XS Espresso Prestons — Restaurant in Sydney

I ordered two pizzas and waited 40 minutes for them. It was not busy, but empty inside (there were two or three total customers during the 40 minutes I waited).

The middle of both pizzas were stuck to the box and the pizzas were soggy and quite cold.

Overpriced and poor quality to say the absolute least.

To potential diners reading this, your experience will be extremely hit or miss, you need only scroll through a few 1 star reviews and you will see recurring issues of wait times (1 chef), some food that comes out being abhorrent (there has been more than one case of plastic shards in food in the reviews). One thing that won't be hit or miss is a manager with an attitude on him and poor customer service, as well as being met with aggression if you have any legitimate complaints.

Edit: Response to owner. I hung up my phone call to order, I then started a new phone call right after I ordered and went outside, it went to 40 minutes by the time the pizza was in my hand. I was distinctly saying to the person I was on the phone with that I was still outside after 40 minutes waiting for pizza. There are dozens of other 1 star reviews complaining about wait time and the fact that you have one chef (which was my observation too).

You say the pizza was warm, but you need only look at the photo to see that there is a wet chunk of soggy pizza stuck to the cardboard box. I managed to peel the sides off but what is left on the box in the image was too stuck and disgusting to bother peeling.

I'll give you a play by play and you tell me which part of what I said was false. I asked the manager what can be done about this poor quality pizza that was cold and stuck to the box in the centre (picture provided). He said I could come in and he could have a look at them and possibly have replacements made.. this is at 8pm after I already waited 40 minutes for the first pizza, not really feasible is it? I said that wouldn't work because it was already late, I told him I was very disappointed having wasted my time just to get this really poor quality pizza, and in response to his offer to change them tonight said that I wanted store credit to come in another time seeing as dinner was already over and I was not about to drive there again at 8 and wait another 40 minutes. He responded he couldn't do anything about it, I didn't want to argue and the manager was acting passive aggressive so I just said fine, and that me and the people I ate with would be leaving 1 stars because nothing was done to remedy this poor experience and poor food.

The manager I spoke to was also rude and had a passive aggressive attitude. Reading through past 1 star reviews complaining about the manager isn't at all surprising.

I'm actually shocked you used the words "cash payment" when those words never left my mouth. On top of this you make an accusation that I said I would create fake Google accounts when, again, I specifically said that I and the people I brought the pizzas back to would be leaving 1 star because we all waited and were disappointed by poor pizza. It's just weak that you would make these baseless accusations. Here's a piece of trivia for you, why would I say I am going to create fake Google accounts when I am here making a complaint using my full name? Your blatant lying is frankly shocking.

Either provide a full transcript of the brief phone conversation here or some kind of proof, which you have access to and shouldn't be a problem, or don't make false allegations and apologise.

In most 1 star reviews you deflect the blame rather than just apologise and say you'll do better next time. That's all I wanted to hear from the manager but I got no apology or even the faintest tone of sympathy or understanding, just aggression and deflecting blame.

Edit 2: Response to owner.

It's only a shame I didn't screenshot your initial response containing false allegations followed by you telling me to remove my review, and now you respond again and didn't have the decency to apologise for that so I am leaving...

The new XS Espresso store is in a large space in a shopping complex featuring a new Woolworths off the Camden Valley Way.

It is styled similarly to the other stores and an open coffee window for people ordering take aways. The young girl front of house was lovely and took us to a table. It it was extremely busy and buzzing with diners so took a while to get our order taken and served. However the manager was extremely helpful and generous. On our visit, it was only a few weeks old so they’re understandably busy and learning the ropes.

The menu is pretty much the same as the other stores, known for their freak shakes, over the top sweet dishes like pancakes and waffles, and a number of burgers. Don’t come here if you’re worried about your waistline. It is certainly a place to indulge.

We shared three dishes between us: The New York, New York - normally 250 g sirloin, but they had run out so we got the lamb - with roasted chat potatoes, asparagus, tomato and sweet potatoes with chimichurri. A super big serving and all components were very tasty.

I’m always keen for a healthy dish and there was only a handful of this category, so we ordered one of them. The “Happy Bowl” was bright and colourful and filled with nourishing goodies like quinoa, mashed sweet potato, kale, beetroot hummus, boiled egg, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado and radish. We added some chicken to it for the protein and polished this meal off quickly between us.

The other members of my party wanted a sweet option, and so opted for the absolutely beautiful ricotta hotcake. Extremely light and fluffy, it’s one of the better ones we’ve had. Topped with summer fruits and vanilla cream - we’d thoroughly recommend this.

They have Campos coffee, which we enjoyed, as well as smoothies and shakes. We tried the lovely banana smoothie and it was presented so nicely too.

You can’t visit XS Espresso without a freakshake. We opted for the XS Surprise / a Nutella and crunchie base, topped with fairy floss and a waffle cone, complete with a kinder surprise and covered with honeycomb and hundreds and thousands. Your family will go crazy for this! (And afterwards ;)

When you’re keen to indulge, pay XS Espresso a visit - it’s in a convenient location and very...

Absolutely abhorrent service. I ordered 2 drinks from their website and it showed my order was placed at 11.26am. At 11.45am, when we went to check the order, the barista at the coffee window advised to check with the person at the counter. Which we did, then sat down to wait. At 12.15(45mins after the order was placed), we asked again and the next person at the counter did not know where the order was. (In the meantime, the uber orders kept rolling out the door). The poor child did not how to respond to where the order was and when I asked to speak to a manager or to let us know what was happening, she didn’t know what had happened. The manager then entered and did not even know what the issue was or the ticket number. We told him and then the second staff member on coffee duty showed the ticket that was held in her hand. We then asked why this was not done, as it was already in her hand. The team member advised that they had been busy and unable to get to our order, looking around the numerous uber items all ready to go and a handful of dine in customers, it appeared we must’ve been the unluckiest order of 2 drinks. It was frustrating for us and we did let loose an expletive (due to frustrating service); we did ask for a refund after the two staff members kept referring to a third person who was making the coffee, who just happened to be not there. (We received the refund).

Our take on this exchange is- XS ESPRESSO MANAGEMENT DO BETTER. The lack of role clarity or communication to customers you provide as training to your front line staff is abhorrent.

Order- 1 mocha, 1 pineapple and mint juice Order placed- 11.26am 02/01/2025 Amount- $16.40 Pickup interaction- Abhorrent Lesson- XS ESPRESSO- do better. Do better to train your staff, empower them to be transparent and honest and of course the MANAGERS to take accountability from the onset and step in to help their staff...