The Stone Mill

How can so many ‘right’s’ add up to a ‘wrong’? The Stone Mill has so much going for it – the rustic atmosphere is charming & comfortable, the menu is chock full of selection, the specials are difficult to choose from, & we were greeted with warmth & attentiveness. So why did my evening here go so wrong?
In all fairness, we came in off the street in the mood for a nice pizza, & by all appearances this would really fit the bill. The selection threw us a bit, & it took us a while to decide. The owner/​hostess was very gracious in detailing the specials, & my partner was persuaded in giving the pasta with prawns a go.
But when the frutti de mare pizza failed to persuade me off the regular menu, that’s when everything changed. None too pleased, & in fact demonstrably offended, the owner effectively stomped off & didn’t even look at us again for at least 20 minutes. Tables — plural — arriving after us received bread & their meals before we saw another fly by, & half an hour later we were told «it’s on its way…»
All in, the meal was delicious, the presentation lovely, The Stone Mill delivers here. But the fundamentals of service are woefully absent. Don’t put it on the menu if you don’t want to serve it, & don’t make me feel unwelcome when I decide to order it. I may forget what I ate here, but I won’t long forget upon ordering it how I was made to feel. It may be your restaurant, but when I take a seat, it really is all about the customer.
I honestly can not say I would recommend the Stone Mill to anyone, & I am very unlikely to return.

Definitely the best Italian I have had in Melbourne for some years. We went on a Sunday night; there were a couple of other tables of four and six. I had the homemade gnocchi ragu, which was soft and rich. My partner has the chicken with polenta. The owners are friendly and welcoming, and keen to get to know locals and visitors alike. Highly recommended.

The service is extremely friendly from all the staff. The décor and ambience is warm and relaxed, there’s not too many tables so you always get their full attention. The food can’t be faulted, it’s traditional Italian home cooking. The pasta is unmistakably, genuinely home made. There is a variety of dishes from pasta, pizza, risotto and main meals e. g chicken, pork, seafood. When you call for TAKE AWAY don’t forget to ask about the specials, as there are a lot and they all sound irresistible. We’re hooked and we’ll be back. Yum yum. It’s also, good for kids, bike parking, they take cc and they have a large selection of wine and beer.

We came here for brunch on the weekend as East Elevation was booked solid and wait was too long. When we arrived at about 11am, we were told that would be a 15min wait to order food as they server wasn’t there yet. Which seemed a bit odd, but we grabbed a table anyway. The owner took our coffee orders and they arrived pretty quickly. The server arrived after about 10min and took our food orders. I am vegan and asked for a bean dish without eggs/​cheese/​butter. The waitress came back after a few minutes and said they couldn’t do the beans without butter as its in the sauce. She said she can easily get something made up, tomato, avocado, mushrooms. I said that’d be great. When it was served, there were 2 eggs sitting on top. I gave it back and said i didn’t ask for eggs. She asked if i was allergic and i said no, vegan this is why i asked for it without eggs in the first place. She then asked if it was OK to just take the eggs off or if i wanted it cooked again.
This blew my mind. Of course i wanted it cooked again, the egg was all over the food. Up until this point i was OK with the service. But this really put me off. When the food came back out, it was nice but nothing special. The feedback from the rest of the group was the same. Food good but nothing stand out. Considering how quiet it was the service was a little slow.
Would probably not come back here.

This café/​bakery/​restaurant/​wine bar is perfect for when the wait at East Elevation is too long, but unfortunately after you’ve dined here once, you probably won’t be in a hurry to return.
Comprising of an Italian menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it should probably stick to doing just dinner.
The coffees were inconsistent at my table and from my observations around the dining room. My latte resembled more of a flat white and the milk was scolding hot and burnt. It’s disappointing considering it’s competing with coffee lords ‘Padre’ further down the road. The food did not deliver on presentation and delivered even less on taste.
My ‘baked eggs’ was literally a bowl of napoli sauce packed with way too much garlic (which i’m assuming is sauce made for the pasta), one coddled egg (one egg yolk), ¼ of a sausage thrown in and some spinach leaves, not to mention my pet hate — one slice of toast. You can’t eat a bowl of sauce with only one piece of toast, especially when the café itself sells bread and is Italian. It just doesn’t make any sense! Mark ‘The Terrifying Sharptooth’s’ meal consisted of a sea of yellow with again, one slice of toast. Polenta, poached eggs and hollandaise that drowned everything in site. I would have settled on the presentation if the food impressed, but obviously this was not the case. It was bland, boring and nothing special in this day and age of café excellence.
Service was bewildering. The owner was making coffee, two chefs and one waitress running around like a crazy woman. She was greeting customers, running coffee, offering menus, clearing tables, taking orders, running beverages, taking payments. It made for very poor service.
The rustic interior was nice, but doesn’t justify the essentials as a paying customer.