Driftwood Cafe — Restaurant in Ocean Grove

The first meal I ordered (Red Curry with Tofu) had to be sent back as the tofu was so salty that I couldn’t eat it. It’s the only time in my life I’ve sent a meal back. The second one (Chicken and Mushroom Pasta) was fine. My partner’s meal (Pork Belly) gave her food poisoning. On a positive note, the wait staff were lovely and provided excellent service.

Additional note, following owner's response:

I'm sorry that you are upset by the negative review Ty. I did not post it lightly. You can look at my previous reviews and see that they are overwhelmingly extremely positive. However, the whole point of a public review system is that it is public and that it contains honest reviews, both positive and negative. Let me clarify why we concluded that Karen's food poisoning was from the pork belly by stating the facts. People can read both our comments and draw their own conclusions.

We had lunch at around 12:30 at the Olive Pit across the road. We both had the veggie burger. We both felt fine during the next several hours as we walked to The Bluff and back. The next thing we ate were the meals at your restaurant.  Karen had the pork belly and two beers. We eat pork reasonably often and it isn't a problem. Same with the beer. After dinner we both had chocolate which we'd just bought at Coles. We then wandered over to the park, listened to the live music for a while, and Karen had a cup of tea at Napona. Those are the only things she ate and drank (apart from water).

She started feeling queasy, with the pork belly repeating, as we were driving home, at around 10 to 10:30. By the time we reached home at around 11:30 she was struggling not to vomit. I think it is very safe to conclude it was the pork. However, she absolutely hates vomiting and managed to suppress it until this morning and she is now feeling only minor nausea.  The fact that she was able to suppress the vomiting indicates that it was not the most severe case of food poisoning that she's ever had. I won't try to guess why her experience was different from other customers who had pork that night.

The only thing that I have changed in my review above is the comment about the wait staff; they were not just good, they were lovely and provided...

We visited during the holidays. According to their website they use the “finest ingredients” so not sure what happened the day we visited. Admittedly it was busy and a public holiday. However, we waited an hour for food and 5 minutes before it arrived, we were told “we couldn’t find any gluten free chips”. The chips that were then served were honestly McCains from the Cole’s across the road and the GF bread had to be Helgas. I could’ve cooked the same meal at home for a fraction of the price. The 20% public holiday surcharge was just salt in the wound. We really enjoyed our breakfasts at Kyosk up the road though.

Edit. Thanks for your reply. I never received the email sorry but appreciate you responding. The issue wasn't that the chips weren't GF, it was that they were clearly from the supermarket. The poor ladies at the table next to us ordered a whole bowl and you could tell they were confused by the experience as well. I'm not aware of the chip shortage but everywhere else we ate didn't have that problem. I think this could've been resolved by letting us know, prior to ordering that certain items on the menu weren't available. Also a heads up about wait times before seating us would've also been great. It really ruined our morning. There are also plenty of great Gluten Free bakeries around. Black Ruby is just...

I ordered poached eggs on toast, but they arrived boiled and completely overcooked with no runny yolk. To make it clear, I cut into each egg in front of the waitress, showing they were not poached. Her response? 'That's poached.' It was hard to counter such a dismissive comment, but eventually, the eggs were replaced. When the new eggs came out, I called her back, thanked her, and pointed out that these were poached correctly.

I paid without reviewing the bill, but the total seemed about $20 too high. After asking for a receipt post-transaction, I saw a $20 'miscellaneous item' added. When I questioned it, the male manager was called over (reddish hair). His response? 'The eggs were good enough for him, so they should be good enough for me.' I explained that I wasn’t being difficult—I even mentioned that while I didn’t enjoy the sourdough ‘fresh from Geelong daily,’ I hadn’t complained about it. My only issue was the eggs not meeting standard. His reply: 'I’m not going to lose money on you by not charging you for the eggs.'

As the saying goes, 'If you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty.' I let it go and left, though overcharged. I’ve since shared this experience with my family, many of whom visit Ocean Grove regularly, so they’re aware of the...