Citron Bayside — Restaurant in Greater Brisbane

Citron is the new place on the block and we popped in to check it out. It was busy, but not crazy busy. We were eventually attended to by a tall, shaggy haired, slobbishly attired young man. With his hair all over his eyes he had his glasses right down the end of his nose. He had to check with the other staff to see where we could be seated around reservations (fair enough). Then when we approached the table that had just been vacated, we said to him, this table needs a wipe down. He then put our cutlery, glasses and napkins on the dirty table and went and grabbed a tea towel to wipe it off with. He said he’d be back for coffee order and we asked for some table water. He was seen loitering around then talking to someone he knew nearby for a while. I noticed that the other servers (girls) were busy around the cafe, hustle bustle and wouldn’t make eye contact with him. Were they also frustrated at his underachieving customer service? Eventually we prompted to be served and gave the order which he couldn’t remember and returned within two minutes to say, was that scrambled for the eggs? He’d really now piqued our incredulous interest at just how awful he was at customer service. He appeared to wander in a daze, returning back and forth to obtain the iPad and occasionally look up to the customers in front of him. If he was wearing a colour other than white, he could have easily blended in with the locals at bus stop. I’ve seen more presentable shelf stockers at Woolies. The girl making coffees was fantastic though, she was hard at work and brought them out to us with a smile. Two stars mainly cause the food was okay and coffee nice. Not...

Note to Chef:

We have some advice. You have a prime location. You have the best wait staff along the route: obliging, cheery, welcoming. You have pretty decor, though some of the cushions are tired, dirty and long overdue for a wash or a replacement. Most of these deserve high star scores.

BUT your pancakes are a disaster and need immediate help and we strongly suggest you take them off Citron's menu until you master them. We would like to give you minus ten stars for this meal. As this is not possible we end up giving you one star overall.

Firstly: have you tried eating your own pancakes served in a bowl? It is impossible. A knife and fork are needed to eat pancakes and yours cannot be manoeuvred in a tiny bowl. Nor should they. Ditch the bowl. Secondly: Pancakes are meant to be light, airy and fluffy, with a texture like soft meringue. Your pancakes are dense, heavy and overcooked with a texture like dense hard bread. You need to master this. It takes some skill. Thirdly:The accompanying syrup should be maple , not a cheap corn imitation poured by you all over the dish until it literally slops over the sides of the bowl when a knife and fork enter the mix. Your pancakes were literally drowning in syrup. Whilst that is your choice, it is not your customer's. Serve a side jug of syrup with dishes like this so that customers can use the portion of it that best suits them.

This experience has quite turned us off returning to Citron. We left most of that meal, but the little we did manage sits like lead in...

We arrived and were directed to an inside table at our request. Upon seating we found the table was still dirty with a used napkin and used water bottle left behind. When the girl came over to give us menus I said that's not our napkin, and she apologised and took it away not noticing the table wasn't cleaned. We ordered. My turmeric latte was ok until I got to the end and choked on the heap of undissolved powder. I suggest they try Alchemy brand as it doesn't do that to a customer (I'm not affiliated with Alchemy I just trust their brand of tumeric). Our meals were ok but we had no cutlery. They said they would be right back with them but then he went and served other customers before sending over a very unhappy girl (Miss C) to give them to us and she fumbled around giving them to us instead of being preparwd when she walked over. Our food was ok but nothing to write home about. Maybe it was just a bad day/shift. Would like to try them again but I hope these few things are fixed. Pls staff.... smile at your customers. We do notice, and it brings down our experience at your Cafe. We did nothing wrong, we were not rude or demanding so it saddened us to be treated like it was a pain to give us cutlery as our meals were going cold. We should have been the...