Berkelouw Café 1812 — Restaurant in Sydney

I booked a table for 15 for my book club & prepaid $180 for food, when we arrived they said we could sit upstairs were there were seats for about half the group so we instead had to pull our own table together downstairs, lucky not many people were in the cafe otherwise we would’ve had no where to go. We were then served two packets of Doritos, a handful of crackers and three small dips. I asked for the rest of the food to be brought out and they said that’s all they had. In total what we received would have been less than $15 worth of food which I paid $180 for. I said I would talk to them and try and work it out when the book club ended by which time they had left. I text and emailed to no response and called this morning and was informed we were paying for the space which I was never told, not in mine and the owner’s phone discussion or in our texts to organise the table. I was entirely mislead and what should have been a really great night was ruined by the dishonestly of the staff and then refusal to admit wrongdoing. I really love the bookstore and I know the cafe is seperate but this has just turned me off ever visiting a Berkelouw again. I know we’re all struggling at the moment but shame on you for ripping off a young group of readers who just wanted a nice space to enjoy...

I came to Cafe 1812 (on the second floor of Berkelow Books) for wine with a friend after work one weekday to catch up on the goss, so it was relatively quiet - though I made it a bit rowdier as I'd had a rough week by Tuesday and am a cheap date.

The space is intimate, with some typical bookstore, deep, vintage professorial-esque chairs, though there are a number of more standard cafe tables and chairs throughout for people who actually were looking to be productive.

Their wine selection was good and the prices reasonable. While I have a long-standing love of bookstores and think having a wine bar in a bookstore is a perfect concept, I think the biggest con of this for me is that it was not exclusively a wine bar. It's a cafe with wifi that happens to serve wine. I felt occasionally out of place, drinking here - sometimes felt like I was in a library, like I had to be really quiet (not like I was particularly loud, but...). The space itself was quite echo-y. I felt somewhat self-conscious here. Or maybe that was because I was drinking on a Tuesday.

Regardless, while I like Cafe 1812, I think the next time I come it will be for the cafe and books side of things rather than the bar...

Great space overall either for working on a weekday or stopping in pre or post-movie (Palace Verona is next door) at busier times.

Lots of tables down the back though the main ones are the bench overlooking Oxford St which makes for great people watching pretty much any time of day or night.

Decent coffee (Campos) and a good selection of food and wine too.

Just a few cons letting them down ... Wifi is free but alas most of the time useless - incredibly patchy and dropping out all the time (if looking to discourage the working office at peak times, reckon a voucher system or timetable access would be a better idea) Newspapers seem to work on a random donation basis ... if they're truly aiming for an '1812' coffee house vibe then the daily papers would be handy (maybe this is a bit petty given old books can be read there!) Up until recently plates, cups etc used to get left on tables a while ... seems pretty good...