The Local Jervis Bay — Restaurant in Vincentia

My nephew and I love dining out. Always looking for a unique and pleasing dining experience. We had breakfast at the local during the spring school holidays and we were hugely impressed. This time for the summer holidays we were again greeted with a very large cue extending outside the cafe. This time confident that the wait will be worthwhile. We ordered the BLAT and asked for it to be cut into quarters so we can share it. It was very nice. What was noteworthy was the sauce. I guessed it might have been caramelised onion with roasted garlic? We ordered the summer tea. Listed on the menu was spearmint, peppermint butterfly pea and lavender. I was worried prior to the order that the peppermint and spearmint would overwhelm the other ingredient but it did not. It was a beautifully balanced flavour. My nephew strangely opened the tea pot and started eating the tea leaves, which I thought was odd. He told me give it a try. So I did. What was interesting was that after chewing on the tea leaves then having the tea again I could taste the lavender and butterfly tea and all 4 flavours came to the fore. When we sat down to eat my initial intention was that now it’s my job to enjoy judge and evaluate the experience. It’s clear from the customer perspective that everyone aspect of the cafe is finely controlled and orchestrated by a genius chef. This chef doesn’t just tick all the boxes, he turns it around and asks: what is your input into this meal? How can you top this creative compelling experience. Leaving the cafe was like having gone to the cinema and watched a great profound movie almost disoriented to were I was after leaving the cafe. Being totally absorbed in the experience the dining experience demands one’s full attention, making it impossible to digress to any other thought...

My first time at the Local, I ordered a coffee and the GF Plantation burger. Our order was taken by the same staff member who also served us the food, and unfortunately an error was made. I was served with a cheeseburger with beef patty instead of the plantation burger (veg), as the server said “that’s your GF plantation burger”. I wish i had double checked before taking a bite, but i realised the error as soon as i took a bite. I am in a bit of a shock being a vegetarian… but errors happen. What i am unhappy with is that the person that made the error did not apologise and nor did any of the management. The staff that i did speak to about the error did promptly correct my order, however there was no ownership/accountability to the error. I would have liked someone to approach our table and give a sincere apology and show care/ check if i was okay. I only received an apology when i went in again to request cutlery (a staff member asked if they could make me a free coffee, and i politely stated that an apology is what i would have liked, which i then received)…..serving meat to a vegetarian is a significant error in my opinion, and if i was the staff, manager or owner, i would have ensured that the customer was okay and shown more concern/ care. Hope this feedback is helpful in dealing with future incidents.

The coffee and the food were both good, but were unfortunately overshadowed by the...

I like this café and come for coffee and brekky fairly regularly. Food is nice, coffee is good. In January this year, I showed staff the fly that had been baked into my hotcakes. They said they told the chef. Then the chef came over to where I was sitting, with a plate of hotcakes with a caramelised banana on top. I thought she was coming to see me about the fly, but no. She was there because it was the best spot to take a photo of the hotcakes for social media. *my hotcakes didn’t have a caramelised banana on top. But it did have a fly. Later, the waitress collected my plate and I showed her the fly again. They didn’t really care that they served fly pancakes…. I’ll still go to the café because its nice and I want to support small local business. But this experience was a bit disappointing, a replacement pancake...