Exchange Coffee — Restaurant in Adelaide

Recently, I learnt from the internet that one of the top 100 best coffees in the World is Exchange Coffee, so I gave it a try in this morning.

Unfortunately, my overall experiences were not great due to a few reasons:

It's completely packed with customers, and I have never seen a cafe that was so congested like this one. So I decided to make it simple by ordering take-away coffee only. There were dozens of customers queuing up or waiting outside the cafe. A man looked like the cafe's manager, who was busy managing the situation and registering customers one by one. I don't usually expect warm welcoming by the hospitality workers, but as most cafe's workers / baristas did it so well, I felt this manager could have done a better job. Just a little smiling or usual greeting could do. The coffees were more expensive than all other cafes in Adelaide, Sydney or Melbourne. It was $6.5 for a medium-sized cup with full cream milk. Eventually, I received the medium-sized coffee which looked like a 220 ml cup. I believe it is commonly considered as just a "small cup" by most other cafes in Adelaide, Sydney or Melbourne. The coffee tasted a bit bitter, with too much milk foam. Perhaps this was speciality coffee, meaning something unlike others? One interesting point was after finished the coffee for about 20 to 30 minutes, the coffee taste still remained inside my month. This was quite unusual, but I wasn't sure if it was because I didn't drink water or due to their "speciality coffee" with bitter effect?

Anyway, the coffee taste was still acceptable. I was just a bit curious why it was the only one from Adelaide that is within top 100...

We went there on Sunday the 28th for lunch. We were looking for a quick bite. There were two young girls at the door. Unfortunately both these two girls had us walking away. I believe this shop may need to review their recruitment and training process. We sat ourselves down after the direction of the blonde haired girl. Within 30 seconds of being seated we were asked what coffee we wanted. We informed her we were just looking for lunch. One minutes later, she came over and again asked the same question but in a more directive many. We mentioned we were still looking. She left with an air of annoyance. During this time my husband went to get the menu. He asked a question to the brown haired girl if the breakfast menu was still available. It was rapidly responded and neither of us could hear her response. He politely asked again but was met with disdain as it seemed to be a major inconvenience to her to repeat herself. This was reflected also by her body language. After this we decided to leave. As mentioned the Exchange should review either their training or they are employing young girls who have more with more maturity or social skills. As an employer when you are paying staff $30-45 an hour on a Sunday, this behaviour is really unacceptable. The environment really felt like a private girls...

This cafe had the potential to be a solid 5-star experience, but one individual completely ruined it.

The individual in question—a blonde with extremely frizzy hair (no glasses), working on February 21st, wearing an oversized blue shirt and beige pants—had the most appalling demeanor I have ever encountered in an Australian cafe. When we asked a simple question, he dismissed us with a condescending retort. He wasn’t even busy as the other staff, yet somehow had the audacity to carry himself like he was above common courtesy.

What made this worse was the stark contrast between him and the rest of the staff, who were genuinely warm, attentive, and welcoming. Every other server, despite being visibly busier, treated customers with a smile—except for this arrogant, insufferable individual. To make matters even more disturbing, my boyfriend and I (both Asian) noticed that he made the effort to greet and smile at other customers but deliberately ignored us. The blatant exclusion did not go unnoticed.

This kind of treatment is unacceptable, and until action is taken—be it an apology—I will make sure none of my friends back in Melbourne step foot in this place. A cafe is only as good as the service...