motherduck — Restaurant in Goolwa

Having been here previously we were surprised how few customers there were...but now understand why. Firstly, there were dirty forks on both our and the next table.

While she was friendly, tne waiter who took our order missed one and didn't even realise she'd read back just three of our four coffees, not a biggie.

Our coffees were delivered one by one as if she were unable to carry two at a time.

All coffees were tepid, including the one actually ordered as extra hot. Srsly, I MEAN tepid.

The coffee was exceptionally bitter, pointing to an uncleaned coffee machine.

Our four coffees (one large) were 'rung up' and we were asked to pay $55.00...ummmm, how could that even seem normal to someone doing this for a living. When we said 'that seems pretty expensive ' we were told there's a 15% surcharge on Sundays. We replied that: a. it's a 10% surcharge on Sundays, (15% on public holiday), b. That's still too high!

We started again, paying individually and our total (including the 10% surcharge) was $35.50. NO apology for what was clearly a fairly serious and obvious error.

I pointed out that they needed to calibrate the milk thermometer because all the coffee was cold... apparently they use a stick-on thermometer so it doesn't need calibration....errrrrrr so why was the coffee cold? What temperature do you heat the milk to? "60-65 degrees" was the reply. And no recognition that we were telling them the coffee was NOT at that temperature.

Moral of the story is - when you see a previously popular coffee shop empty, read the room and...

Booked table for two. No sign on any table that indicates there was a booking. We should just pick any table. Sitting close to door, sure assumed staff would close door behind them (well, they didn't). We waited for the menues, couple of other people arrived after us, sat next to us and somehow ordered before we even saw the menu. We then realises the "service" changed over the years or with new owners. We had to fetch the menus from the counter ourselves. Would be nice to be told at least. In the past we paid after we had our meals. Now no food without payment beforehand. After some time one of our two meals was served ... Buckwheat pancakes with fruits. It was fruit (just strawberry). The pancakes were cold, even the ice-cream stayed solid, wouldn't melt. The Jazmin tea was far too strong. Two teaspoons of tea leaves for the small pot would have been perfect, not filling up the tea strainer. Eventually the meal for the second person was served. Ciabatta sounded delicious. Know them for many years as being a yummy, Italian style bread role. This one was something different... Rock hard. Couldn't even break of a piece. I had to return this. Was explained oh, it's ciabatta. Hmm, I know that. It should be fresh and not hard and stail. Kitchen staff was kind enough to prepare a new meal. This time it was done the way it should and surprisingly tasted good. Would I go back? No. The prices are not justified for the lack of service, a meal that comes out cold or stale and not...

Popped into Mother Duck for lunch. Could not have been more disappointed. We had visited there a couple of years ago and loved it. We wont be going back.

I ordered a serve of Raisin "Toast" 1 Sourdough "Toast" and a Reuben Sandwiich with 3 mugs of flat white.

Firstly service was shocking. Server brought someone else's meals to our table (no big deal) but then we got rude accursory tone about changing tables (which we hadn't) Then the coffees were brought out. Server spilled my wifes coffee into the saucer (seriously no big deal) However then made some quip about being distracted and slid the coffee over the table and scurried off. No thought to maybe bring a paper napkin over to help deal with the spillage. Saying that though after tasting the coffee more spilling would have been blessing, the coffee was undrinkable. My wife's coffee had an oily salty taste. The other coffees were salty but without the oily residue.

We received 2 serves of Raisin "toast". The raisin bread wasn't toasted. Just warmed up. My sandwich was edible. Drenched in sauce. On the menu it was suppose to be toasted but came none toasted (at least toasting was consistently bad)

Im not one for leaving negative reviews. I think most small business, try hard and do a great job even on bad days. However I don't want people to waste hard earned money on an extremely...