XS Espresso North Parramatta — Restaurant in Sydney

Replying to owner's reply: Someone quite clearly either cannot read, or is using some kind of programmed autoresponder to post the same reply to everyone.

The following happened just over a week ago, Fri 5th November 2021. My reasons for the delay in posting were personal and unavoidable.

Having been requested by friends to meet them there, I arrived roughly 1:00pm and found the premises EXTREMELY crowded, to the extent that it was impossible to approach the entrance (for the purpose of looking inside to see if my friends were already there, or of signing in with the QR code) without clearly violating the social distance rule of 1.5 metres. As I stood back attempting to preserve this mandated minimum distance from others in the chaotic excuse for a "queue," two men in "Bunnings Warehouse" uniforms walked straight in front of me and right up to the doorway (making absolutely NO EFFORT WHATSOEVER to maintain a safe "social distance" between themselves and others) where they were greeted by a young female staff member who was clearly making absolutely no effort either to encourage customers to maintain any kind of mandated social distance. This same young woman only then noticed me standing a short distance away and asked if I wished to sit down or take away. I duly explained about finding the people I was meeting and could not resist stating simply and in a calm, completely unaggressive manner that the Bunnings people had overtaken me. This was met with a sarcastic, "Go ahead of us, then," likewise with absolutely NO effort made to back away from the door so that I could pass them without squeezing by within inches, nor any on the staff member's part to suggest that they should do so.

When I could see that my friends were NOT inside, I withdrew to an uncrowded distance and telephoned them, to be informed they were browsing one of the nearby retail stores. After meeting them inside it and informing them of the excessive crowds at XS, we jointly decided to return and purchase take-away coffee only. At the counter inside, both the crowd noise and the loud music made it all but impossible to be heard, by each other and by the counter staff; I was immediately asked to repeat myself the moment I asked for an "iced latte." I subsequently found that the staff member did not know the difference between "Lite" and "Skim" milk, and when I then asked for my drink with "half skim and half full cream milk," I was subsequently served a half empty cup (for which FULL price had been charged!!); when it was taken back we were informed, "Sorry, we thought you said you only wanted it half full!!!!" We also waited an unusually long period of time to be served and eventually found that the drinks had in fact been ready for some time, with the staff having been calling out "Order for PAUL," having misheard my friend who had placed the order and told them his name was KARL.

HONESTLY: What if a customer with a SEVERE FOOD ALLERGY (as indeed has Karl) had asked for the ingredient in question to be withheld, and had been misunderstood as asking for MORE of it????

The above is a thorough and comprehensive account of my experience, to which little more can be added. Given the frequency of their requests for the reviewer to email them, I strongly suspect that they are merely collecting email addresses for bulk advertising. Be wary of this before letting...

This place is getting consistently worse. Used to enjoy having brunch here on a weekend but every time we come lately the staff are rude or just not bothered, the food comes out all separately and there are issues with the order. We ordered an açai bowl and a big breakfast with some hot and cold drinks today. The girl at the counter kept hearing my order wrong, I repeated myself to be clear as I noticed she had entered a few things wrong on screen. She then asked me to check the order on the screen, but I could only see the bottom half of the order which I confirmed to be correct. One of our coffees came out, the food then came out, a big breakfast and a breakfast burger. We said we hadn’t ordered the breakfast burger, assuming it was for the wrong table. The girl took it away, then brought it back. Again we said we hadn’t ordered the burger, and that we were also missing the hashbrowns with the big breakfast (it comes with one, and we had also added an extra order for $4 for an extra 2). The girl then showed us the receipt and said we had been charged for the breakfast burger. I said again that we had not ordered this, and asked for a refund. My partner went to the counter to get the refund for the burger, and the girl made a remark saying “this is why we ask you to check the screen”. This would have been fine had we been able to see the whole screen, or our order had been repeated at the time of ordering. We then had to ask another 5 minutes later for the hashbrowns again. I’d also like to note that the second coffee and açai bowl came out almost 10 minutes after we got the other food and coffee. I understand sometimes this happens, but this is a common occurrence here- you don’t go out to eat with someone and have to eat at seperate times. This is not the first time we’ve had an experience like this. Truly makes you not want to come back, which is a shame because the food is...

XS Espresso have a few locations around Sydney. I've tried to visit them in the past but they are usually quite busy, and I have never been keen to wait for a table. Today I went there for breakfast, and I was in luck. I didn't have to wait and I was given a lovely table outside. The menu is modern Australian, with all the expected items; they have sweet options including acai bowls, pancakes, french toast etc. They have savoury options too, like eggs Benedict, smashed avo, omlette and shakshuka. They also have a big range of freak shakes and milkshakes. These a popular on Instagram. Check it out. I ordered the shakshuka, which wasn't really a shakshuka as the eggs weren't baked into the sauce. It was poached eggs in a sugo sauce. Despite not being a shakshuka, the dish was excellent. The flavour of the sauce was amazing. My poached egg did have a bit of egg shell in it, but I just picked it out. Otherwise, the food was great. XS Espresso also serve Campos coffee and T2 teas, which is top notch. The only real drawback, is that it's a bit of a pain that they make customers order at the counter, instead of providing table service. It can get very congested at the counter, which makes it hard for staff to bring out food/ drinks and makes it difficult for people to get in an out of the cafe. The service is efficient and friendly. The staff are very helpful, and willing to make adjustments to menu items. I asked to have the chorizo removed from my food, and they were happy to make the change. Overall, it's a nice place to have a meal and the food...