Ivy & Lark — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Wow, I am shocked by the poor experience we had today on 16 April 2022. Managed to find a table for my family and myself, ordered breakfast for everyone which included drinks, my daughters and wife opted for pots of tea for the three of them. The waiter bought out the first pot of tea and the cup with milk on the side as per my order. The cup was absolutely disgusting, it had obviously been used to serve coffee in many times prior and was heavily stained, however we were able to put a wet tissue in there and could EASILY clean this off the side of the cup. Nobody would be happy to be served this, I did mention immediately to the waiter, who replied "that's just how it is" I said come on mate, you can EASILY wipe this off, all it needs is to be washed, he went away and came back with the next pot off hot tea and two more cups. Low and behold these were also soiled with coffee stains, again - these could have benefitted from being washed proprly before being given to the next paying customers. I grabbed the cups and took them to the front counter and showed them to the barista, I was absolutely astounded to hear her response to my concerns with the cleanliness of the cups, she said something similar like "this is how they all are" I said, yes but they don't have to be! you just need to properly wash them" she snapped at me and said she was busy right now and she would get to it later, I was gobsmacked by her retort.

Thankfully the waitress next to her had a little bit more compassion and offered us takeaway cups for our tea, I gladly took the cups and returned to the table. We were soon severed our breakfast which was also sub par, while I can't falter the cleanliness all the food was undercooked,. I'm guessing they were too busy today and were cutting corners, we have been here before and it wasn't like this. We ate what we could and eventually left, I still feel a bit rough from the undercooked bacon, snotty eggs and warm bread masquerading as toast, I was too scared to go to the counter again as I had attracted glares throughout my meal from the rather rude barista.

So I reluctantly leave this complaint here and want to warn others that they should be careful before choosing Ivy and Lark as a dining option. At no point did we receive an apology, I did notice as I was leaving ALL the remaining teacups had been taken from the shelf (hopefully to be washed!), an omission of guilt perhaps? One redeeming part of the experience was one of the waitresses who bought toast out to our table was super friendly to us, I pity her for having to work with such...

I am no longer stoked about this cafe. I had met a prior manager here during prior visits who was so lovely and eager to help and am now met with tired, unenthused employees at the front counter. The last 2 visits as such. I sipped my coffee and a fly was present in my mouth from the beverage, naturally I spat everywhere in disgust, also heavily embarrassed in front of family I went to alert a barista and said I wasnt too bothered about the fly itself it could've landed whilst we had our coffee, who knows. I understand these things happen. I had to explain 3 times to the poor waitress as English was her second language. Cool cool no probs and I bailed with my 3month old twins and sister in law, happy to disregard the event as sheer 'luck' of the draw. Just 3 days ago. I order the potato hash with poached eggs and bacon, I had had before and it was delish. This day however the potato hash was either fried in dirty oil, fried at too low of a temp or for too long or a combination. Very dark rusty non appetizing color, drenched and soaking in fryer oil, unseasoned, bland and really gross in general. I took maybe 3 bites of that part and pushed it to the side continuing to enjoy perfect poached eggs and yummy bacon. Again I attempted to converse with a waitress that the core part of this $19 meal was really not quite up to scratch and it took multiple times to express my concern that care in meal had not been taken and I was disappointed, if she could provide feedback to the chef for future. I was offered a basic "sorry" as she casually appeared to walk to the back, scrape it in the bin and not converse with any other kitchen crew about the meal. The young lady also cleared the table next to us, bringing the dishes onto our table to then stack in front of my friend, upon her finished plate, whilst chatting, all the while those dishes containing another customers coffee dregs being slopped in front of our face. I find this a little yuck guys. This was a regular haunt for me during maternity leave and was a regular hang spot for catchups at Chermside now that I have returned to work. Sorry guys, I think your employees struggle to use feedback as a growth tool and blatantly disregarding whilst the customer is still present advertised the...

Overall a pretty terrible experience. To start things off, I went in on Boxing Day of 2022, which fell on a Monday. There's a massive sign/poster behind the counter that advertises a regular coffee and cake for $11.50, a deal which runs on Monday and Tuesday. Given that it was a Monday I asked before I made any purchases if the cake and coffee I was asking for would be eligible for the combo deal. Upon asking my question, the guy behind the counter paused, pondered for a second and replied that the offer wasn't available on public holidays. I found this quite funny considering there was no fine print or terms and conditions on the advertisement for the deal that would indicate that a Public Holiday would void this. I called this point to his attention, to which he paused once again, turned to the poster and proceeded to act as if he was reading a tiny terms and conditions and tell me that there was information indicating otherwise. While the acting was worthy of an Oscar, I still called him out on it again; to which I copped a, "Well, that's my rule". Alright, sure, mate. I'll play the game. I payed the full price for the piece of cake and the coffee. The coffee was definitely a coffee, so I guess there is that. I ended up getting Strawberry Cheesecake, and for some godforsaken reason it was bone dry. Not entirely sure why or HOW cheesecake was dry; but typically the chalk I use at the gym manages to have more moisture. I won't be coming back. Hopefully they can fix up those posters to avoid any confusion for any...