The Pantry Forresters Beach — Restaurant in New South Wales

I'm sorry to say I was expecting better than we experienced. This cafe was recommended to us, so we were super excited.

We arrived after the 1pm lunch rush. We ordered at the counter, and then waited a really long wait for my dish, for the the waiter having to go back for cutlery after my dish arrives. The waiter did apologise for the delay for the long wait.

My friend requested cutlery with her prawn tacos, the waiter went to get them and never came back.

I had to spit out a piece of avocado skin from my "Smash". The poached eggs were luke warm and slightly overcooked. I must say the dish was weird. Why serve crunchy panngattato on a bread based dish? Toasted bread with a fried bread garnish?? The stracciatella was almost non existent under the poached eggs. Very watery, no curds and no flavour.

My friend loved her prawn tacos. Maybe I chose the wrong dish?? A positive, the coffee was...

Always feels a bit rushed here, just just not enough space in front of the counter of there's one person being served and one waiting, the design of the counter means that staff need to walk past people waiting to be served often with hot food, coffee, and dirty plates. I'm surprised I haven't seen someone end up covered in food by stepping back into a team member. Poor design, they need the coffee machine at the far end, and access closer to the door through to the kitchen (or even a pass, meaning that the team stays on the floor).

Not enough job separation, everyone is trying to do everything and it just ends up in a big jumble of people behind the counter. The disorder extends to the food quality, being average and often wrong. Love the idea, just poorly thought...

Front of house female staff member was incredibly rude and passive aggressive from the moment we arrived. Also overheard her being rude to several other patrons. And from reading other reviews it seems this is likely standard behaviour from this staff member from the descriptions. The food was average for the price and size and given the hostile service not worth it whatsoever. Some of the children's meal was missing despite it being the standard kids menu with listed items that would be included. For a special occasion we were celebrating the experiece at The Pantry really negatively impacted my day. For the amount of money we spent, it was very lacking and disappointing. Overall: Average food, awful service and terrible attitudes. Won't be...