I am writing this review after my second visit. The first time I came here was roughly 8 months ago while passing through Port Macquarie. The restaurant is lovely and has a great view and location (very close to the lighthouse and beach). The food was great too, but sadly, the cashier was very rude and made us all feel very uncomfortable. At the time, I thought it was just a one-time thing—maybe she was having a bad day, etc. After all, it's just one person. Sadly, it does not seem to be the case.
Last week, I went back with my family, and both the cashier and the girl serving the orders were extremely rude to us. I try to make it a point to always be polite, first because there is no reason not to be, and second because I have worked in hospitality and customer service and know it can be challenging at times. However, there was absolutely no justification for the attitude these girls had.
My first interaction was to ask if they had anything on the menu similar to a toastie (we had some picky eaters in our group). The cashier's response was a dry "you can read the menu" with an annoyed look on her face. I brushed it off, thinking maybe she was tired, it was also a special request so fair enough I guess, even though her answer was rude I proceeded to order the other things the family wanted to order. She had a sour face the entire time and a look of disgust while entering our order. After we had finished ordering, I looked towards my partner, who had the same impression—the girl had been extremely rude. He even suggested we just leave. I told him to brush it off, we were just there for breakfast and the location is nice.
I also gave the girl the benefit of the doubt, maybe she is just a serious person; it can be tiring to smile all day, I understand that. However, as we waited for our order, we noticed the girl seemed to be nicer and more patient towards other locals than she had been to us. As we began to collect the food we had ordered, every interaction with the girl handing us our breakfast was awkward. She had a look of disdain every time she handed us our food. I asked her about a juice we had ordered, and she pretended she could not understand me. English is my mother tongue, and I have lived in Australia for many years. However, I am and look Latina and this, my look, made her pretend she could not understand my (australian) accent. At this point I was losing my patience, we had done nothing but try to be nice until this point had given the girls multiple chances to be cordial or even neutral, but they were blatantly rude.
Over the years, I have very rarely felt racism in such a straight-forward way, and I usually try to find other explanations to bad behavior. However, the way the staff makes you feel at this place, the fact that it has happened both times I have visited over a long period of time, and I have been treated this way by 3 different staff members makes me believe this is not a coincidence.
I don't know who the owner is, but the staff clearly has a bias towards people who are not white, and they do not try to even hide it. I even spoke to my parents, who visited this place on a different occasion, and my father had a similar experience while asking for instructions to find the bathroom (the girl did not help him, a customer in the line actually had to intervene and tell him where it was). If you don't look Australian, expect to be treated with disgust by the girls serving your orders at this place.
Sad to think it, even sadder to write it nowadays, but they truly did make us all feel terrible during our visit. You come here as a visitor in high spirits, its a beautiful place, the food looks and tastes great but that all gets taken away by this type of behavior. The way we have been treated is not okay. As I said, over all the years I have lived in Australia, this is the one place where we have experienced true racism. Not a great look for the restaurant. I'm not even sure those girls are aware of how they behave, but clearly, they have an issue serving people who are...
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