Oaklands Cafe — Restaurant in Pambula

Called in here for lunch on our way back from a fairly disappointing visit to Eden. Can't say it's the best food I've had. My wife had the frittata which she said was quite good, wish I could say the same for my meal. I ordered the burger of the week which, when I asked what it was, I was told it was the Aussie burger on the specials board - fair enough, makes sense. So how come the burger of the week is listed as $24 in the printed menu, but said burger of the week as confirmed by the waitress as the one on the the daily specials board was $26? I don't mind paying good dollars for good food but when I am served up something like this, it gets my back up. The bun was bordering on burnt from being toasted at too high a temperature, the meat patty was greasy and the bacon was cremated beyond recognition. The accompanying chips weren't any better with them suffering from not enough time in the fryer. There was no crisp to them and they still tasted of raw potato. If this review was solely for the burger it would be 1-2 stars. It was only my wife's frittata which elevated it to 3 star. Had the burger been as good as the frittata, I suggest 4 stars could've easily been achieved. Unfortunately the food put a downer on the rest of the Oakland's...

As a local I've been here a few times. The food and atmosphere are great but the service is mediocre to awful nearly every time. Yesterday was the last straw. I was with someone who began feeling unwell and needed to eat (or even drink), we came in sat for nearly ten minutes and were never served. Everyone around us already had food, so it wasn't that it was busy, staff passed around us cleaning and even packing cushions away on a further bench (at 2:00pm - they close at 2:30) I even stared over at the counter which we were sitting directly in front of outside and caught some people's eye. Still nothing. When we first sat down someone cleared the table but never spoke to us (should have been a sign). We left and went in to Pambula to eat. I will come back to Oaklands for other businesses but NOT the cafe. Which is a shame as it was a nice place to take visitors....

Passing through and stopped for a coffee, signed in for COVID requirements and was told everyone has to sign in even though I had put x4 for the family. I was then met with “Have you booked?”, we had not and then we were escorted to a table and told it would be a while as she has to attend to other. I was ready to leave because of the bad attitude of the first server, possibly her attitude matched her angry orange/yellow hair. A second (really nice) server came out and took our order soon after we were seated. Coffee was a little bitter but tasty and it came with a little short bread. Bought a jam biscuit which was really good and so was the hot chocolate. The first server was the only downside of our visit, the other ladies we dealt with...