Lily's Pad Cafe — Restaurant in Sydney

Took my father-in-law out for lunch today in Leura, we had intended to go to Red Door but on arrival it was shut. I had remembered Lily's Pad Cafe recently after seeing some good gf reviews and realised that many years ago we'd visited but not been since so decided to go there today. We were so glad we did, the food is fantastic and it has a great lovely atmosphere. Outdoors but undercover, down a walkway within the Woolworths carpark. We were spoiled for choice and ended up deciding on the Make your own breakfast and I had the gf smashed avo. It was delicious and the servings of avocado were very generous. I even had to check a few times the bread was actually gluten free. It was so good. I was debating on whether to have the gf pancakes (yes) or the avo but looking at all the cheesecake flavour options (all gluten free) I thought perhaps I should start with savoury over sweet. We did try 2 of the gluten free cheesecakes - passionfruit and coconut and the lemon curd and berries - both delicious - just as a cheesecake should taste! The plan was share both, and eat half and take half home but we ended up eating them both. Whilst devouring our cheesecakes someone on a neighbouring table ordered the pancakes and I have to say they looked amazing! Even had half passionfruit and other berries and fruit on top - just looked delicious. I did have a little concern that perhaps I should have gone with the pancakes in that moment but hey - theres always next time! My FIL ordered the scones, he said they were nice and enjoyed them but not gf. My only negative on the food was that I couldnt really taste the coffee - we both ordered vanilla lattes. I think they perhaps use a fairly light roast and I'm a strong coffee gal but again - will need to go back again and check next time. The atmosphere is lovely, the staff are friendly and service is good. On the way out I noticed some amazing looking baklava too (again not gf) ... will definitely return and try more of the food here - its probably going to be the pancakes but it is what it is! UPDATE - REVISITED AGAIN - PANCAKES WERE AWESOME AND SO WAS THE...

Atmosphere: The cafe has a nice ambience, and the seats were arranged in a way that still gave good distance from the next table.

Food: The corned beef was one of the two items on the menu that was a recommendation by the operator/ head wait staff/ manager. Whilst it didn't have any sauce, it was still tasty and went pretty well with the hash. I liked it.

Unfortunately, I couldn't say the same about the exotic mushroom breakfast. The herbs and garlic used to season the mushrooms were so burnt that it left an extremely bitter taste on the mushrooms. The fried enoki mushroom was also over-fried , and it totally changed the flavour profile that wasn't pleasant to the taste buds. We were offered a replacement meal on the house (see more below on my write-up on service for more details). Even though we requested for everything to be made fresh, we suspect they did reuse some of the mushrooms again from the first plate as they still had some burnt herbs and garlic in the second plate. Whilst it was better the second time around, we still had to spend time trying to flick off the very burnt herbs and garlic. We could see they attempted to add in new herbs and garlic.

Coffee: It was not too bad but a little surprise that they didn't have coffee art.

Service: It was a mixed experience. Some of the wait staff were not very experienced. When we brought to the attention of one of the younger waitresses of the burnt garlic, she claimed that was just a type of mushroom. The service was only salvaged by whom I believe may have been the operator/ head wait staff/ manager. Unfortunately didnt catch her name, but she took the time to listen to what we were trying to express and made the offer to replace the dish on the house. It was very commendable of her. Though disappointed by the kitchen staff.

Given the hit and miss with the food + mixed service experience, it would take an uplift of the food quality for...

My family and I came with a booking on the weekend to visit Lilypad and here is how it went for us.

We were lead to a table with not enough settings for our booking. No forks had been cleaned for us to use and our friends who had lunch before us there and told us the same as they left. Two back to back dining experiences with no forks? Dishwashers don't take that long. Only 1 heater was on in the whole dining room despite there being many mounted on the wall and it being a very cold day. It took half and hour to grant our request for the heaters. The order was mostly right but the waitress added more sides than we ordered and the wrong size coffee despite reading it back to us on review we still somehow ended up with an incorrect order. Judging by how many staff were on - even if there was new employees learning this should not of been an issue. Some staff appeared to be doing the bare minimum and it showed.

The food itself was decent but arguably not up to the standard of the pricetag across the board. Presentation was lovely though and shout out to the hash brown which was unique and delicious!

The coffee was well presented and yummy too. I wish I had a chance to try some of the baked goods or desserts as I spotted the bakers kitchen and next time I might do a takeaway order and see how that goes.

Judging by the previous glowing reviews and word of mouth this spot has previously been one of the leading cafes in Leura but now without a dedication to keeping their reputation shiny some aspects have lost their sparkle and need attending to. The awkward and underprepared service, cold dining area and lack of effort to present the basics for a lunch service were in contrast to good...