This could have been such a promising cafe, but failed on many grounds.

We were seated and had no menu for 10 minutes (actually, it was only after ten minutes that we got fed up that we got no menu and had to ask for the menu). We waited 50 minutes for our food. I'm drawing to this point because we did not get cutleries this entire time. What was extremely bizarre was that one of the waitress was putting them for empty tables. When the food came, I was patiently waiting for cutleries, but she was going to walk away and I had to explicitly ask for them.

The food was also extremely disappointing, the beef dish was slightly tender, but lacked sauce, which made the meat taste really dry.

I ordered a seafood platter, the prawn was really bad quality and the batter was thick on the fish and calamari.

One of us ordered coffee and cake and they brought out the coffee 25 minutes after we made the order, but the cake did not come out for another 15 minutes.

The only silver lining was the view. It was really picturesque, but that is all I could say about this place.

I had a buffet lunch here with friends, and felt thoroughly spoilt! It's a gorgeous place to look down over Canberra. Oh, and of course they have food. There was nothing super special about the quality of the food, but when you've got to the top of the mountain, some beautifully cooked pastries and salads can't be beaten!

I took two friends visiting from Geelong to Scope on a Tuesday for lunch before taking one of them to the airport. I'd booked a table for 12.15pm, so it was a bit earlier than the usual busy time. Our table was good and quite near the window and of course the view is stunning.

It wasn't very busy, but the waiter took some time to bring the menus (I had to go searching to find out if it was 'order and pay' at the counter), and then even longer to take our order - I think it was about 30 minutes! Then the wait for our lunch began. My friend finally went up to the counter and asked where our meals were because he had a plane to catch, and the person at the counter flipped through a box to find our order and said 'I'll put it in right now'. Does this mean that the order hadn't even gone into the kitchen?

Finally the meals arrived. I had a chicken pot pie served inexplicably on a wooden board, with a small bowl of salad (it was awkward to get the salad out). The others had a sort of pastry wrap, but theirs were on plates along with the salad, which made them easier to access. They reported their meals were 'ok'.

The young waiter came over to apologise for the delay; I have scored 'service' as 'satisfactory' because he made up for what was otherwise a fairly lack lustre experience.

Unfortunately there are several places in Canberra in scenic locations on the tourist trail that rely on people only coming once. They need to pull up their socks because these days, people spread the word on these sorts of websites.

Approximate cost: $17

At the time of going to pay the bill the manager said I believe you had an unfathomably bad experience - or words to that effect I can check with my husband because he at no time had used such emotive language to the young lady serving us who was actually the best thing about the whole place.

It was so poor for such an iconic area of Canberra and in Canberra's 100th year if that is the best they can do I feel sorry for them. I am not a confrontationalist in any way it was plain disgraceful.

1 - booking made +one high chair - on arrival no booking - no high chairs - only have 2 and one is broken. Found booking but nothing available

2 - we found a table that would accommodate us a litte away from the
main eating area - it was clearly to be used as there were pens and papers etc for children

3 - Our orders came with no cutlery/napkins of any description - we had to ask for it

4 - we had fruit skewers which were about 5 maybe 6 cubes of fruit on a
skewer from memory about $12:00 each

5 - I ordered tea - it came cold, when I asked for another one the reason it was cold was because they had had a storm and had a problem with brown water
- I have no idea what that has to do with turning a jug on to boil water
whatever the colour

6 - the young lady serving us apologised and asked for feedback - we told
her it was overpriced and disappointing to say the least for all of the above reasons.

6 - as I said above when my husband went to pay the bill he was challenged by the manager over words he did not use. She also said it was our problem if things weren't good as we chose to sit further away from the main area and that took the staff longer to get to us - it may have been 4 metres away at best.

It was AWFUL. We had family from Sydney - one of whom moves in publicity circles - I cannot imagine what his comments were as I am sure he would have made them public somewheree . Oh and yes we saw a high chair pushed into a corner of the area in which we were sitting - it wasnt broken so we used i.

Approximate cost: $too much

Surely one of the best placed cafes in Australia. Perched on top of the mountain Scope has incredible views over the valley and Canberra below. Fashioned out of the old observatory the cafe offers a brilliant choice of food, wine and beers in a neat, casual setting. A great reward for getting yourself up the mountain!