Goldfish Bowl Cafe & Bakery — Restaurant in Armidale

I recently moved from my hometown of Brisbane to the self-proclaimed coffee capital of Australia, Melbourne. Having just spent two years in America, my taste buds were salivating in anticipation of some quality, as opposed to the burnt, brewed in a sneaker slop that Americans love. I was keenly interested in sampling as many triple shot flat whites as my body could stand on the road journey south, as well as assessing, like a pedantic nit, the food and levels of service. Having been in Melbourne a few weeks with a chance to ruminate and reflect while tasting some of their vaunted beverages, I have to single out The Goldfish Bowl in Armidale as not just the best coffee experience in the journey, but one of the best breakfasts I've ever had. The poached eggs and sourdough were near perfection, three real shots in the sublime coffee (keep an eye out, triple shotters, sometimes an alleged barista will run water through a shot twice), the service was regional uni town friendly and prompt and even ol' God came to the party with a brilliant morning. This place is not a well kept secret in Armidale by any means - it was buzzing with customers, every one of whom was happily absent of the big city commuter grumpy face. All were cheerful, grateful & replete. I know it sounds too complimentary, but my travelling partner and I were in rhapsodies about this place until our late lunch. Perhaps our expectations were lower because it was a regional centre - if so, I won't make that mistake again. It made the breakfast experience in Lane Cove the next morning seem like Dickens meets dicks. If you're passing through A/dale, go. You must. Yum...

My dad and I are staying in Armidale until Wednesday for family related reasons, and we came here for some brekkie/brunch, but after our disappointment of a coffee yesterday at courthouse coffee, we went searching for a better place to eat, and stumbled upon goldfish bakery, I got a mocha while he got a oat latte, they were amazing! I could taste the chocolate in there and it wasn't too overwhelming, and was served really quickly, the food, on the other hand, took thrice as long to come out, I'd had already finished my coffee by the time it had arrived. It was almost like they forgot we ordered food... I understood when we ordered on the warning that it may take 40 minutes to be made, but it just felt ridiculous- the muesli itself was a chaotic palette, the fruit tasted burnt, the pear was struggling to show itself, and then this weird after-taste made me feel sick towards the end, and I'd recommend if you do get the muesli, don't put milk in it, bc the milk and the other things in there just made it look like vomit. But overall the staff are so sweet, the inside and outside seating options are really nice, just if you're planning for brunch near 1 hour of closing, it's...

This cafe is a textbook case of an economic anomaly. I say anomaly because a lot of hype appears to exist notwithstanding the perpetual presence of poor product and peculiar level of service.

We have been to this cafe on at least 10 different occasions.

On FOUR of these occasions the coffee they served us was barely warm. And, we emphasise the word WARM.

Their insistence on serving warm coffee is particularly strange given our explicit request for our coffee to be hot. We went back time and again because we gave them the benefit of the doubt and thought that we might have got them on a bad day. However, the continued serving of warm coffee appears to be part of a pattern rather than unhappy coincidences.

Milk burns if it is heated too much. What these people are doing is simply "playing it safe" by using the milk as soon as "it feels hot" in their hands. The fact that the end product is disgusting and undrinkable does not appear to be a consideration in their thought.

We could also make an observation about the length of time it takes for the coffee to be served and how the food is NEVER served within a reasonable time proximity...