Old Fernvale Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Queensland

This is the first time I have visited the venue and was surprised about how poor the food was and how few types of pies remained at 11am. Upon entry we read the extensive menu and asked for several of their gourmet pies, of which we were told they were out. My brother in-law questioned how they could possibly be out of these pies before lunch on a weekday and why, after visiting them more than 12 times at various parts of the day he has been unable to secure even 1. The peope behind the counter told him that the bakers had been busy that morning and had only been able to produce a small number of gourmet pies. They suggested that we needed to get there earlier to secure the gourmet offerings. He explained that he had gotten in early previously and they were always sold out, which fell upon deaf ears. Frustrated, we ordered 2 Curry and 2 Chicken pies. The Curry Mince pies were a gelatinous mess, so much gravy with so little flavour and mince, they should have been called the Gravy Pie. 4 mouthfuls and it went in the bin, disgusting, but at least it was hot. The same could not be said about the chicken pie. One mouthful and it went in the bin, it was barely warm, zero flavour (come on guys not even a good amount of seasoning), but it did have a considerable amount of chicken pieces which was commendable.

Prior to doing to the bakery I read a large number of reviews as it is a 1.5 hour drive to get there and any negative feedback is replied to by the owners with various excuses being made, but all suggesting that the reviewers should have returned to the store to complain rather than doing so via review services such as this. Let me explain why this doesn't happen.

The bakery staff are entirely apathetic when questioned about anything and the older lady seemed quite annoyed when questioned about the consistent lack of gourmet pies. The bakery isn't in a location that makes you want to stay there to eat, so taking th pies elsewhere is a more appealing option. The line up outside when we walked past an hour or so later was so long it would take more than an hour.(which is staggering given the quality of the products produced) to get back into the store.

Stop making excuses and start improving the quality of your product. I know you keep banging on about the pie competitions you win, but I can only assume that is for one of your rarely existent "Gourmet" pies.

As stated, this isn't the first time our family have visited, only mine. Had I been by myself that day I would have put my experience down to a bad batch or a busy day. However, given my family's consistent history with you bakery, I will definitely not...

Really disappointing experience at the sit down cafe. We travelled out of our way by 40mins and decided to sit in the cafe instead of the adjoining takeaway that we’ve done many times. The staff had no idea what pies were available and couldn’t sell me any that were listed on the menu. To my question ‘what IS available?’ their responses were ‘not sure’ and ‘don’t know’. I was told 4 or 5 varieties that ‘might’ be available (none of which we really wanted) and when I chose 2 they still had to go and check next door. Just to add to my disappointment I paid at the counter then picked up the cutlery, our drinks, our table number, my phone and then with my hands full I get handed the ‘too hot to hold’ coffee I ordered to juggle back to the table. Considering I saw at least 4 staff avoiding clearing tables, burping (yes, burping - out loud) behind the counter and laughing and chatting, surely somebody could have offered to carry the coffee. Alas the quality of the pies were also disappointing. My chicken and mushroom pie was full of flavourless floury white gunk, a sprinkling of finely chopped pieces of mushroom and a few chunks of chicken. Even the pastry was below their normal standard. My husband’s steak and mushroom pie suffered the same unfortunate characteristics with a surplus of tasteless gravy to compensate for the same pitiful quantity of mushrooms and uninspiring meat. It seems like the generously sized pie cases have to be filled with uninspiring sauces to save money. I trust the multitude of flies we were battling with inside the cafe enjoyed our half eaten meals on our departure. Just to rub salt into our wounds we ducked into the takeaway next door to get some dessert only to hear people ordering a huge variety of pies that were apparently unavailable at the cafe where they charge heavily inflated prices for lacklustre service, a small side salad and some chips. On a positive note, the chips were quite nice! The staff really could benefit from some retraining and perhaps better supervision but more importantly a system where they are able to confidently know what is available for sale and not have to guess or run next door to check each time somebody simply wants to...

Nothing to be proud of here. Rural Queensland has an obesity problem and bakeries like this are part of the problem. Too much white bread. Food needs more nutrients. I'm pretty sure you guys use the highest degree of refined wheat flour there is... dont doubt it one second. You whole bakery needs a total makeover... and that's not admirable, considering the overwhelming evidence of health claims on this specific type of bread... gluten is more higher the more refined the bread. This type of bread is not natural. Almost straight out of a laboratory. And this is all you provide. Literally. Pastries fine, but not ok for a wrap... that's just lowballing. Spinach and feta roll was 90% white bread. 6% feta cheese, 4% spinach... Absurd... couldn't believe it. You may as well use 50% plastic 50% mozarella for your cheese, and green color pigment for your spinach. Your wraps, similar problem, wraps had the highest degree refined white bread... doesn't have a right texture at all... soggy!! The pastry on your pies also has nothing remarquable, other than appearing to be of the highest degree white flour available... nothing to be proud of. It's not the worst pie I've ever had though. Your steak meat was not dry. So I'll give you that. But you're definitely at the bottom of my list of pies I've had. Maybe the feta roll made me dislike this place furthermore. But I had a morrocan roll... not surprised with the wrap used and the excess amount of sauce. Finished my mates caesar salad wrap that day too... he didn't even come close to finishing it.I appreciated his wrap however. Lots of bacon and lettuce. But too much sauce and wrap used is too high a degree white flour.

Hope this helps you. The image shows the feta spinach roll.. DISGRACEFUL. I had to fish out the little bits of cheese and spinach I could find. Very hard effort for...