PLATE CAFE — Restaurant in Sydney

The food and coffee is very good, but the service and treatment is lacking.

I went to the cafe today with a family member and was very excited to order some food, from what I’ve seen the food is highly recommended. However, throughout my time there the service was noticeably lacking. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m not Korean, I noticed a lot of Korean customers were treated better, or because my family member and I weren’t dressed up, but we were treated dismissively.

Firstly, we sat down at a dirty table, which no one had cleaned yet. We waited and kept trying to call people over to wipe the table, there were crumbs and sauce all over the table. Finally, someone came over and wiped it.

I then ordered, we waited for the food and coffee, and then it arrived. I ordered two sandwiches (the pumpkin and fried chicken one), both very yummy, but the mood was brought down again when we were given no cutlery or serviettes. My family member had to stand up and walk up, to where the coffee is made, and kept trying to talk to someone to receive cutlery and serviettes. However, she was ignored for some time. She had to raise her voice and say, “Excuse me,” for anyone to pay attention and help.

At the same time we had a table next to us, with a Korean family sitting there. The staff kept going there and being nice to them, bringing them the food with cutlery and serviettes, and as soon as they left they started cleaning that table and wishing them a goodbye. It was a stark contrast to how we were treated, so it was noticeable how poorly we, and other individuals were treated.

Recommendations for the future: Have the menus at the entrance so people aren’t deciding what to order as they are paying, holding up the line. Clean the tables as you go, not only when someone is sitting down at a dirty table asking for someone to wipe it down. Smile and be nice to all customers. This is a cafe and as a paying customer you would expect to be treated the same as everyone else not differently because you are not Korean or not dressed up. Provide proper service, when someone is standing around or calling you over dont constantly ignore them until they have to raise their voice. Provide all customer cutlery...

The fitout of the cafe was really sleek, clean and tidy - reminded me of cafes in Korea as well as ONA Marrickville. The spaciousness made it comfortable to enjoy your meal or to have a good catch up without noise being trapped/echoed.

Service was very friendly and attentive! Tried two different ONA blends with milk and both were executed nicely as I've tried both at the flagship cafe. Ordered their cheeseburger and was nothing special, but decent for the price and fresh ingredients used. Plenty of pastries and cakes to choose from on display on top of their two dessert menu items.

Overall nothing to fault, your usual Inner West cafe with a good quality standard - which was also the only thing that was a slight let down. Noticed they had a modernised Bibimbap on the menu which was a great touch, but would've been nice to extend the Korean inspiration throughout the menu. Especially being right next to another common Australian cafe, there was no particular standout other than using ONA for...

If you not a regular here, please read some reviews about the rules before you come. The food was excellent, but the experience was dragged down by the service.

We went on a Saturday mourning at 9 am, the cafe was really busy with a long line for ordering take away, and there were no empty tables. Naturally we tried to look for a waiting list and started lining up at the end of the queue. We tried to grab the attention of one of the staff to ask whether there is a waiting list, to which she replied “yes” and then walked away. After staying in the line for a while we saw a couple who just arrived and grabbed a table without asking anyone, so we asked another staff whether there is a waiting list for tables. The staff took us to an empty table but left without saying anything. Later we realised we still need to queue in the same line for takeaway which had grown quite a bit longer. The lady at the register was very nice though, and after all, the food was...