Celeste Cafe — Restaurant in Sydney

A friend and I met here for brunch and I was looking forward to and interested in sampling the vegetarian/vegan menu. The server whom I spoke to initially was just very hostile and had a poor attitude. I had my dog with me so I was told that I couldn’t sit in the courtyard and so I sat at the front outside the restaurant. It was raining and nobody came to check whether the tables were adequately sheltered which they weren’t. We made do by sitting against the window and moving a few tables together ourselves. After perusing the menu, we waited for quite a while for someone to come and take our order. We were happy to chat while waiting but after at least 20 minutes it became evident that nobody was coming. My friend went inside to order and pay.

After a while the coffee arrived followed by the food. I ordered the Reuben sandwich and a hash brown on the side. The sandwich was ok. It was some kind of jackfruit pulled beef and sauerkraut type of affair. Nothing terrible but nothing to write home about. The hash brown though was something else. I wish I’d taken photos. If you could imagine a burnt cube of mashed potato with bits of green in it, vaguely tinged with the suggestion of some yellow seasoning, that’s what you’re dealing with. It was floury, mealy and cold on the inside and lukewarm but still burnt on the outside and tasted completely bland with the faintest whiff of self-indulgent virtue-signalling armpit odour. By the way you will be charged $6.50 for the privilege of tasting said armpit cold potato cube.

Finally we move onto the incident which caused me to even bother with this saga in the first place. Yes I would have rated lower than 1 star if I could. My friend and I parted ways and we were leaving the restaurant. At this point the very same inhospitable server came running out and shouted at us “excuse me have you guys paid?!?!” I don’t know why she bothered with the upward inflection of tone because clearly she meant to say “you haven’t paid yet!!” It was very clear that she was accusing us of not having paid rather than actually asking a question. My friend replied that she had paid when she’d ordered at the counter. Only at this point did the server bother to go back inside to check with the barista whether we had paid or not. The barista confirmed that the table bill had been settled. Even the apology that she made was meaningless because I don’t think this person actually understands anything about customer service or just how rude and insulting she was being. I understand you are running a business so obviously have to make sure customers pay but to effectively relegate us into the rain, not even bother to come out to check on the table or take our orders and then have the nerve to run out after us as we’re leaving only to accuse us of not paying because you effectively neglected your job of SERVING OUR TABLE is just...

Accidentally stumbled upon this cafe/ restaurant and was impressed to see that the menu was all vegetarian and/or vegan friendly. I ordered the Hawaiian toastie with an iced chai latte, while my boyfriend got the salt & pepper calamari special. Unfortunately, both dishes missed the mark.

The crunchy bread and “cheese” were great but the vegan prosciutto had an unpleasant texture (sticky??) and scent. It was difficult to finish it all. Similarly, the calamari dish was a generous serving and the calamari itself had a realistic texture ..but it carried a strange taste - perhaps the pepperberry?? This was paired with a Thai-style salad and it was evident that the flavours weren’t properly balanced. We were still rather hungry after all the food but didn’t order more.

Service was okay - one server had a bad attitude while another was very friendly.

— ⚠️ I was very hesitant in posting this because I was worried a certain crowd may perceive my views to be unfair or biased. However, not all vego places are mediocre - take Pizza Madre for example. As non vegan/ vego customers, it would be too embarrassing to raise this with the staff there. However, I would be doing a disservice to the general public if I didn’t post my experience.

Evidently, the high star rating and significant number of positive google reviews show that this restaurant is doing everything right. Please make an informed judgment based on...

What comes to mind when I say cake? Moist..yum...crumb, maybe? What about peaches and cream cake? Yeah, that's as obvious as a pig in a bird cage. That's where the dissonance rises here. Before choosing the peaches and cream cake, I ask, "What kind of icing?" the orange poppyseed cake has..."orange" is the curt reply...well, yeah. (It's a cake place, so I was expecting "buttercream" or any of the myriad options). Undeterred, I chose the creamy look of the peaches and cream, being as it is peach season. Assuming white peaches must be at play, as the whole construction is white. Well, I was as deflated as a new year's balloon in march. The sponge spent way too long in the oven or missed a stage in prep, coz it was as dry as Kalgoorlie. The icing? Classic sugar icing; no buttercream, almond cream, silken tofu cream, nothing. Neither atop nor centre. And the peach? No peach....oh wait, you see that little kiss garnish in light orange? Yeah, that's artificially flavoured peach. It was a disaster ( yeah, I ate it...clearly addicted). The coffee ordered strong was probably a double shot. But they were either transfer shots (crema gets lost) or the roast is as mild as I was enthusiastic when I entered. I ate quickly, but the team was more fixated on stock control than seeing what I thought of the choices I made. I'm sure there are pluses here. The rating clearly was earned. But not...