BlueWater Beach Cafe — Restaurant in South Australia

Walked in thinking initially this cafe was quite cute and ordered my coffee at 11:30, at 11:49 I finally received my coffee. We were hoping to enjoy the coffee looking out over the ocean but during the 20 minutes wait in the empty cafe, every fly in the whole gaf came to pester us (20 odd flies or so). The old woman behind the coffee machine has clearly never taken a barista course. The noises erupting from the steam wand were horrific screeching sounds and resulted in a mediocre coffee, microfoam was not in the room with us.

I ordered a cappuccino and received a latte with a slight breath of chocolate on top. When I approached the counter to ask for ‘a little bit more choccy on top please’ before even taking a sip of the coffee I was met with a scoul and sour attitude. I’m currently completing a lap of Australia and have had to ask this question in hundreds of cafes across three states, never have I been met with such a foul reaction. The behaviour of the barista is the soul reason I felt need to write this review. Nasty.

Do yourself a favour and save yourself a 20 minute wait for two coffees and go round the corner to the next cafe in town.

Judging by the other reviews on here, I’m ready to have my opinion be slammed and shamed by the owners as it seems they have done to previous negative reviews left on their page. Reads extremely unprofessional. Hire a new barista with less of a chip on their shoulder!

Edit after response from owner which was well expected:

Nice try waiting to respond to my review months after the fact.

Your two star review has been updated to one star accordingly.

Firstly there is not a single incorrect thing written in my review. During my incredibly long wait I had ample time to review the time stamps from when my coffee was ordered and I was also conveniently sat at a table next to the espresso machine so was able to see any coffee which may have been made during my waiting time. I’ve now added the only photo I have from the shop to my review to show how empty it was. I was the only person sat inside and there were two couples seated outside before we ordered, one couple already had their coffees. The photo taken of ‘the old woman’ delivering the drinks to their table was taken at 11:31 - 1 minute after I had ordered my coffee.

Secondly: I have absolute care and compassion for the elderly finding work, and describing the woman working behind the machine as ‘old’ is simply descriptive, not anything else. Quite simply, I do not care about who’s doing the job at all as long as they’ve got the skills and attitude to get the job done properly which she clearly didn’t. Clearly if she’s undergone more training since then, your management agree

Don’t try to gaslight me and the rest of your potential customers into thinking anything untrue was said here. Maybe, Bruce, you should ask yourself what benefit would it prove to me to leave you a negative review for no reason?

Only to save the next person from having the same dreadful and painfully long interaction I did with a member of YOUR team.

I’ve worked in many cafes all around the world and have never, ever seen service so slow while sat in such an empty cafe. So unless you had 18 Uber orders (you didn’t) waiting next in line, there was absolutely not a single chance that there were 18 coffees to be made before mine. Maybe spend more time educating yourself and your staff on customer service and less time making up phoney excuses for terrible service.

Also pictured in the photo are multiple flies on every table you can see. 🤢

Glad you liked my boyfriend, he thought the wait was ridiculous too and after witnessing the way your barista spoke to me he encouraged me to...

Unfortunately, after over a year of running this business, the owners still haven't got it right and the customers are paying for it!! There were so many things wrong with our order and the service that I won't delve into it all..and having an apology on the counter that you are "short staffed" doesn't really cut it in a business..especially at peak time in the holidays and after you've had over a year to learn how to run the place! I watched the poor young staff running around like chooks with their heads cut off, stressed and under pressure because people were waiting ages and orders were being confused, having to apologise to customers when it wasn't even their fault! They could hardly smile at all..and I don't blame them. To top it off, having another sign saying that "King George Whiting is sold out" is truly unbelievable!! I watched one customer, who was very disappointed at this fact, obviously looking forward to the most popular fish dish in this area, having to now choose something else. I have nothing against this family having a go at an exciting new adventure, but when I see stress and confusion in a restaurant/cafe with the poor young staff (who just want to earn a buck) and quite a few unhappy, "tired of waiting", frustrated customers, I question whether, after a year's experience now, these guys are in the right business!! Sounds harsh, but if they really want it to succeed, I would recommend the following...obviously firstly, make sure you have enough staff..excuses to the customers and signs on the counter is totally unprofessional. You get 1 chance to make an impression on people! Your prices are definitely a bit high, doesn't go down very well with people, especially with long waiting times! Get your orders right! Just about every table around me had a staff member approach again and ask them to confirm their order!! No one looked happy about this and amongst the annoyed faces, it's no wonder I heard not one laugh in the whole place while I was there. If the staff issue is addressed, this could be enough to fix most of the problems..and not "just enough" staff..have a couple of extras on hand if needed..from reading reviews over the last year, it seems to be an ongoing issue..people waiting extraordinarily long times for even just hot chips! Good staff numbers means timely service, "hot" food, well prepared food, lack of confusion with orders and overall less stress for staff and customers alike, therefore creating a better atmosphere, better "experience" for everyone and much better business and overall income, which is what everyone wants, I'm sure. I've been visiting this Cafe for 50 years now and have seen it change hands a few times..get the management running smoothly and it'll be a fantastic place to be proud of. Even if you've got to fork out a few extra dollars to get the best quality food, make sure you have that KG Whiting in and have experienced staff who can work happily, not under stress (they need to enjoy the experience too, after all), then everyone wins! You just get that one chance to make an impression and from what I've read, and from my experience, you seem to have lost quite a few customers already. There's no reason you can't have 5 star rating with everybody if you get the balance right. Sorry to be so forthright with my opinions, but I see your potential and eagerness and am bewildered as to why you havn't fine tuned this business yet. I don't mean to offend in any way, I'm just trying to help with what I've observed. Tumby Bay is a great place to visit or reside at and you can help make it even better! ...

We rocked in here at 1.45 and ordered food I got butterfish and chips and calamari and chips .... friends ordered AFTER us and got their burger 🍔 first ...over fried stuff ... ok whatever ... When we asked at almost 20 past 2 about our food , we were told it's just being plated up now .... okkkkaaayyyyy It was served on an ungodly diseased chopping board A fish chips and my calamari surrounding it !!! 2 meals for 2 people ON ONE CHOPPING BOARD ....no extra plate nothing Calamari was so crap ...some grey matter under the batter ..I was scared to eat ...then some guy comes out of the kitchen hollering " kitchen is closed" ... Sposed to shut at 2.30 not like 20 past ... This was dissapointing to say the least ...that close to ocean and selling crappy seafood ...criminal ...or is it a geek restaurant?? Or not even ...who knows Once u get past the blaring Greek music ..and the young waitress who can't crack a smile ...doesn't want to be there ...followed by crap food Crap service ....people...seriously ...go elsewhere ....so...