The Island Cafe — Restaurant in New South Wales

I was very warmly greeted right as I opened the door at this bright and cheerful medium sized cafe, it was very fittingly furnished in bright white and deep blue with nortical / ocean themed decor, with ocean views and it was a lovely place to sit and eat breakfast ( on a drizzly rainy day )

Order and pay at counter, I chose my normal order of poached eggs and a cappuccino, this is purposefully ordered by me on my first visit to any restaurant that serves breakfast, the main reason being I find that if you can’t get the basics right, a poached egg and a cappuccino .. you generally find the rest isn’t right either.. So

I received my cappuccino almost immediately and it was excellent, everything about it was perfect, the flavour texture temperature etc. was as it should be. Thank you to whomever made it because it’s one of the best cappuccinos I’ve had on the coast and I throughly enjoyed every delicious sip.

The food : I’m going to purposely break this down and you’ll see why in a sec…

Eggs : My eggs came shortly after and looked a total mess presentation wise ( not photo worthy) but tasted good and was cooked fairly well, but very slightly raw whites inside ( which is never good ) but overall pretty good except for the presentation. 20-30 seconds more cooking and the eggs would of been perfect.

Toast : As for the very weird flat wholemeal toast the eggs came on .. hmmm ummm hmmmm interestingly cooked but not in a good way, it had been cooked in a sandwich press ( flat / squished) which is a very bizarre way of cooking toast ( unless their toaster was broken ) I’m really at loss here to explain why it was presented this way, obviously it didn’t affect the taste but it definitely took away the texture and aesthetic appeal to my breakfast. I don’t want to see or eat toast like that ever again.

I noted that most dishes were priced a little on the high side. ( with comparable cafes in the area )

Strangely I could not find their menu anywhere online prior to arriving so I have attached pictures for those who want to check it out.

The service was excellent. The staff were all happy and cheerful.

Open for breakfast and lunch only. Inside and outside seating available.

Would I return .. for the coffee, definitely. For the food ..umm maybe.

Would I recommend .. yes maybe.

Booking’s recommended

Ocean views but hard to see in my picture.. but trust me the ocean is visible from most forward...

I am a local who has had meals at the Island cafe many times for the last few years, today was a very negative experience. When ordering the lovely staff let us know it would be a 30min wait on food - this was fine. I ordered first and my friends after me. Approx 30mins later my friends meals started coming out. My last friends meal came at approx 50min, the waitress offered free coffees for the wait and asked if I was waiting on any food - I said I was and she apologised and said the chef may have missed it. I said it’s all good but since my friends were almost finished I’d rather not eat it, I went in about 10mins later as my friends had now finished to ask for a refund - the same waitress was walking out with my meal, I let her know we were leaving and she said I could take it away or have a refund, I said I felt bad but would like a refund. She went back to let the owner know - the owner then came out and said “what’s the problem with your order”, I politely explained that I’d ordered first but my friends have already finished, so I’d like a refund and to go. The owner made me feel awful about this and raised her voice at me - in front of her staff and other customers saying “you’ve still got someone eating at your table so whats the issue”, I showed her he’d finished the meal and she responded with “sorry our service isn’t good enough for you”, the chef then then started yelling from the kitchen saying “I’ve only got one burner and you were told it would be a wait”. I explained I’m a regular customer so can just take the food if that’s easier - the owner then got the cash out and shoved it toward me telling me to take it. I gave the money back and said “we don’t need to be negative, I’m a regular and I love this cafe” the owner didn’t seem to care at all - continuing to shove the money at me. The owner said I should’ve told them it was an issue, when I said “I had spoken to the waitress”, she responded with “she isn’t the owner”. I ended up leaving without the cash or the food, I just needed to get away from that place. The lovely waitress came out and apologised - I apologised back to her saying it’s 100% not her fault. I have always enjoyed this cafe but after being spoken to like that I won’t be returning.

If you are a staff member or a customer who was present, I’m so sorry you had to witness this...

HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! The cafe closes at 3pm so I had run in at 2pm to check if they were still taking food orders which I was told yes only a smaller menu! Perfect! Upon my mother ordering she was told “outside seating only” which from a customers perspective having all the outside tables & chairs already packed up and also the inside room closed off for customers we took a seat at a free table along with many other diners at the tables surrounding ours( which we assumed was what she meant by outside as everything else was packed up ) We then got our meals at around 2.15 & our mug of coffee delivered to our table.. all was good. Around 5 mins later the young girl who served my mother came racing over screaming to the top of her voice “ I DID TELL YOU TO SIT OUTSIDE DIDNT I “ the entire cafe turned to look at us and what was going on. Myself and my mother were stunned at the way this girl had spoken especially so loudly to draw the entire crowds attention. My mother explained she was confused ( as we sat with the rest of the cafe full of people and no option of tables or chairs set up outside in the wind ) the only option was to sit at the table that had not been yet cleaned as there was still the last customers water sitting on the table so we assumed this was what she had meant. Another worker then came over to say “ YOU CAN STAY BUT WE CLOSE AT 3” while then serving the 10 other people waiting to order which I assumed those people then had to go stand outside to eat their food as they had already packed up. My mother and I ended up leaving with our food in the paper boxes we were originally given with no fork to tear through the brick they call bread to take home arriving home at 2.40pm ( 20 mins earlier than their closing time that they felt the need to aggressively scream down the cafe about). Great cafe normally however they should change the opening hours to be closed by 2pm because the girls can’t be bothered to work after those times and have to make sure they scream down the restaurant at their customers. Get some anger management/customer service training for the staff here it will...