Rufus & Co. Cafe — Restaurant in Airlie Beach

I visited this cafe a couple of weeks ago and ordered the breakfast burger. At the time it was delicious. However, just before I left to go on my scenic flight I felt extremely weak and sick. I started to continuously vomit on the bus to the scenic flight and while in the waiting room. As a result of this I missed my scenic flight and had to return to my accommodation where I continued to vomit for another 4 hours. It was obvious this was food poisoning from this cafe as I hadn’t eaten anywhere else having came off an overnight bus. I contacted the cafe to let them know so that it wouldn’t happen to any future customers and ruin their high standards. In the beginning, Bianca seemed thankful that I let her know so she could ‘let her suppliers know and sanitise the benches for a potential virus or cross contamination’. She also offered me a refund and to help reschedule my scenic flight. However, we were leaving the next day so we could only accept the refund. I waited 9 days and never heard back from or received a refund from Bianca. I contacted her again and she said she would check with the accounts team that day. Again, I didn’t hear from her so I messaged 5 days later and she apologised for not responding and claimed she sent the refund but I never received it. She advised me to email her on ‘info@rufusco.com.au’. She didn’t respond to that email and today I noticed she has blocked me on Instagram. AVOID this cafe if you do not want FOOD POISONING or to be lead on by this owner. Initially, I had just wanted to let her know so she could prevent it from happening her future customers but she has continued to make empty promises, showing how inconsiderate this cafe is of how their customers feel after eating here.

Just responding to you reply. I never said I started feeling sick 30 minutes later? I started to feel unwell roughly 1-2 hours later if you go back and read my review. Also, I started to feel myself again at 8pm, I’m sure a gastro virus lasts longer than this ? Very unusual that I could have picked up a gastro virus in the area when i walked straight from the bus to your cafe and nobody else in our group got it? I’ve just attached our chat to show how helpful you were in the beginning and to prove that I never demanded a refund or to pay for my scenic flight as it had been rescheduled for us...

A shame this cafe was such an abysmal experience given how lovely the location is. It's not just the burnt toast that will leave a bad taste in your mouth but the utter rudeness of staff too.

I received a burnt slice of toast, which there was an attempt to cover with poached eggs. Upon asking the wait staff (male with arm tattoo) for a new slice, he told me sharply, "That's not burnt". Surprised he'd dismiss it - honestly what's a thin slice of toast to replace, I again asked for another which was not burnt. He responded smugly, "So you want 3 slices of toast?". I let him know, no, I'd like one that isn't black just like the other slice underneath. He came back with a new slice, threw it on that table and said "so is THIS better for you?". I was in utter shock of the condescending attitude. The new slice of toast didn't even come buttered like the original, they really put in the least effort possible. Imagine not only messing up toast but then being pretentious about it.

I left the burnt slice on the lone plate to glisten in the sun. The food here is not even average, especially for the price and no water is offered either. I will never return. I told other tourists I came across on tours and staying in the area to avoid. Shame as this poor experience left a stain on my otherwise great...

Myself and my family had been coming to this cafe for 5 days straight, from the day we arrived to this one day in particular. Everyday we had been buying at least 5 coffees, brownies, toasts and more, the staff were nice even spent lots of time with the owners dog and spoke to almost everyone there. However this particular morning we had walked in and ordered the exact same thing we had all those times before, the lady who took our order was in a very sour mood, we didn’t even think about it twice until I said “you can just add extra like we had yesterday and the days before that” I said I’m happy to pay extra like before and was in a very good mood and even laughing. The second I said this she looked at us and said that she didn’t accept this rudeness we told them to leave everything and that we would just go somewhere else and stated that we were actually in a very good mood and that she had just ruined it. The girl next to her looked quite shocked as well. As we were walking away my dad said that, that was uncalled for instead of an apology we got told to just leave HER premises. We had such great experiences before this but because of this we will never come back and you guys just lost a very loyal customer who would’ve been more than happy to continue coming everyday for the next two...