Duke's Lounge Randwick — Restaurant in Sydney

Stay away from this cafe. We stayed in Randwick for a concert last night, this morning we were walking around trying to find a place to eat and stumbled upon Duke’s Lounge. We all very much regret deciding to go in, and then we kept ignoring the many red flags.

Upon arrival there is a lovely lady who greeted us. It looks as if she solely runs the place with a cook in the back… honestly wouldn’t be surprised if she also did the cooking.

We sat at the 4 seater table after she asked someone else to move for us. We sat and unfortunately noticed many signs of unhygienic practices. Home related clutter and large amounts of dust were noticeable towards the back of the dining area and towards the coffee/service area. The pillows were stained and the floor was noticeably dirty. Still, we persisted, trying to not be too fussy and I suppose we may have felt bad for the woman if we were to leave.

Something else to note, it was incredibly hot in there. The A/C was not turned on and we assumed it may have been broken considering todays immense heat. My partner and I even left the cafe and stood in the convenience store next door to cool down. She did end up turning the air con after around an hour as more people entered the building. So it was working but despite the crazy heat of today it wasn’t turned on until more people come in.

Wait time. As it is quite evident that this lady is solely running the cafe … possibly with a cook in the kitchen… the wait times for our food were extremely long.. possibly 40 mins or more when we were the only dine in customers.

I went to the toilet around the back of the building which I regret also. I didn’t end up using the facilities as I was a bit put off. As you walk down the side of the cafe you see all sorts of things large amounts of rubbish, junk and even an old bird cage. The lady quickly ran to the kitchen and shut the door to it from the inside before I was able to walk past it in order for me to go to the toilet. I suspect she may not have wanted me to see inside the kitchen.

Food. When we were finally served, the food was not good in any regard. The coffee wasn’t any good and I didn’t drink any more than 2 sips. Nothing about any of our meals were enjoyable, very very under whelming and barely edible. I was in my second bite when I seen A THICK SHORT BLACK HAIR in my mushrooms. That was the last straw and so DISGUSTING. I did not eat any more than that, meaning my entire meal bar maybe a quarter of a hash brown and a little bit of egg were discarded. This also obviously put off the others around me. We didn’t make a fuss and just left the cafe with almost entire meals left on the table.

Oh also, she gave us a glass jug of water and glasses toward the ending of the experience. One of the men opened it to pour himself water but there was MOULD… full on disgusting green and black mould on the lid and top of the water jug. It was horrid and made us feel so sick and gross.

We walked down the road to the shopping centre and enjoyed some food there.

Basically. Don’t eat here. I have no clue how they are still running the business. There needs to be further investigation because honestly it’s not just a matter of not nice food and not great service… it’s...

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