Bean Counter Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

Bean Counter is a Fairfield institution. It’s always been a great place, I reckon. I hadn’t been here for a few years but I can confirm that it’s still a mighty place. They get top marks from me today. I had the simplest order - a large strong coffee and toast and condiments. I’m astonished by how often cafes fvck this order up. Not here. The coffee was huge and delicious. Often they are smaller than you’d hope and criminally underpowered. By contrast, this coffee was spot on perfect. It was the ideal strength because the very polite and affable young server carefully took the time to assess how many shots were optimal. The toast was superb too. The bread was beautiful and perfectly toasted. The cafe very generously gave me three rather than the advertised two slices of toast. OK, one of them was small but you have to admire the gesture. In addition, the condiment portions were generous too. While you commonly have to ask for a tiny bit more butter or vegemite - I seriously detest it when they scrimp on those things and too many do - there is no such issue here and there was more than enough. The service was lovely here from the server at the counter to the chef who brought the food out. Polite, efficient and non intrusive. Finally, it’s a lovely spot to sit here inside or out looking over to Fairfield station. I also appreciated the playlist they had on here, which was a very enjoyable mix of old and new songs. This was a lovely experience. How wonderful it is to know that this old favourite place...

Would NOT recommend this restaurant to anyone who values their time or cares about customer service. Had brunch here this morning for the first time, was not greeted by any staff and had to ask the barista if it’s table service or sit down. Once seated and our waitress came over, we had to repeat numerous times our order. Over 15 minutes and no drinks, my partners drink finally comes out, I watch as other tables who arrived after us get their coffee before I got mine. I had to walk up to the barista who was talking non-stop to a customer (already had her coffee and seated alone) and ask for my drink (probably the reason for the extremely slow service and over looking a drink on our till docket). My partner got a full breakfast and I had just poached eggs, again 40 minutes to bring out my meal, his food came out at least 10 minutes before mine and was extremely greasy. No care at all, did not enjoy the atmosphere and the tables are far too close to each other, had an extremely loud pair sit beside us I could not even hear my own thoughts....

An underwhelming coffee experience at best

I was super stoked to find this cosy little cafe yesterday afternoon and even happier to learn they were serving the happy days blend (my favourite out of the roasting warehouse line up and the one i personally use at home for milk based coffee).

Unfortunatley my experience was overshadowed by a poorly trained barista- dirty portafilter not rinsed or wiped out between the last shot pulled, no distribution, puck prep or weighing of the dose as well as a grinder chamber full of pre ground coffee from who knows when, made for a very bitter hard to drink iced latte.

I contemplated saying something at the time but it never seems worth it and such an awkward conversation to have!

Im hoping it was just an "off day" and perhaps ill try again in the future but please if your charging $5-$6 for a coffee it's got to be...