CSC — Restaurant in Dubbo

This café was once the trendy, hip spot in Dubbo—a place for Sunday brunches that stretched into the afternoon, morning coffees that turned into long chats with friends, and cheeky cocktails to kick off a Friday night. In its early days, the owners poured their heart and soul into creating a vibrant hub that locals were proud to call their own. Sadly, over the years, that sparkle has dimmed.

On our most recent visit, the café was bustling, a promising sign at first. We chose an outdoor table, though it was still cluttered with dishes. Hoping to help the busy wait staff, we cleared it ourselves and asked for a quick wipe down. Ordering via QR code was simple enough, but it meant drinks and meals trickled out at different times rather than arriving together.

A can of Coke appeared first—without a glass or straw—while our table remained untouched. Fifteen minutes later, burgers arrived lukewarm, redeemed only by a side of golden, crunchy chips. A friend’s strawberries-and-cream crepe was missing its extra bacon, which turned up later as an afterthought. Drinks followed in scattered succession: a chai latte (the highlight of the meal), an iced matcha served in a fun soda-style can, and finally, after some delay, a “Coco Cloud” latte that seemed unfamiliar to the staff.

By the end, we couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. The café that once felt polished and lively now shows signs of wear—sticky tables, dusty shelves, fading plants, and a general sense of being understaffed. The team working the floor were doing their best under pressure, but without strong leadership and attention to detail, the cracks show.

There are still flashes of what made this place special—the chai, the chips, the central location—but the overall experience no longer lives up to its reputation. We left reminiscing about the days when this spot was the talk of the town, and hoping it might one day reclaim...

After my experience I’m leaving 2 stars. I’d like that to reflect the food though, staff were friendly and were doing the best they could with their job, and the wait time was more than average (excluding the extra business). I’d ordered a Brekky Burger, which (presumably because we could see into the kitchen) was sitting under the heat lamp for 10+ minutes, maybe 15, so that affected the food a fair bit. Other than the sides of the burger being cold, the hash brown and bacon were both undercooked. I’m not saying they have to be set on fire fully cooked through, but a hash brown should be crunchy on the outside, with warm potato on the inside, and the bacon should have a little curl to it, maybe a tad crunchy too, and most importantly warm. On a positive, the Cappuccino I had was actually splendid. Lovely warmth, not too bitter or too sweet, and the foam and powder complimented it very well, so I’m glad I enjoyed that. Regarding the food though, having worked in the same industry it felt like there was a lack of passion, or overconfidence, or both. To anyone reading this, including the owners, this place definitely has the potential to do well, in fact for the business they get now, imagine how popular they’d be if 110% was consistently put in. For $68, that includes me, my girlfriend, and mother in law, I probably could’ve gotten a better experience and value for money from Hungry Jacks. I do hope this place gets better and maybe I’ll have a better experience the next time I have...

Originally stopped here for coffee but there were quite a few seated outside and the food being brought to the tables looked pretty good. Reviews were all really positive so we decided to have some food as well. Where could we go wrong? The fact that we chose to eat, thats where it all went wrong. I get that the cost of everything is so much more these days but with increased cost you expect the food to be decent. How can you get eggs on toast so wrong? The eggs were cold and how hard is it to cook toast? You couldn't cut it with a knife, parts were so overcooked they were just dried out and inedible, like they'd been sitting in a warmer and just crisped up and crisped up, other parts weren't even cooked. We had originally wanted the Crab Cakes Benny but after ordering and paying were told that it wasn't available but we could get the pancakes with pear and ricotta that was pretty much the same thing?! We changed that order to eggs on toast with a crumbed mushroom but had still paid more for the crab cakes. There was no offer of a refund of the difference and the menus seemed to be spirited away quite quickly before we could sit and work out the difference (which we'd already done and of course i could've just imagined that) The Acai bowl was fine, maybe a little scummy on the fruit- one strawberry and four blueberries. I do hesitate to give bad reviews for little local businesses but this place was so far from what I read online I was very...