Soul Pantry Cafe — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Hubby and I decided to drop in for a Friday night drink, and a bite to eat. The café is in a light and airy warehouse space; and the cafe has been freshened up with a coat of peach and aqua paint. The waitress was pleasant and helpful, and the setting sun was just shining in gloriously through the open shutters. I had the lobster roll with a glass of prosecco, while he had a beef burger and a strawberry smoothie. Our meals came with lots of (too) salty, tangy corn chips, and a big sprig of snow pea leaves. Not a fan of extraneous leaves, so leave ‘em to the guinea pigs, I say. My roll had a couple of small chunks of lobster, but I couldn’t taste it over the massive amount of overpowering, drippy sauces. The bun was fresh and soft, and the capers were fun, but this isn’t a dish I would choose again. Hubby said his milk bun was okay, but overall, the burger was simply average. He paid $5 extra for a tiny bowl of avocado, which seems a wee bit overpriced. He was surprised that the burger didn’t have the usual suspects like a bit of lettuce. Sadly (oh dear, oh dear!!) – the music was very loud and very discordant, and prohibited conversation as it was difficult to hear or speak over the absolutely horrendous noise coming just above our heads from the numerous speakers. We did ask the waitress if the music could be turned down a bit; she said she would try!?! It went down ever so slightly for about 30 seconds, then was turned back up, even louder. We scoffed down our food, and bolted. So much for that second drink. I can see that we middle-aged folk are clearly not the target demographic, but considering that the café’s customers were about 95% middle-aged folk when we were there, this seems very short-sighted. Sorry but we...

I've been here several times and, am sorry to say, that the service has not improved over any of those visits. It would appear I'm not along in commenting on the service either.

Today I came in with a friend to have breakfast after going to the Love Me Again Markets. We were waiting for a while to be seated (as you require customers to) and not a single greeting or holding ("Be with you in a minute") was made. We were passed by multiple staff members until I had to 'catch' one to ask if there was room. We were told coffee would be quite a wait, which was fine, but the server did not even finish the sentence before leaving the table. We finished our breakfast before drinks arrived so I asked if we could have them in takeaway cups. It appeared they had lost our order so they took it again. After this, we received 4 coffees, one of which was the wrong size and when we tried to explain what may have led to the confusion we were agin walked away from. The coffee itself was very disappointing - a chai latte that was basically hot milk with a tinge of cinnamon flavour.

Overall, majority of your staff did not look like they wanted to be there nor were they pleasant to interact with. Service was definitely underwhelming and I felt uncomfortable even trying to ask or query anything.

Another thing of concern is you have a sign saying you take EFTPOS only. I'm certain this is not allowed as cash is legal tender.

The only positive of this experience is the food is consistently amazing. However, I can get amazing food and amazing service at many other...

We came at 1:38pm because we couldn't find a car park space. We were told the kitchen would close in 10 minutes so we then ordered a juice, a smoothie and a ham cheese croissant. All very delicious and brought quickly. The waitress was kind when I asked for an extra plate to share my generous size croissant with my friend. I was happy to have ice cubes in my juice as it was and is extremely hot today and so I was slowly drinking my icy juice. After a short while our plates were kindly removed as we finished the croissant and after a couple of minutes from that someone came quickly asking if we had finished drinking, having already her hand on my glass. I kindly said I didn't finish my drink but she took my glass anyway and I guess because they were starting to close... We weren't the only two at the cafe' infact there was also a group of ladies with their plates still on the table. It was 2:14pm and the cafe' website shows closing time at 2pm. I think if the kitchen closes in 10 minutes at the time of the customer's arrival and the cafe' closes in less than 20 minutes , you shouldn't allow customers to order anything as they can't enjoy their meal and their $7.50 juice in a rush. Maybe in that situation customers should be invited to have take away only or to take a stroll in the shop, something we couldn't enjoy as understandably the shop was already...