The Coffee Pedaler — Restaurant in Gundagai

Be warned, the coffee was good and the food I had was tasty, but the service was very rude.

Every table had someone seated at it, and there was a long queue. My daughter and I wanted a chicken wrap but they didn't have any left. The woman at the cash register from whom you order didn't know what was available so repeatedly asked the woman behind the other counter who was cleaning rather than serving, what was available. She said what was available, rattling off a list very fast.

In the cabinet there was a burger labelled Pedalo Burger. Both my daughter and I fancied that next so I asked how many they had left. The question was relayed and the woman snapped, "No, there's none left, there's only what's in the cabinet". Taken aback I asked what was in the Mediterranean burger. "It's on the menu" she snapped. The woman behind the cash register looked embarrassed and apologetically handed us a menu. Immediately below the burger list was a list of extras so I asked to have the local trout added. "I TOLD you, the food is all in the cabinet already made. NO extras."

At that point my daughter gave up. I ordered the Mediterranean and an iced coffee and said to the ordering woman how appallingly rude the other woman was. She apologised.

The food took over ten minutes to come and was served to me by the rude woman. She slung the plate aggressively down on the table without a word and without looking at me, my daughter or my husband. The iced coffee didn't appear so my husband went to check on it. It still hadn't been made so he asked for it in a takeaway container. Eventually it appeared. It was nice, but not cold enough.

So having walked in to this cafe in a good mood, I walked out not so happy and distinctly underwhelmed.

You have...

This was hands down the WORST place we have ever been to. We came here on holiday from the UK, driving from Sydney to Melbourne, and decided to stop for breakfast. From the moment we walked in, every single worker stared at us like we didn’t belong. We smiled — not one person smiled back. The atmosphere was cold, hostile, and extremely unwelcoming.

When we went up to order, we politely asked a man standing at the till if he worked there. Instead of simply answering, he snapped back, “Why would you ask if I work here?” in the rudest possible tone. We explained we weren’t sure because no one was in uniform, and again he repeated, “Why would you ask if I worked here?” It felt like he wanted to embarrass us instead of just taking the order.

The whole interaction was humiliating, and the customer service was absolutely disgusting. To make it worse, he was warm, smiley, and friendly with the customer right before us — but when it came to us, as brown tourists, the difference in treatment was painfully obvious. We were met with dirty looks, cold stares, and an overall vibe that screamed: you don’t belong here.

We left feeling upset, unwanted, and like our trip had been tainted by this experience. As people of colour, we honestly felt discriminated against in this café, and it ruined our stopover completely. If you are a person of colour thinking about going here, please don’t. Save yourself the pain, the humiliation, and the awful memory.

This place didn’t just give us bad service — it made us feel like outsiders in a country we came to enjoy....

So I came to this cafe with my wife and 2 little boys 4 weeks ago as we were heading down to Melbourne for a big road trip holiday and we stopped at Gundagai to break up the drive. We had a great meal and lovely service. So we decided to stop in again on our way back to Sydney 3 weeks later. This was on Easter Saturday and it seemed to be completely different staff. We had a nice lunch again and my wife decided to take our little boys for a walk up to the cake counter to see if they wanted anything. I was certainly eyeing off something. So this male staff member walks past them and says "excuse me" and mumbles under his breath "it's a fricking walkway". Now my 2 little boys are 2 and a half and 4 years old. My wife was furious as she heard him, she walked back to the table and said let's go somewhere else. So we left very disappointed. I went back there and told one of the other waitresses who was lovely and she apologised for this guys actions who she also told me was her boss / manager. Clearly he doesn't have any clue or people skills for that matter. And on our next trip through Gundagai, we will avoid this cafe. Such a shame as one person's silly actions has left me no choice but to give a 2 star rating when I was going to give it 5 stars before this happened. BE AWARE...