Bumbles Café — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

We have been coming here for over ten years. We used to love this place. But, sadly, our last visit was the first time that we had to walk out because we felt very unwelcome by the staff. We came with our two young daughters, looked around the cake cabinets when we arrive, they always have something new on the cabinet. At least four or five staff saw us and walked pass us when we entered and none of them said hi. The cafe was pretty quiet at that moment. There was no customer at the till or at the tables inside. I had to duck my head behind the counter to ask if we can just choose any table to sit. The waitress replied as if I bothered her as she was doing something at the till, even though she wasn’t serving anybody and we waited for a few minutes without anyone greeting us. She finally said she will check and find a table for us. We were following her and I was helping my daughter to come up the steps when another staff, delivering food, waiting behind us impatiently again without saying hi to us, and I finally had to let him walked pass us first because we felt him rushing to deliver the food. There were only three steps that my two year old daughter was trying to climb. It wasn’t going to take much of his time to wait. The cafe was pretty empty at that time, but the waitress said we could sit outside or at a share table with a group of ladies that were clearly there to celebrate someone’s birthday. They were having champagne and presents around the table. We refused to share a table as we didn’t want to disturb the ladies with our young family and we didn’t want to sit outside as it was too chilly for the girls. We asked to sit at the other plenty free tables, but she said all the tables are booked. The back room was empty, the middle section was empty and the two tables on the bottom at the entrance were empty too. This place was always more busy than that before. We’re not sure if they are not a kids friendly place, but we chose to leave and go to another place that would accommodate us with our young daughters. Not a single smile from all the staff that saw us, not a single greeting from them. We hope the management would fix this as we used to...

I thought after dining at The Blue House, right beside Bumbles, for dinner the last five Wednesdays in a row, that it was about time I wrote a review!

Firstly, I LOVE the ambience here. We live down the road and it's a lovely stroll along Budds Beach at sunset to then end up at this gorgeous blue cottage with fairy lights in the trees of the front courtyard, a wide stone stepped entrance, shuttered windows and French doors, and quirky, eclectic but somehow seamlessly classic decor inside. It feels like a mix of part cosy dining rooms / part open plan fairytale-style feminine space.

Wednesday night is Pasta Night, with an array of DELICIOUS pasta dishes, all for $25 which is well worth it considering the assortment you can get. Pumpkin gnocchi (my favourite!), baked rigatoni with mushrooms (also my favourite!), seafood risotto with prawns, scallops, squid and bugs, burrata ravioli, crab and prawn lasagne (OMG), spaghetti napolitana, papardelle with anchovies, capers, lemon and olives...the list goes on. And that's just the non-meat options! (I'm 90% vegetarian) Plus, the options change every few weeks.

The service literally cannot be faulted. Sparkling, still or tap water right away. Little touch lamps ready to adorn each table and comfy cushions on the chairs if needed. Tonia is SO lovely and friendly (nothing is too much trouble), and Kate is fantastic. The food is immaculately presented, absolutely scrumptious, and served very promptly.

The atmosphere is warm and laid back, even though it's always busy (be sure to book!), and most weeks I've seen a local friend or neighbour there, also enjoying the whole Blue House experience. It is social and festive, though cosy and private at the same time due to the different dining areas.

We will be back! (again) Thank you, Blue House...

I have been to Bumbles many times and for some reason I always had the "pleasure" to sit across from the restaurant manager while she was having either an interview, or induction training, or firing someone...I have always felt a bit weird having to hear her conversation because she is always very loud.. I find it very unprofessional and unfair to the customers.... anyways today I went with my friend and guess what!! She was doing it again! She was sitting in the most prominent table at the entrance, having meeting with an ex- employee..she was talking so loud about her expectations to staffs, and how she cant promote certain people because they are not qualified, blah blah blah....it was so distracting and just annoying that I couldn't even focus on my conversation with my friend... I feel like she really have this ego that she wants to let people know about her importance but to be honest, whatever she was sharing is about the operation of the business and no customers or other staffs need to hear it, bring it to the back office, keep these business conversations in private! The fact that I saw her doing this every time O visited this cafe makes me think that she must do that all the time. Its just totally unprofessional and this restaurant manager definitely not having any awareness on how she comes across to the customers and also internally to her own staffs.....

and Also waited for 40min before being told that one of our orders was not in! Then when we asked to add the order back, any normal staff would tell the chef to expedite the order since the customer had already waited 40min, instead they put the order in like a new order and we had to wait for another 30min for it. Total an hour of wait and was forced to listen to that manager having a go at the ex-...