Merry Beach Milkbar — Restaurant in Kioloa

QUALITY ONA COFFEE DONE WITH EXCELLENCE...If you love quality coffee done with excellence and passion, look no further than Merry Beach General Store and Takeaway.

I have been going to Kioloa for approximately 15 years and whilst there's been some better cafes pop up in that time, the location has always lacked quality coffee and I'm super happy to report that this has changed with Aaron's new found ownership of Merry Beach General Store and Takeaway.

Aaron is an incredibly passionate and skilled barista who has partnered with ONA coffee. ONA coffee was founded by Sasa Sestic (World Champion Barista) and Sasa along with the ONA brand is now seen as one of the most influential visionaries in the coffee industry. Having been to ONA flagship stores in Canberra and Sydney, I can honesty say that Aaron has dialled in his craft and is absolutely honouring the ONA brand. Of the 3 days that I drank his coffee, I had 2 of the best filtered coffees that I've had (and the 3rd was still bloody good)!

Aaron's motivation is simple and it's very evident to see that he genuinely wants each customer to walk away with the best and most memorable coffee experience. He takes time to passionately explain the coffee origin, the brewing process and the flavour profiles you're set to experience. Each and every time I was served by Aaron, he went out of his way to address the finer details to enhance the experience, whether it be cup choice, brew method (Paragon) or bringing in some of the most boutique range of beans for me to sample/experience. He is incredibly polite, respectful and passionate, making you...

This place really surprised us - it hadn’t looked like the sort of place that would serve amazing fish & chips, but they do.

Possibly the best chips we’ve had anywhere since our favourite chip place in Canberra retired. Lots of nice crispy ones but still have the perfect soft texture inside, and they don’t skimp on the chicken salt.

Their fish is a generous size and when ordered as “fish & chips” it comes as quite reasonable sized meal.

My wife and I consider ourselves to be quite fussy about potato scallops - they have to be home made, home battered, not too thick, not to thin, and have a lovely crispness on the outside. This place gets very close on all of those features (perhaps a little thicker than we’d prefer but it wasn’t far off and we know some people prefer them that way)

Don’t be fooled by the look of the place - you’ll definitely get a great feed here - just arrive early as word has gotten around and they can be quite busy. (They also close ridiculously early - 2pm from memory - so there’s no “casual late-lunch” while you’re in “holiday mode” and camping - you’ll need to be there at a more traditional sort of lunchtime.) We always managed to find a spot to sit though, and came here several times on our recent stay - including as we drove off with our van to go back home - deciding that we’d not get a better many other places enroute...

Ordered steak sandwich, they had no steak. Ordered egg and bacon rolls, had no eggs. Then they went and got eggs so we happily waited. Then after say 30 mins we get the egg and bacon rolls only to bite into a stale roll with no butter or sauce. Let’s also mention the frustration between the works and throwing their hands in the air over the fact they couldn’t handle alittle pressure of serving and cooking at the same time. Forgave them and went back next day for take away coffee only to be belittled over the fact she couldn’t see my double vac certificate (which I produced a number of times) while waiting. So once we get over that hurdle, the coffee was weak like watered down milk. Apparently it had 3 shots. I highly doubt it. So maybe you like that place or maybe you don’t. I know that I won’t spend 1 more cent there.

Edit. Why would anyone come back and try to resolve the issue with you when you and your staff don’t even get along. Rubbish food. Rubbish service. Oh now the pandemic is over, what will you blame your next bad service, behaviours and terrible quality of food and coffee on?? Always excuses, no...