Cockles Cafe — Restaurant in South Australia

I've been meaning to try this place for a while now and had perhaps too high expectations as I found the experience pretty average and the staff not overly friendly. It's also not the kind of place to go on your own. From the moment I stepped inside, I felt I was being rushed along. As this was my first visit, it would have been good to have had the opportunity to take in my surroundings before being pounced on by a waitress who asked where I wanted to sit. It looked OK outside but I wasn't sure it would be warm enough. She said the heaters were on outside and the bistro blinds down, so I gave it a go. The heaters weren't on but it was pleasant enough for me to pick a table and browse the menu. I ordered the brekkie burger ($18) as everything else was quite expensive. Even the burger, whilst tasteful wasn't great value. Halfway through eating it, the bistro blinds were pulled up and the temperature dropped significantly. So much so, that I hastily finished my burger and didn't order the coffee I intended on having. The cakes looked lovely and I might come back another day to try them with the coffee. In general, I would advise the staff not to "push" their patrons making it more of a quick bite on the run kind of a place, than a cafe for a...

We were staying near Victor Harbor and ate at Cockles Cafe for lunch on both days. On the first day I had the Nasi Goreng and my husband had the fried chicken burger. I was absolutely in love with my meal even before I ate it as the presentation was amazing! Unfortunately I was so eager to dig in I forgot to take a picture. But it certainly delivered tasting even better than it looked! Hubby said the burger was great too! Our 2 year got pancakes and greatly enjoyed those. Because of the service and food quality we decided to return the next day for lunch again and I had the Poke Bowl and my hubby the salmon hash. They again were so fresh and flavourful. Our son had the kids egg and bacon with toast and the staff were very accommodating when we asked to have a small ramekin of blueberries and raspberries added to his lunch as this is what he usually has at home. All in all we were beyond impressed and completely delighted with our meal choices and the staff friendliness and the complete atmosphere of the cafe and are looking forward to when...

Extremely bad service. If I can give 0 star I will. One of the staff took our orders and ~45mins after our food hasn’t been served. Food started coming out of the kitchen and it was served to customers who came and ordered after us. So, we decided to follow up our order.

The staff went to the kitchen to check in, and it looked like she was not able to punch our orders through the system. We asked how long it will take and she said 5-10 minutes.

To no surprise, 15 minutes later our order hasn’t arrived yet. Did another follow up, and she said 2 more minutes. This was when we decided to leave, which we should have done way earlier.

There were around 5 wait-staff roaming around and no one even bothered to check in on us.

For what it’s worth, one of the staff apologized and they did not charge us for our drinks (ginger beer and orange juice).

Really bad experience. Worst service. I do NOT recommend and definitely NOT...