The Incinerator Café — Restaurant in Sydney

Feeling like a new experience today, I thought I would try out “Incinerator Cafe” in Willoughby. I entered the outdoor area and was greeted by a sign stating “please wait to be seated” which I did. The wait staff walked past me twice as I awkwardly stood there, dumbfounded and feeling invisible. After 2 minutes, I walked inside and strolled to the counter and asked politely “may I sit anywhere?” To which I got “yeah?!” I choose a location along the back wall and waited patiently for a staff member to come over with a menu or at least greet me with a smile, I waited quite some time. So much time I in fact googled the menu, searched instagram for pictures of the items on the menu, decided what seemed to suit how I was feeling then tried to get someone’s attention, anyones… To no avail. I got up walked to the counter, stood there patiently as the young attendants behind the counter were talking. Finally one turned and looked at me, blankly. “May I order please?” I submitted my order and proceeded to pay, the bill was $29! A small coffee, one piece of toast, and wood fired eggs…. I walked back to my table, hoping this meal would be something to remember. For that price, it would want to be. At that point 27mins had past by, it was another 12mins by the time my coffee arrived followed by another 6mins until my food finally got almost dropped on my table. I don’t normally watch the time so closely though I had to be somewhere, 45mins before I could eat is too long. The food was good, coffee not bad. Worth $29 - NO. When I arrived I was 1 of 9 people inside the cafe which could hold 30+. As I sat there other people began to arrive. The entire time I watched as people around me received table service. Received acknowledgement. Were greeted and given smiles. I felt singled out and ignored. I will not be going back. As a customer I feel everyone should be treated as equals. I...

I wanted to book a table for four adults and four children for lunch four days in advance but their online tool didn't give me this option (it didn't matter which day I put in, the tool didn't provide any lunchtime slots, might be a glitch). They don't provide a phone number. Instead, their website says to email them with all enquiries. So I did. I emailed them on Monday, no response. Followed up on Wednesday, no response. I followed up on Thursday 9am (on the day I wanted the booking), and with no response for two hours, I decided to head there anyway. There was no phone number I could call to check.

I arrived, only to be turned away because all the tables had been booked out. The staff member tried to be professional and kind about it, but there was nothing she could do, every table was taken. I checked my inbox and saw that The Incinerator had finally replied to my email a mere one hour before the time I wanted to book saying ​"we are fully booked out".

My feedback is - make sure the online booking tool is working, because I think there's a bug. Secondly, if you're going to force your customers to send all enquiries via email, then you must regularly check your emails. Thirdly, if you're not going to regularly check your emails, provide a phone number so that people don't have to waste their time travelling to your venue to make an enquiry that can be sorted out in a brief call.

In regards to this customer service experience, my expectations were pretty low: I just wanted a yes or no answer within 72 hours of my...

Decent coffee in a quaint dog-friendly cafe. Only drawback was the noise; it detracted from an otherwise warm and inviting atmosphere inside.

Seating outside was more peaceful and means you could bring your dog along which is always appreciated.

Service was a little disjointed. We were asked about ordering drinks three times by three separate people in the space of a minute. Attentive service is one thing but we had told each of the three wait staff that we were deciding on drinks and needed a few moments.

Coffee was good; they offered soy and almond alternatives. Oat milk would have been nice and is growing in popularity as an option.

Bathrooms were down a level and accessible via lift. Facilitoes were clean enough but defeated the purpose of washing hands to then have to operate the lift. Kitchen stores were next to the bathroons which was mildly disconcerting for me, but again, seemed clean enough at a glance.

Not sure if the experience was nice enough to want to return for breakfast (even with the good coffee and smell of the wood fire). If I do go again I will opt for outdoor seating to avoid the raucous inside. The food would need to be the saving grace for any further...