again as past experience worked well. Good price, no smell, minimal mess (a little powder to clean up and some liquid on the outside windows) but a good family business and like their website says they do always answer the phone. They even called 30 minutes before our appointment today as a reminder. Very impressed, will keep using them.

Approximate cost: $110

My experience with this business was bad from start to end. After picking up a brochure somewhere about their surf lessons, I purchased a gift certificate for a private lesson for my partner for his birthday. Initially I had to call multiple times over a couple of days before I could reach anyone on a land-line. When I finally did, I organised my gift certificate over the phone, which was fairly straight forward. I was told the voucher would be emailed to me probably within a few hours. A few hours turned into days, and nothing. I gave it over the weekend and another 2-3 days before contacting the business again (I didn't want to seem like a nag and figured if there was a problem, they would contact me). When I finally got through again the person was relieved that i'd called, claiming they must have taken the wrong email details because when they tried to send it it was rejected. And despite having given them my contact details when making the booking, these were misplaced and so I could not be reached by them. (Funny how my credit card details were not misplaced though). I gave them my email and phone number again and within minutes I finally had the voucher. Staff was apologetic, but still it was inconvenient and sloppy business that this could have occured.

A month or so after his birthday my boyfriend called the surf school to book his private lesson. He was informed (rather than asked) that another person may attend at the same time as him but this would mean a longer lesson. A private lesson was purchased for $70 for 1 and 1/4 hours. Group lessons (with strangers) are booked at $55 for 2 and 1/2 hours. Though it was not what I had planned for him, he was happy at the extra time. When he showed up he handed over his certificate and the other person joining in paid, but was only charged a 'group' fee of $55. So it cost me $15 more than them for exactly the same lesson. Not impressed at all! Also when booking his lesson for around 11am, when he called the day before to confirm he was told it was going to start earlier just after 8am due to the tide changing early that day which might effect their time. This was fine, only the trainer happened to mention when signing in that they had to be out of the water just after 10am due to another class starting. Good honestly policy with this business it seems!

I am overall pretty peeved at this business. It's hardly even a business like the website and brochure would have you believe. Very ordinary customer service. I wouldn't recommend them (there are other surf schools in the area who I've heard are good) and I would definately not use them again. I am glad the actual lesson was well recieved by my partner and that he enjoyed himself and got a lot out of it, but such things should be professional and this was definately not.

Approximate cost: $70 for private lesson

Morfish offers quality food, especially good for healthy take away. Food is tasty, well presented and uses fresh, local produce. It's downside is average customer service and inconsistent pricing/menu. More than once we have been charged differently to their take away menu and come home to find something missing from our order. This could be due to being under-staffed. One person taking orders, phone calls, waitressing, serving and cleaning up at dinner is a bit much. The cafe itself is really nice inside. Prices overall are probably quite reasonable considering the quality of food, but not a cheap 'fish & chip' joint. Will definately keep going back, but would love it if their service got better and prices/menu became uniform (I'm pretty sure they do not offer some of the things on their take away menu anymore, even though this menu has not been updated). They also have really good honey mustard salad dressing.

I think this place may have changed hands. They used to have larger more expensive cupcakes but now sell smaller, cheaper ones. The cupcakes are excellent value and look amazing. Perfect little treats and the smaller size allows you to have more than one flavour before filling up! Staff on my recent visit were a huge bummer to my experience though. I have never seen so many cupcake choices and was rushed and pressured by the staff member serving me to hurry up and buy and get out of the store! It was the end of the day and maybe they'd had a bad day, but customer service is big and had they been patient and friendly and smiled at my indecision of so many choices, I may have gone back for more the day after. Improve the staff and this place would be the best treat ever!!

Approximate cost: $2 per cupcake