Tastebuds at the Hills — Restaurant in Sydney

Mona Vale Rd seems like a weird location for a coffee shop but it becomes clear when you pull in that it's another one of the many groups of shops that you typically find lumped together (plant nursery, saddlery and Skill chainsaw shop).

The food looks great but it's a bit expensive so I haven't actually bought anything to eat there. It was PACKED so I guess it's good.

I had the coffee. First annoyance. Trivial. The coffee was cold, which meant I knocked it back in three seconds and didn't get the full "I'm enjoying my coffee" experience. It tasted okay, but it was cold which I wasn't thrilled about. I drew this to the attention of the child labour working the tables and the reaction was a solid "meh".

Second annoyance. Also trivial. I was there with a group - we were obviously a group - and we ordered at the same time. The other people in the group all got takeaway coffee but mine came out in a ceramic cup so we were stuck there for the three seconds it took me to drink my luke-warm coffee.

If you want to sit in and eat a piece of cake and have a coffee. Sure, why not. But I wouldn't seek this place out. When all's said and done it's just a...

Had been a regular takeaway purchaser of their scrumptious muffins so decided to try them for brunch with the family one morning. We ordered coffees, meals and muffins and asked for the coffees to come up first but after quite a while, were surprised when the meals turned up first - wasn’t an issue as we were starving by then. Finished our meals and still no coffees; after about 15 minutes we asked a waitress about the coffees and muffins Another twenty minutes passed and nothing turned up so we asked again; another 10 minutes and still no coffees and muffins so we asked again. This time the muffins turned up but still no coffees so we asked yet again. By then we had been waiting 1.5 hours for coffees so in exasperation we went over to the counter and asked for our coffees - we wanted out of there so just asked that they put them in takeaway cups and walked out in disgust. The only reason I scored a 3 star was because of the muffins otherwise it would have been no higher than a 2. Service was terrible, food & coffees were ok - muffins...

The food was very disappointing:

1. There is no kid’s menu
2. The food is very bland. All the adults complained their food was flavourless.
3. I had the signature Tastebuds burger. The burger was more a rissole than a burger and was way too small for the bun. It was completely overcooked and lacked any flavour apart from Rosemary. The bacon was charred and so hard I nearly chipped a tooth. The side salad appeared to have been pre cut in the morning and left out. The veggies completely dried out and were not seasoned apart for a few drops of balsamic glaze.
4. The lentil burger was equally bad. 5 The vanilla milkshake was made with an awful, sour syrup that has possibly fermented. The kids wouldn’t touch it.

It has been years since we had a meal this bad. The additional star is for the service. It wasn’t their fault. I suggest the owner sits down for a meal. That is if they have functioning Tastebuds....