i was recommended to try out this “insta-worthy” cafe in waterloo, and i live out west of sydney so it was around an hour to an hour and fifteen mins (give or take) to get to this place.
i visited this place to have brunch here with my friend last week. we were greeted by one of the staff members and she seated us at the very back in the corner on the window seats. i settled because the cafe looked so packed, but after 5-10 minutes, the crowd started to leave and there was plenty of space, however they never offered to move us from the window seats. i walked up to the counter and ordered my meals, and walked back to my seat. i was seated near the trolley full of cutlery and glassware, etc. one of the staff members were cleaning the glassware near there and the glass slipped out of her hand and shattered right next to my foot. none of them even bothered to move us from that incident either, and as she was cleaning, the dustpan fell on my leg... i feel like the staff was very incompetent.
while i was standing there waiting for the lady to sweep up the mess, one of the dishes came out (soft shell crab) and the staff member just left it on the table next to us without a word. the next dish (eggs benedict) came out 15 minutes later, and the ricotta pancakes took almost 30 minutes to come out. i wanted all the dishes to come out together to take photos but this took far too long and my food was cold.
soft shell crab croissant was beautiful, but i felt like it needed something to break up the saltiness - i kept reaching for my water to hydrate my mouth. the eggs benedict was gorgeous, it reminded me of pho because of the hoisin sauce and sriracha. as for the ricotta pancakes, it wasn’t airy and fluffy at all. the whipped cream wasn’t even sweetened, so it tasted very plain and unpleasant in the mouth. the ricotta in the pancakes weren’t pronounced either, it just felt like i was eating store bought pancakes. the red velvet latte was such a disappoint too! it tasted like milk... it lacked so much flavour, it literally tasted like warm milk with red food dye.
the only thing i can comment on is the aesthetics of the dishes. other than that, i don’t think it was worth a freaking one hour drive.