Devon Cafe Barangaroo — Restaurant in Sydney

Located in the heart of Barangaroo, Devon Cafe is relatively accessible within walking distance via Ferry (Barangaroo stop), Metro (Barangaroo stop) bout 10 mins walk and Train (Wynyard stop) bout 5 mins walk. During truffle season, this cafe will have their special truffle menu. I have been here over the last few years to have their specials. My highlights from my recent visit & things to be aware of: Food: The truffles used were very fragrant and elevates the dishes they have truffle on. The Truffle Wagyu Hamburg was very tasty and is pretty generous with its rice portion. The borderline sauce complemented the dish well and the butter rice was fragrant too. Unfortunately the Truffle Mie Goreng which is slightly cheaper than the Hamburg did not have any meat, so it felt not quite value for money. The coconut jam a.k.a kaya toast is one of the best in Sydney for me. Love it and one of my staples. Fragrant and fresh with rich pandan + coconut flavours. Accompanying eggs are also cooked to perfection with their own mix of soya sauce. Very reminiscent of what is available in South East Asia. Coffee: I have been here a few times on weekdays and weekends. Unfortunately the coffee on weekends taste a little burnt as oppose to when I have it on weekdays. Seatings: They have both indoor and outdoor seatings. Barangaroo can get rather windy. While there are heaters for outdoor seating, it can still feel quite cold if folks are sensitive to the cold. Also, it can get really busy during peak meal times, regardless of weekdays or weekends. When this is the case, it may take a while to wait. Payment: They accept both cash and card. They do have surcharges for weekends, public holidays and when using card for payment. Atmosphere: It can feel rather cosy but still warm. Overall, it has a nice feel. When it is packed, it can get rather loud with conversations. Service: Decent and staff are pretty good in attending to requests by patrons.

This is a solid 4 place for me but do require choosing the right food order items. Still worth checking out if you haven't...

Firstly, I will not blame the waitress as they were completely overwhelmed and understaffed. This was the faulty of management. Given the situation, they tried their best but for $134 for lunch, with 10% surcharge and another dollar something for using a credit card to pay, a certain level of service is expected.

The order was taken swiftly and we were informed that the food would take 20-30 mins - fair enough. Here are the issues:

Latte served in a cup a little bigger than a short black glass My wife’s drink came after 5 mins and my coffee came 20 mins later We ordered 2 entrees and 3 mains and they were served all over the place. The Spanner Crab Toast and Uni Hash were tiny and at $10 each, was questionable The Breakfast with Sakuma’s was good The braised beef cheek toastie was very heavy but a bit overpriced for $22 when you compare it to other dishes around the same price range The Scampi Pasta was slightly underwhelming. Although the scampi itself was fresh, the pasta also, the sauce was not as refined as other seafood restaurants and was watery, leaving a big puddle at the bottom of the plate.

Overall, the place was just badly understaffed. We saw people looking for waiters to order all the time, tables uncleaned, no water given to our table, the name of the dishes not stated but just placed in front of you. To top that off, the young girl at the counter should seriously be put on another task. Sour faced and did not want to be there; customers should not be left with an impression of her when leaving.

At $134 for lunch, I will not be coming back due to the poor and non existent service, food being served all over the place and just general messiness of operation. Please do your loyal regulars a favour and lift your game. You are not cheap and there are better options out there in terms of quality...

Dined in last week and got the October special japanese egg omelette for $4.50, it was great and we decided to come back again this week. Due to a tight morning schedule, we decided to order in takeaway form (3 sets of coffee and omelettes) just in case we had to leave midway. While waiting for our coffee, we explained to the wait staff that we had ordered takeaway but would like to dine in. She sat us down on one of the many empty tables around. While waiting for our food, one of my friends took out a cake wrapped in foil which she baked for us so that we could have a taste. We were not planning to finish the cake. But, immediately, we were told off by the wait staff that no outside food was allowed. I think some discretion should be allowed in such cases but if you do have such a strict policy, I can respect that. However, our experience went further downhill when our omelette was ready, and we were told by the cashier that we were not allowed to dine in as the price for dining in and takeaway is different. I find this service unacceptable, turning away your customers from dining in an almost empty restaurant, eventhough we had just ordered from your restaurant. Had we known there was a price difference, we would have gladly paid for the difference, but we were not even given such an option and instead, we were just simply told that we could not eat in the very restaurant we ordered from. I believe that no matter how great your food is, you need to have good customer service to retain your customers, especially considering the many cafes around Barangaroo. If this is how you treat your customers, rest assured we...