Where do I start. This place was so disappointing on so many levels. Firstly, let me just say what a great location, on the edge of the botanical gardens. A thrive of activity with families, couples, young - old, local and visitors occupying and making the best use of a beautiful spring day. BUT that's where the dream ends, once you enter the world of Jardin Tan the clouds grow over and very quickly turn black. Jardin Tan looks like it has three sections. The main restaurant, the cafe out the front and a very stylish ice cream cart. We opted for the cafe, for the reason that we thought it would be quicker, how utterly wrong I was. The line was long, not massive just long. So we join the queue. This gave us an opportunity to look over the menu. Pretty basic but still looked inviting. Rice paper rolls, poached chicken coleslaw, Asian salad, pho just to name a few. We waited and waited and waited and waited. The line was moving at a snail pace and I couldn't understand why. It wasn't until we got to near the front the picture was starting to develop and the story it was telling was one of complete mismanagement and lack of any type of team work. Two staff working, sorry I should clarify that, one staff working and one staff member cleaning the coffee machine, wiping down a small section of the bench, then back to the coffee machine giving it another clean, not once doing any sort of customer service. The other staff member taking orders, getting drinks, getting food and taking payment. If they had both worked as a team, with one taking the orders and the other getting the food (which is pre-packed) and drinks, then maybe the service would have been far quicker and they would have less disgruntled customers. Service indeed, is a big part of any business but so is the product. We ordered the pork rice paper rolls to be told they had ran out so we order the tofu, the poached chicken coleslaw, the beef pho with a baguette and three Moo Brew pilsners (the pale ale also out). The poached chicken coleslaw came in three seperate containers. The salad, the chicken and the dressing, which was a great idea if the ratios are correct. I would say there was a quarter of a small chicken thigh which was over cooked and a very small container of dressing and when you put it all together became a dry bowl of Chinese cabbage and a spring of coriander. The beef pho lacked flavour. The beef looked like it had been processed at Coles and had little to no vegetables in it, it also was missing the baguette, but to be honest didn't want to join the queue and wait another 45mins to get my baguette. On the upside the rice paper rolls did look and taste great. The beers, one word, FLAT The third part to Jardin Tan is the ice cream cart. The ice cream looked great and people seemed to be happy with the taste so we thought let's save this lunch with a really good ice cream. I'd really like to say the ice cream was creamy and full of flavour, but I can't and the reason being, unlike the cafe, had no one working it. Was it closed, had the staff member taken a toilet break, not sure and either was the group of people waiting to buy an ice cream. Who, like us, gave up and walked away. Its a real pity because this place has so much potential. read more

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Great food, fried chicken is very flavourful. Open and spadeful eating area. Friendly waiters who were very helpful and always easy to get their attention. Food was quick to come out. Small selection of beers though read more

Jardin Tan - Restaurants Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

I've had some mixed experiences here. Wait times for coffee out the front have been quite long at times, but the coffee itself is OK. Grabbed a chicken banh mi to take away and eat in the Botanic Gardens ... but found it lacking in filling and was disappointed considering the price! Thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast here the other day. We had the vego banh xeo, pork noodle dish and poached eggs with bacon and Gai lan. The first two dishes were standouts ... although the crispy pancake was a touch salty. The service was great! Will definitely come back for breakfast! read more

This restaurant was absolutely lovely with a beautiful outdoor sitting area and great service. The food was a bit different but quite tasty - we went there not knowing what to expect but found something on the menu we liked. For next time I would make sure I ordered a few dishes to share as the meals are not particularly large and may not be satisfying if you were feeling rather hungry. Other than that, a great restaurant! read more

Jardin Tan - Herb Gardens - Restaurants Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

I really enjoyed this place! We came here by accident while hungrily touring around the gardens. Or hangrily? =) We got seated quickly, even around lunch time. The service was extremely friendly. It was easy to find gluten free options. The food was delicious, creative. A lot of local ingredients, and a lot of dishes I haven't tried before. Things tasted fresh, coffee was good. Couldn't ask for more from a lunch spot right near the tourist areas. Indoor and outdoor areas. read more

Jardin Tan - Vietnamese coffee - Restaurants Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

Fantastic location to have a sunny, cheerful breakfast or brunch on a weekend morning. This place is very kid and puppy friendly, and in my opinion, a great place to take parents! (Take a leisurely stroll in the botanical gardens to walk off your meal) I'm less than impressed with the food, which seems full of promise, but fails to wow. D had the gluten free pancakes, which were 3 tiny things with a few measly pieces of caramelized bananas. Without the sweet glazed bananas, the pancakes would have been something we could make at home. I got the pulled pork with fried eggs, which took ages to come out. We had to check in with our server to see if it had been forgotten. It wasn't anything special, although the meat was tasty. I wish we had a tastier experience! A lot of the items on the lunch menu sound more promising, such as the Banh Xeo and even the pho. The ambiance is fantastic with tons of natural lighting and outdoor seating, and there's even a garden in the back that the restaurant grows its own herbs from. Labelled and everything! It's worth a look. read more

