Frankie B's Brunch House — Restaurant in Sydney

My daughters and I went in and had breakfast, the first time i have no complaints, the food was very nice, well presented, and great service, the following weekend my daughters asked to go there again, so we did, completely different from the first time, everything, service? There wasn't any, and were some of the same staff/waiters from previous week, seemed they weren't in a good mood from the start. It was quite busy and seemed under staffed, we stood there and waited for about 5 min with staff walking past and not even acknowledging we were there, I noticed a booth had become available so I asked if we were able to sit there, I was told, it needs to be cleaned and he just walked away, we waited over near the booth on the outside for about 5-10 minutes with nothing. They didn't come over at all, Then a cpl walked in and a wait staff walked them over to another booth that had become available, cleaning it for them, while we were still waiting. Another lady that didn't work there seen us waiting and said she was leaving and we could have there booth if we'd like and started cleaning it herself, I thanked her, we sat down at that booth. The waiter come over and asked if we were ready to order? There was still some rubbish and napkins at the end of our table as the lady done her best cleaning it and just left a little pile of stuff on the end of the table. I asked the waiter if he could take it away, he wasn't happy about that. After that, I ended up going up to the counter to order, same as what we ordered the previous week, 3 pancake sliders a big breakfast, 3 mixed Berry smoothies and a mango smoothie, 2 of the pancake sliders came out first, and looked way different to the first time we had been there, it was just thrown on the plate compared to the first time, we have pictures of both, the first time it looked really good and my daughters wanted to take pictures of it , the second time, presentation was way different, just thrown on the plate compared to the first time and some stuff wasn't even on the plate, after another 5 minutes the 3rd pancake sliders come out the same. I waited for the big breakfast for another 10 min or so, which I didn't mind, it is a massive big breakfast and It would take time to prepare, then we noticed it was ready and was up on the part where they put the food for waiters to bring it out, it sat up there for another good 5 minutes before a waiter noticed it then went and grabbed it bought it to the table, again completely different from the...

Waited a bit for a table. No real problem with that. Waiter sat me down. When I went to place my order, waiter walked away while I was still talking, had to get him back. He was quite brush-off, his attitude was along the lines that "how dare I trouble him by asking to place an order."

Coffee arrived, was quite nice.

I ordered the Salmon Bruski, as I wanted breakfast. Food arrived in a reasonable amount of time, no problem with that either. The dish was $24. For that amount of money, I would have expected a larger portion. I ate it and was still hungry. Perhaps this would have filled a normal person up, but I am a large trade contractor and was hungry.

I ordered a coke zero, which to my dismay, they charged me $7.80 for. It costs $3.50 normally. Exorbitant mark up. Not impressed.

The dish itself was well presented and tasted nice.

The place is nice, the cutlery, table, coffee cup, all top notch.

I ordered a second coffee. This time, the waitress was very polite and lovely.

Went to pay for my meal. They charged me $45.50 for this. They also charge a 2.5% service fee, on top of the order.

Per NSW consumer law:

"In New South Wales (NSW), cafes can charge service fees, but they must be transparent with customers about these fees. Businesses cannot mislead customers by only advertising a partial price and then adding extra fees later (known as "drip pricing")."

This service fee was not clearly indicated at all, anywhere at the resturant. I only saw this fee when I asked for a reciept.

(I do not normally have an issue with service fees, however, it should have been clearly indicated that this cafe charges one over and above your order amount and, more importantly, if I am expected to pay a service fee, the waiter should be polite and actually care about me as a customer.)

Overall, not impressed. Too expensive, overpriced for a coke zero, rude waiter and hidden service fee. I ended up paying over $45 for a one person breakfast, left hungry and disappointed.

The normal cafe I go to, with a similar order, is $35.50. And the protion is large and filling.

I thought I would try a new cafe this week to be different. This proved to be a mistake. Never going back there...

I'm only writing this review so it gets to the owner, so that he can be aware of how his business' staff treats customers when he is not there. I've been there last Sunday (06/08) to get a coffee and a babyccino for my daughter. It was 10 to 4, so it was almost end of service. I ordered, paid, and went straight to the front of the coffee machine and wait for my coffee. The batista was standing by the machine, he saw my order, and then other staff members came to him and asked him to go to the back. They surprised him with a cake and treats for his birthday. Don't get me wrong, Ive been working in hospitality for 15 years and I know how this is important to keep the team united and how they become your family. However, before even starting to sing happy birthday, the cashier who took my order went there and asked the barista to go back and make my coffee first. All of the staff that was back there looked me in the eyes and one of them literally shrug his shoulders and then they started singing happy birthday.

Even though I support staff gatherings like that, I felt extremely disrespected. They all saw me and my daughter there, and they were all still on service time, and ignored us regardless.

I then asked the cashier for a refund and she was the only rational staff member on site. She apologized for their behavior and gave me cash back without questions asked, because I could see it in her eyes how embarrassed she was for her teammates disregard with the situation.

Extremely unprofessional.

Again, I support staff gatherings like that, but they did it during service, even being aware that a customer was waiting for their order. That's just disrespectful.

I am only giving 2 stars because my daughter loves your playground and I've had good coffee there a few times, but I doubt I'll be coming back, because to me, service is as important as, if not more important than the food and drinks that are...