Pier Village Cafe — Restaurant in Queensland

I have provided many good reviews and have only ever given one bad review in the past this will change today as I need to warn everyone about this cafe. My husband and I stopped there for a simple breakfast on Tuesday 17/10/2023. There was very few people in the cafe and we placed our order for breakfast, paid and sat waiting where confirmed with staff. After an hour I went to the counter to enquire if our bacon and eggs were being cooked right now as we needed to leave for the airport in 20mins. The lady behind the counter was incredibly rude & flatly stated no. She then said in a condescending way that there is no chef and that he’s obviously gone without cooking your breakfast - somehow suggesting that we shouldn’t be expecting breakfast and that we were now somehow annoying her because “there is nothing I can do and can’t you see I am very busy”. When I asked her why would you take our order if you had no one to cook it she said “well who took your order?” inferring our order should never have been taken. My husband came in and said well it was actually you who took our order. We asked for our money back and she just walked away coming back with a refund of less than what we paid. When we pointed this out she gave us the rest of the money but the whole time she was huffing and puffing, treating us with contempt like it was all our fault. Not once did she say sorry or anything else of the sort that may have led to empathy and understanding from us. She was just indifferent and rude! Afraid I can’t even give this cafe a one star because there was no service, we never even received our food and we were denied the opportunity of enjoying the last 2 hours of Hervey Bay instead ironically leaving with a bad taste. EDIT TO REPLY: Upon reflection your response should not have been unexpected. For you to be both in denial and offensive at the same time as calling your patrons liars could be a pattern of behaviour that really should be a red flag for anyone contemplating your misrepresented suggestion that you provide a food service. In reality - this did happen exactly as described and I am amused our patience is represented by you as being the cause of your failure to provide a basic level of goods and service we had already prepaid for. Your response would only make sense if you are in fact the chef that left the premises without any care for the staff that had to deal with the mess thereafter. It is no excuse for your staff member to be rude either but it is possible to understand if you have a toxic work environment. Reading back on your reviews around the same time of our unfortunate attendance at your premises I note there are other similar comments where it appears they too were abandoned without apology - it is obvious that this has and does happen under your watch and you couldn’t care less about any feedback - you probably also arrange friends and acquaintances to try and puff up your ratings with...

My husband and I wanted to try this place for some time now as the menu looked great and we love our food! Unfortunately, we found the food not great, especially for the exorbitant prices. For example, $19.50 for a smashed avo. This includes 1 large slice of bread and for me its worse when the plate comes out, much of the balsamic is under the bread so before you are even halfway eating the bread is extremely soggy and makes the whole meal become unenjoyable. My hubs had a chef's special that was fried chicken benny. This is something he has tried at multiple places we have been to. Unfortunately for almost $30 we found it lacked flavour in both the chicken and hollandaise sauce and the bread underneath was already soggy from the first bite.

There were a few other issues with drinks missing mods and such but that was rectified.

Our table was in the main area near the kitchen and counter where you order, so the combination of that and music playing quite loudly from the sound system, it was difficult to have a conversation with the person sitting across from me.

Overall for a family of 2 adults and 2 kids to have breakfast it was over $100 and we wouldn't do it again.

Edit to the professional reply from the restaurant: Oh wow, thanks for the lecture! But see, when I pay for a meal, I’m expecting the basics—like decent food and music at a level where conversation doesn’t require subtitles. If the service had been as attentive as this comment, maybe I would’ve spoken to a supervisor. But hey, good to know feedback only counts when it’s whispered privately and not when it’s honest. Hope this energy gets redirected into improving the experience instead of defending a bad one. Cheers!

We dined at your...

Despite booking for 7 people and a highchair we arrived at our reservation which was for 6 people with no highchair provided. Once we were given a highchair we noticed it had not been cleaned, with what looked like baked beans still on the tray. My adult daughter was brought an iced chocolate instead of the iced mocha she ordered and was told by the male server he would fix it up. At the same time, the lady at the table behind us called out that her son had been given a cold drink with coffee in it. We figured they had been given my daughter's iced mocha. Instead of taking it away, the server took the straw out and gave it to my daughter. She asked if this was the same drink that had just been sipped by the table behind us, at the same time the lady behind us called out alerting us that the drink had been sipped by her son and not to drink it. My daughter and the lady behind us when to the counter to make them aware of the incident. They were proviced an appology and told their drinks would be made fresh. Despite the apology, I find what occurred unacceptable. My daughter wasn't offered her money back for her drink (or her entire meal, which is what I think should have been offered). Towards the end of our meal my daughter was asked if she had finished with the highchair (as my grandson was now being held) but when the highchair was provided to a new table we noticed it was not cleaned and still had a piece of toast on the tray from my grandson. The food and coffee itself was brilliant. Couldn't fault it. The service was definitely not ok. Not usually one to whinge about a restaurant, but this really stood out as negative,...