Lovely open air cafe (at the moment) serving Vietnamese French inspired fare, think banh mi, pho and poached chicken slaw, with pastries worth falling off the diet wagon for, like chocolate and tonka bean donuts. Opening the inside restaurant in the next few weeks, with wine on tap by DOC, super sustainable principles govern this place, just like Bennet's other venues. Nothing not to love about what I've seen so far. The coffee is better due to a slightly larger dose hitting each cup than what you might be used to at Cafe Vue. I'm looking forward to heading back for the full menu very soon. read more

Jardin Tan - Newly opened, Jardin Tan is serving up Five Senses coffee & snacks. Inside dining venue opening by the end of August '14 - Restaurants Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

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Can not give this place even 1 star. When the guy taking our order yelled behind him "2 pho" (pronounced "pho" rather than "fah") this should have been out warning. The tiny cup of rubbish we were handed should have been handed right on back. The liquid was cool, nearly cold and when we cracked the lid there was 2 pieces of fatty thinly sliced corned beef on top. The broth was straight from a carton of Campbell's beef stock and the noodles were like jelly. If this place existed anywhere else it would be out of business in weeks. Baguette that accompanied this was more doughy than expected and was certainly not appreciated in the banh mi the girls had. Expensive, tiny portions of less than tasty garbage that would be thrown out of a real Vietnamese kitchen. 0 stars is overrated. read more

Met a friend for Saturday lunch at Jardin Tan today. This up market Vietnamese restaurant is part of Shannon Bennett"s stable of eateries (think Vue de Monde and Bistro Vue) so with a pedigree like that I had high expectations. They have seating outside on a wooden deck surrounded by a little herbarium that provides at least some of the kitchen's herbs and fresh vegetables and backs onto the Botanical Gardens. My friendly waitress found me a table in the middle of the verandah underneath a lovely old fig tree. The menu offers a choice of small and large plates, but my attention was immediately drawn to the back page which contained the banquet menu. This started with a vego dish of tofu, braised tomato, turnip with basil, Banh Cuon pork mince mixed with mint and fish sauce wrapped in rice paper), Ba la Lo (wag you mince wrapped in betel nut and grilled, served with peanut sauce), prawn and sweet potato fritter, fried morning glory flowers with shiitake mushrooms and garlic, coconut beef curry, chicken satay, plus rice and salad all for $55. Oh, and did I forget to mention the spread of French and Vietnamese desserts? How could we say no? So of course we said yes :) Apart from the tofu, which neither of us liked, everything was good; we both rated the Banh Cuon and the prawn fritters which were really tasty. The la lop was OK too, especially the creamy peanut sauce which was made with coconut milk. The coconut and beef curry was delish, and the satay wasn't bad either, though not as good as the equivalent at Hawkers Hall. There was so much food that we were force feeding ourselves at this stage, but there's always room for dessert :) Jardin Tan is very good. Great food, extremely generous serves for the price (at least the banquet), lovely location and fast, friendly service - just about everything you'd expect from Vue de Monde except the price tag. read more

For the hype, this was a bit of a let down. Although the decor is beautiful and the service was fine, the food left a little to be desired. Don't get me wrong, it was pleasant but it was nothing special considering shannon has his name attached to it. 5 out of the 6 dishes we ordered were very under seasoned, bland and over cooked. I felt that most dishes could have benefited from a dipping sauce or something with a bit of punch added. (Maybe they simply forgot to bring them?) Because 5 of the dishes were standard/average at best. However, the chicken ribs were lovely! And the desserts were also very well done. Will I go back? Not in a hurry. read more

The green curry is to die for. We had the banquet, everything was delish, but if I went back and wanted a cheaper meal I'd opt for the curry for sure! So yum. Meat was so tender. read more

Just stopped in for a beer with friends on a hot day. We had to ask twice to be served and found the beer range unappealing. Will never come back to this place. read more

Great coffee (cappuccino and long black) and Pain au chocolat. Although not there for breakfast, menu looked appealing. No obviously available snacks beyond pastries. Staff friendly and good to young kids. Good selection of indoor and outdoor seating. Interesting décor. Easy to get to via walking or car, being close to the visitors centre. read more

We had an interesting experience at Jardin Tan - the waiters got us off on the wrong foot from the beginning as they were extremely rude when we arrived and made a huge fuss about finding us a table. They then managed to forget our drink order twice, even after we had reminded them of our order the second time around. All four of us had the Pho and enjoyed our lunch - until we found a long black hair in the bread! Not wanting to make a big fuss we mentioned it to the waitress who quickly palmed it off as an issue with the bakery and never once apologised. She must have felt bad, as she later took a meal off our bill, which we obviously really appreciated. None of us are in any hurry to head back which is a shame as we were all very excited to try out Shannon Bennett's latest venture. In somewhere as competitive as Melbourne - particularly in the South Yarra/Richmond area - customer service is incredibly important and these guys just don't appear to have it together. read more

Chai Latte is just warm milk with a small sprinkling of cinnamon. Hot chocolate is not very warm.

I had coffee and a blackberry jam donut at the outdoor coffee stand, and loved both. The staff were lovely and chatty and as it was only 9.30am, it wasn't overly busy, and I had a quiet seat. I'd go again, and take time to walk through the gardens and the gift shop. read more