Zoie Cafe — Restaurant in Scarborough

What an awful experience.

I decided to take my parents in law, over from Melbourne, down to our local beach front to take in the beautiful outlook the cafe provides. Sadly it ended up being a dreadful brunch experience for everyone and I left without even being served.

Ordered using the QR code embedded on the table. You'd think that would make it easy to coordinate the food service and at least to tell where the food was to be served. Wrong.

We enquired with wait staff on four occasions about our meals and received pure apathy.

Two people were served within a broadly reasonable time frame, and one of the meals matching the description of what I ordered was given to another table to people who arrived well after we ordered.

The third meal arrived about 15mins later after the first two were finished and the fourth another roughly 15 minutes later. At this stage only two people of 5 have been able to eat together.

Becoming fed up after waiting an hour and ten minutes I approached the kitchen, rather than the wait staff, who never had the decency to get back to us, provide an update or even apologise, and asked whether the meal they had on the counter could possibly be the one I ordered 1hr 10mins ago. Confusion reigned and I was firmly told to remove myself from the kitchen, not realising I was in fact in it.

I explained the debacle we had encountered and that I would just like a refund and to leave, extremely disappointed at our awful experience. The meal was offered to me, free of charge, however the fact the other four people in our party had all eaten (at different times, not together) made it pointless.

At least the staff member contacted the owner and a full refund was arranged. That gesture was appreciated however it didn't make up for such a frustrating and terrible time out.

The staff couldn't care, they were clueless in what they were doing, either the ordering system is broken or the staff are because nothing was done right the whole time.

I hope you can lift your game or your business will...

From the outside first impressions were good. Location is beautiful. However, when walking in we were quickly underwhelmed. Not one person gave eye contact or greeted us, considering we were the only couple to walk in at that time. A staff member even walked past us twice before we had to figure out on our own if it was table service or counter service. We found a table and then my husband needed to find the menus so we could order.

Once ready he went up to the counter, but even that he found weird to find. Said it was a bit cluttered so didn't know where to go, to the point that a lady who walked in after him got served first. Our drinks came out, they do a good coffee so that was pretty great.

Our food came out not long later, however the sourdough toast was burnt, the scrambled eggs just tasted like eggs with a lot of milk mixed in and the bacon was quite rubbery. Considering my husband ordered his to be crispy and mine were just normally cooked, we both got the rubbery outcome. My husband normally finishes his meal, yet he couldn't finish the eggs as they didn't taste that great.

It is such a shame, as a location as good as this, the potential for the Cafe to bloom would be awesome. It was such a shame to just not be treated the way you would normally expect from a Cafe in such prime location.

In a place like Scarborough, the vibe needs to be uplifting and vibrant. We just didn't experience that at all. Customers should be greeted at the door, the staff need to make sure that they are friendly to each customer, regardless of how they feel at that particular time. Customer service is key in hospitality and there needs to be a better service here. Sadly, because of this, I dont think we would return again, unless it was only for coffee or maybe an icecream. We don't go to the beach very often and thought it would have been great to try...

Contemplating between Dome across from Zoie, the missus and I decided to give Zoie a try given its 3.8 rating. The Scarborough Big Breakfast was the first thing on the menu that greeted us and we were expecting something possibly interesting that would showcase the area. It was standard fare and not a standout. Seeing that, I decided to go for the 8-hr Pulled Pork with Sambal Hollandaise on Sourdough and, sadly, it did not make the headlines. Along with our two flat whites, the bill came to nearly $65, a tad over the edge for brekkies of this standard.

Brownie points for the view and sounds of the waves, but Dome across the road would probably have been a better choice.

A shoutout to the gent who helped to clear our plates - he was polite and checked in on how it all went but answered his own question saying “Seeing the empty plates always makes me happy.”

Indeed, Sir. 😃

3/4/25: In response to your reply, presentation was acceptable, however for $23.95, the sourdough was mushy and not crisp on the outside, but hard. It hinted it was probably not as fresh. The poached eggs were overdone. No instructions were given on order to have it overdone. The sambal hollandaise was not a good idea for someone like me who eats sambal on a daily basis. At best, it tasted strange. Perhaps you may try truffle oil blended into your hollandaise on your next menu change. Or mix sesame kewpie into it and you have plenty of smiles. It needs to be more complex in order to justify the price tag...