The Moray Cafe — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Worst experience ever. Catching up with a friend and her husband who had just flown in from overseas, wanted to show them the beautiful food and customer service of Australia. Actual comedy of errors in that sense. We chose The Moray as they had a big sign out front saying "we are open, no public holiday surcharge!" Not packed at all, maybe 15 out of the 30 tables filled. 5 wait staff. We order and sit. After 45 minutes of chatting and two rounds of coffee and juice we notice the food is taking a while and flag it nicely with the waitress who says she will check on it. Waitress returns and says plainly, I'm sorry we're just too slammed today, your food hasn't begun to cook yet, would you like a refund instead? To which we respond a bit puzzled, but it seems like it's not packed at all, we'd rather have our food than a refund. Waitress took this personally and responded curtly "no need to be rude" we explained we weren't trying to be rude but we found it a bit odd that we had to flag the delay of our food with her and the restaurant seemed by no means full at all, and maybe perhaps the order had forgotten to be put through instead, nevertheless we would like our meals please. The waitress then offered a free round of coffee which we gladly accepted, and she assured us our meals were 10 minutes away.....20 minutes later. No coffees. No meals. Tables around us who had arrived after us were well through their meals already. And some tables had ordered the same things as us? We flag the waitress down again who was clearly stressed and said to us "I told you it was going to take a while and that you could have your money back." We responded, no you said it would only be 10 minutes further. Waitress ignores us and walks off. Coffees arrive. A further 20 minutes later still no food. Guest from overseas gets up and asks for refund. Waitress says food is now 5 minutes away. Guest says it doesn't matter we have now been waiting for over an hour for 4 meals, tables have come and gone around us. Waitress says she will bring money to table when she has a free moment. Waitress brings over food and money and is physically shaking with anger and slams money down on table and says "all we can do is our best and all you can accept is our best" and storms off. We start eating our meals a bit sheepishly and our friend tells us a funny story to lighten the mood, so we all start laughing, waitress comes over and yells "yeah laugh all you want guys!" And storms off again. Shocking service, no actual apology. If you can't handle people in your restaurant on a public holiday why open at all? But still perplexed as wasn't packed at all. And plenty of wait staff. Was the most bizarre experience ever. First time there and will definitely be the last....

Went to The Moray a few times back in November 2018 and enjoyed it, thought I’d go back but I was pretty disappointed. Had to send my meal (whiting) back because the fries were cold, got them back after 10 min, clearly dried out and over cooked (most likely re-fried instead of new ones), fish was way over cooked as well (re-fried too) and they did not bother re-making my poached egg, so that one was dead cold. I ate the salad and left the rest of it untouched. Once everything was done, we waited for at least 20 min hoping that someone would come so that we could order our juices (we mentioned earlier that we’d have one after our meal) but 3 FOH staff and no one ever even looked at us once (we tried getting someone’s attention) or offered another coffee or even cleared out our plates. As a FOH manager myself I was pretty appalled by the lack of follow up, as well as the vibe from the staff who didn’t seem to be enjoying their job that much. At the register (the only genuine smile we got from a friendly staff) when I mentioned the incident with my meal, the lady (who I think might be the owner?) was kind enough to take it off our bill with “sorry about that” before quickly moving on with no further question. We won’t be going back. My partner enjoyed his meal (prawn...

The Moray makes good coffee. I was pleasantly surprised the first time, and they haven't disappointed yet. I haven't done any serious dining at the Moray yet but their ham and cheese croissants are fresh, and their bagel with smoked salmon cream cheese and salad was delicious. The lovely staff give consistent service. I have met a client inside, and it is a good place for a quiet chat. The neighbours all seem to enjoy it. It's the most relaxed coffee shop I've found in two and a half years in Brisbane.

I wrote the above around two weeks ago, and today I visited for breakfast. I ordered the Salmon Omelette. It was a baked style omelette ( frittata) and had well- balanced flavours with smoked salmon and fetta. The slaw on top was made with fresh produce, and was a nice complement in flavour and texture. Their Tumeric Latte is made with plenty of tumeric and sugar. The Moray has a nice location right on the corner of Merthyr and Moray under the shade of the iconic fig and a short walk from the Sydney Street Ferry terminal and the New Farm Riverwalk. Compliments...