Penny Whistlers — Restaurant in Kiama

Went there on 17Apr2022. They have nice view, but I’d avoid it. Here is why:

Food. They were average, I wouldn’t say terrible but definitely not worth the price; the egg white omelette looks good but barely had any taste. The chilli sauce and egg & avo don’t go well together. Coffee was a bit burnt.

Service. This is the reason why I gave a 1 star, in fact I’d give a 0 if I could.

1. We went in and was told that all tables inside were booked out (while the cafe was almost empty) and customers will arrive within next 15 mins, a short brown hair waitress told us that they always keep outdoor tables for walk-ins and we are welcome to wait for a table outside. There were 6 of us but we only saw a 2 sitter table available outside, so we thought we’d order takeaway for now, and if no other table becomes available we’ll just eat by the beach; if any table becomes available we’ll just eat in.
2. while we waited for our food (which took around 40-50mins or so) we saw a 4 sitter table became available, so we sat down and planned to eat our food quickly on the table as we needed to leave soon for other plans. But then the same waitress came and told us that the outside tables have to be given to people on the waitlist, and asked us to leave. We questioned why we were told initially that the table outside are for walk-ins and no one showed or told us about the waitlist.
3. A guy who seems to be the manager/owner came and told us that there’s always been a waitlist for tables outside, and also we ordered takeaway food so we have to leave. We found it bizarre as we saw 2 customers ware eating from their takeaway boxes on a table next to us. As we explained this to him, he then threatened to call the police if we don’t leave.

We feel that we aren’t fairly treated due to:

1. we are told that the outside tables are for walk-ins but when we eventually got a table we were told to leave by staff with rude attitudes and no valid explanation.
2. we weren’t made aware of the waitlist - I have reasons to believe the guy just made that up because he for some reason didn’t want us sitting there (maybe because we are Asian?)
3. we were actually in a rush and wanted to leave quickly too, and we told him that once we get our food, we’ll eat ASAP and leave within minutes, but he still insisted that we have to give away our tables. The fact is - they made a mistake in communication. We were happy compromise, eat & leave ASAP to help them sit other customers faster but they didn’t care about our feeling but insisted to kick us out immediately.
4. instead of communicating in a civilised & solution-seeking manner, he very quickly threw the “call the police” threat to us.

This could’ve been resolved so much better, the whole team at this cafe need to upgrade their customer service skill.

Also - from when we walked in to when we walked out ( 1hour +) there’s been almost no one walked in with reservation, by the time we left it was still half empty inside - I can’t help but think that “customers will arrive within 15 mins” was also made up.

Whole experience is so bad, it ruined our day. I don’t think I’ll...

The good. Dinner menu looked fantastic. Beautiful views. We arrived 6:45pm for our 7:15 booking and were allowed early access. The waitress promptly took our orders. Our entree arrived shortly, followed by the kids meals. The bad. The waitress took our plates after the entree but left our cutlery on the table. Not on the napkin. A table that was not wiped properly to begin with. The chicken tenders were incredibly dry and difficult to cut up. The plates were barely big enough to hold everything. They ended up eating off the table. We waited patiently for our mains for 40mins. We asked what was holding them up. The very poor and laughable excuse given was "we asked for steak well done". We waited for another 10mins, after which we were offered drinks on the house. At this point, the kids, the youngest being 4, were very ready to go. We asked for ice cream instead to calm them down. Assuming the waitress might have just forgotten our orders, which happens, we assumed the food would then be rushed to the front and come out immediately. We waited another 30 mins. We were told the delay was because "we asked the kids menu to brought forward". Ok, but that more than 1hr ago. 10 mins lately, we were told "there was just an influx of orders and we couldn't keep up". Now while this excuse is probably closer to the truth, it was a Saturday night. The were not offering walk ins. They had lower capacity due to covid. I could tell they were short of staff. Very short. The waitress tried her best, but it's managements fault. We would've appreciated an honest response from the beginning, whatever the cause of the matter was. How can you only have 2 waitresses on a Sat night? Why make so many embarrassing excuses? We ended up leaving without our mains at 8:30pm. At this point, the options for dinner were very sparse. I have reviewed many restaurants and I have never ever ever had to wait 1hr+ for my meal. Do not use covid as an excuse. Making your patrons wait that long for their meals is not acceptable. Especially if you have a 2hour limit on stay. Your restaurants reputation is...

Visited this place after everyone we knew told us we should visit this place for breakfast . Took us over 6 months of living in kiama to finally go here. The place is close to kiama black beach and has a good view if you manage to get the best seats .

We went here with a group of 6 people. We were given a table after coming without a booking (only positive) . It took them over 10 mins to prepare a already empty table and even when we tried to take the empty table after first 7-8 mins wait outside on a hot sunny morning ;we were stopped from taking the table and were told that we would be informed when the table was ready. Anyways people who came after us took a table and started ordering before us too. The place definitely suffers from a attitude issue.

Egg whites were Definitely decent but barely had any taste as per my in-laws .

The 19 dollar banh mi was disappointing and tasted awful. Please remove it from your specials. My brother just left half of it as he could not have more of it.

The chilli eggs were really bad. My mom who usually eats spicy food fell sick after eating them.

My partner ate the eggs Benedict and they weren’t anything to talk about . Below average according to her.

I ate the pancakes which were quiet good but I felt they were under done.

We ordered 2 large pots of chai .when We asked for 4 extra cups ,the waiter made faces about it. There was definitely more chai than 3 cups from each large pot of chai. The chai was quiet bad with less tea and more than necessary amount of spices added towards brewing process .

We reached home and all of us had bad stomach and diarrhoea. End of story. My cousin who couldn’t make it to the breakfast was the only active person at home on the day.

Won’t visit this place ever. Definitely expensive and bad place for breakfast atleast as we haven’t tried having lunch/dinner here.

Three monkeys closeby is...