Pipers by the Lake

Lovely view of the lake, good coffee. Clean toilets and good service. It's a good place to stop by when going around the lake. There are also bike rails outside.

What's not to love! Lovely scenery. Great service. Good menu.

Friendly staff, great location, the restaurant was very clean. The food tasted amazing, we ordered southern cauliflower with vegan sauce, pumpkin sandwich, barramundi - fish and chips, salmon and asparagus quiche Love the salad that accompanied most dishes. Big portion so it’s easy if you want to share with someone There are a few options for vegetarian and or vegan I would love to go back to try the other dishes We also had the ice cream which was really good - looked like it was homemade

We had a wonderful breakfast at Pipers this week. I don't have enough positive adjectives for the service. Everyone was friendly and helpful. The coffee was so good, we had seconds. The food was great, poached eggs perfect. Lovely atmosphere and reasonable pricing.

Great spot on the lake for a drink and meal. The chicken burger was amazing and my Mum had the Calamari which was tasty and a very generous serving. Great service and lovely staff. The only let down was the Thai beef salad. The beef and ingredients were fresh and delicious but the dish completely lacked any flavour of Thai dressing.

As a function venue the setting by the lake and gardens is beautiful. Our recent function of 80 guests enjoyed a lovely night of dancing, great food & service, whilst the deck was such an asset on a warm night. The staff are lovely and very accommodating from time of booking to saying goodnight at the end of the night. Would not hesitate to recommend to anyone running a function/event to have their event here. Thank you M & Team

If you are going to charge the prices you do, please provide the service. We had to get our own cutlery, after being charged $65 for two scrambled eggs (one with bacon, the other with one hash brown), a coffee and other a juice. Scrambled eggs were nice, coffee (magic) was pleasant. Please don't take your customers for granted, provide them the service that reflects your pricing. Thankyou

The views and atmosphere trump any imperfections Pipers may have. Sometimes I have to wait 45 min for a meal, but their cappuccinos are really good and their food is consistent. Expensive but worth it for the view. Not a fan of their sandwiches, particularly the pesto. Chips, breakfast dishes are all really solid. Such a beautiful building and right opposite the botanical garden.

This place was just a little too fancy for my tastes. Okay, that is probably being a little harsh, and probably should justify my rating, but yeah, it really wasn't my cup of tea. In fact, I guess the thing that got me was that the menu selection was, well, rather dull. In fact, that seems to be the case with a lot of these places in that the menu is limited, and also there doesn't seem to be such a thing as a 'small serve' or a 'light lunch'. Yeah, that was basically what we were looking for, a light lunch, and considering that this was the only place around, our choice was rather limited. Okay, the service wasn't bad, but it was pricey.

Charming à la carte style restaurant with stunning lakeside views, warm & friendly staff whom are frequently rancid with spicy, spicy body order. Modern alfresco decking adds to the establishments earthy ambience by exposing patrons senses to both cignet farts AND horrid wafts frequently escaping out from the venue grease trap. Fresh scones daily. Yummy! 5stars!

Service can be slow, as in very slow. Other times it is fine. They Open early but close by 4pm. One would think that they'd be open longer in the Summer time, at least. The white chocolate hot Chocolate is spot-on!!

Unbelievable one of the best locations on Lake Wendouree and opposite Botanical Gardens, amazing outlook over the lake and great setting with ambience. However, on a magical Saturday I was told that their would be a 15 minute wait for a coffee! The takeaway section did not look like it was over run! Sadly had to walk out!

Completely understaffed, do not bother. Busy Saturday and it took 45 minutes to get 2 drinks. Very disappointing.

Three stars is a generous rating - closer to 2.5. You can not fault the view, easy parking, surrounding atmosphere - perfect! The service was good - friendly and polite. We ordered our food, sat down outside and a few minutes later the waiter came out and told us they had run out of the breakfast pie, so perhaps not so "housemade"?- replaced with pancakes. When the waiter brought our drinks out he spilt my juice across the table and made no attempts to wipe it down - no apology no recognition he'd just spilt juice right where we were about to eat.. Mmm .. Maybe I'm fussy, but at this point we were two of four people in the place.. Sooo.. The food LOOKED promising. There was quite a bit of toast and bacon (two of each); scrambled egg serve was small compared to what was on the plate. The whole thing was completely average. No taste. Eggs were "meh". Pancakes were the same - dry as, a scraping of Nutella on the top pancake and a mound of hazelnuts. It wasn't "send back food" just disappointing. All up this place was ok - I mean their prices are not bad (14.90 for egg/bacon/toast) and you know what they say "you get what you pay for" - just a shame that the presentation and "false fanciness" (from the outside) of the place makes you think that you will get a great treat and experience here. If you must come - do so for the view and atmosphere and perhaps just grab a coffee or something...

The only thing going for this place is the location. The meal was disgusting, the service not much better. We were there for 1 1/2 hours and all we were served was our meal. No one offered any service apart from the initial contact. I ordered Thai Fish Cakes. They were the most disgusting dried up fish and ginger balls I have ever eaten, or could not eat. And once again so typical of Ballarat and it's service, my meal came out and we waited 7 minutes until my husbands meal arrived. Why is it so difficult to bring two meals out to one table together! Then we paid so much for what was a very disappointing so called meal. Really expensive for what you get (or don't get)! Never again.

Great view, outdoor seating by the lake available. Food ok, but the view is what you come here for. Great for a brunch.

Fantastic views abound at this lakeside restaurant. Food is good and the lunch menu is very affordable. Breakfast is on par with most places in Ballarat. Pipers can get very busy and it seems to be a favourite of the older dining establishment. Having said that, I've also noticed a number of younger patrons when I've visited, although they are in the minority. Service is very prompt but can get slow depending on how full the restaurant is at the time. I would suggest calling ahead if you have a group larger than 2 and on weekends. Also a great place to go for a quick coffee and cake with great views.

Great location and nice building. Food was average. Ordered chicken Parma and bruschetta. Chicken was flat, deep fried and crumbed and chips were hollow and tasteless. Bruschetta was some poultry roll cut with 2 tomatoes, cheese And lettuce. Nothing seasoned and had no taste. Aioli also had no taste.

Love it! Amazing view from the back terrace. The food was fab, both myself and kids had a ball.

Terrible food, international roast coffee and rude staff... Asked the staff for sugar and got a look as if "hey fat man aren't you flirting with diabetes enough?" Great times