Bomonti Cafe & Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

Bomonti Cafe for breakfast was an interesting experience.

The cafe staff were dressed in very casual attire, a t-shirt and shorts for a server, in blue (adidas?), while the behind counter person who took my order was in a white t-shirt.

It felt a little disjointed with the general vibe of the place, feeling a bit trying to be 'upmarket' with the wine bar, nice light on the table, nice heavy cutlery, but ... staff in casual t's? Other places have more consistent attire, like all-black clothing at least, if that makes sense.

I ordered The Celebration (Big Breakfast) and an Earl Grey Tea.

They brought me a coffee. Not quite sure what happened there, but the server (white t-shirt person) went back straight away as soon as he saw my face and realised I hadn't actually ordered a coffee, and a few minutes later the tea came out.

The tea was good, loose leaf, good sized pot (just under 3 cups worth), but was not asked about milk, was not provided milk until I asked for it. When the milk did come though, it was a good amount in a nice little milk carafe. The teapot however had its lid screwed into the handle and well, the lid didn't close flat, plus it dripped when poured. An unfortunate effect of a stylish teapot with a bad spout. Bit weird on the screwed lid, and losing heat with the lid not being able to be closed fully.

The breakfast came out a little slow, but I guess since it was a few more interesting items in it (calamari!), I had no issue with that and timing. What I did have issue with though was the presentation.

Once again, a weird disjointing with the style and vibe of the place, when you get nice a nice setting, but then the food comes out on.... baking paper, on a chopping board. It feels very much like a "we want plates" kind of situation. The board was oversized, and I think just overkill for single portion. I get that if it was 2 person serving (an option to be ordered), then the same portion in one board, would make more sense.

Pepesaya butter, excellent. But putting the egg on the toast means you have to move it off to butter the toast. Perhaps just put the eggs on the board off the toast?

This breakfast is not for a volume eater, but the quality of the food was great. The calamari, amazingly cooked. Bacon maple was ok, just cooked bacon with maple syrup poured on it I felt. The scrambled egg tornado was good, seasoned enough that I didn't really have to add any extra. The dukka mushroom was ok but it I felt it was cold, perhaps cooked first and cooled off? Haloumi was a little on the pale side for me but squeaky to expectation. The jalapeno dip, very nice. Olives were just olives, not much to say. I think the only disappointment was that the hash brown had a nice crispy outside but the inside was just slightly undercooked with some firmer potato, possibly another minute or two would have fixed it.

Overall, in terms of the cook and quality of the actual breakfast itself, no complaints.

Price was a little higher than competitors in the area (3 at least in 1 minute walking distance), which is a justified for the breakfast, but not really justified for the price of the tea.

Would I come here again? I wouldn't mind, but there are better value for money...

Owner of this restaurant refused compensation outside of returning $6.50 for a croissant with mold on it. Upon returning the moldy croissant the owner assured me that not only does she make the sandwiches “fresh every morning herself”, but also insisted that it was not mold on the sandwich but AVOCADO. I wont even go into the gas lighting of that statement. She was unbelievably RUDE, not remorseful at all, and even got one of her own employees involved to confirm that it was in fact avocado and not mold and much to her surprise this employee sided with me as she could clearly see herself what it was. The owners response to me after explaining the purchaser of this croissant comes and gives her business every day was “if she doesn’t want to eat her she doesn’t have to come”, here”, after also insisting that she will “send the croissant to a lab to confirm mold” as opposed to simply just rectifying it with a simple sorry gesture in the form of a free coffee. Disgusting. Will never give this restaurant business. Also, circling back to the owner INSISTING that sandwiches are made fresh DAILY and anything not sold gets tossed, here is a picture of ALL OF the sandwiches sitting idle in a glass case w NO...

I had booked online, but there was no booking system in use. We got seats, thankfully, but if there hadn't been a free table on arrival, I'm not sure how they would have handled us.

They were understaffed, so I have to give some grace for that. The staff were polite and friendly. Unfortunately they were either spread too thin and/or simply incompetent.

Our table was not clean nor set when we were seated, and tables that arrived after us had their orders taken first. We weren't offered any table water. Our drinks arrived at different times, which was something I noted across many of the tables nearby; several others were receiving staggered service of their meals, with drinks arriving afterwards.

The food itself was pretty good (although my bacon was cooked unevenly), with the hash browns being the stand-out.

Overall, we left as soon as we could afterwards. It was disappointing for a Sunday brunch to be so poorly staffed, with such low professional standards for a cafe with an otherwise high rating. I felt misled, as though it was a cheap and careless operation, in spite of the...