Benesse Australind — Restaurant in Western Australia

We stopped off here down from Mandurah, we decided to have a bit of an explore of Australind after only passing through before.

Had a simple toasted avocado/cheese toastie and a coffee, with my husband, we don’t like to have too much for lunch so didn’t try anything more substantial. The menu looked pretty wide ranging, you order at the counter and the staff who were mostly young were really friendly. We didn’t have too long to wait for our food and they also managed to let us have our coffee after our sandwiches, it’s a bit of a bugbear of ours when they come at the same time, they had no problem accommodating us with that. Water was free as it should be we got up and fetched it but they would the servers would have brought it.

Obviously gets a lot of business from not only visitors but regular workers popping in to get their takeaway coffees. All age groups there, two ladies next to us having a gossipy lunch, workman taking a break, mum with her two young children, elderly couples.

Food was great, coffee was really good too but whilst we were chatting we did have time to take a look around and I noticed the glass screens out on the veranda area were really dusty. We both agreed that whilst we would definitely return when we next visit, the place felt a bit grubby. It’s open 7 days so I guess there’s no time to give the place a real clean but it might be an idea to just reduce the hours for a few afternoons and close the place and give the floors, glass and ledges a good...

We always visit Benesse when we are down south from the city after taking doggo for a walk along the estuary. The coffee is consistently the best I've had in Australia. The food is also brilliant and i would usually say is excellent value (not cheap) for the money. Unfortunately, this weekend the service and value wasn't quite up to the usual standard. My pancakes and my wife's potato rosti were excellent, our vegan friend separately ordered some toast and avocado ($12.50!). This was unceremoniously dumped on our table. The avocado was on the side in a bowl with a lemon wedge and a sprig of coriander laid on top. While the rest of us were chowing down meals that looked and tasted amazing for double the price, our friends meal (and service) was not given any love. We had to ask twice for some tomato chutney and one of the waitresses was about to try and charge extra for the chutney as an addition to the avocado and toast.

Ok rant over, we have been to Benesse lots of times and this has been the only bad experience. So absolutely go and check it out, eat and drink. Highly recommended, but hold them to their usual high levels of service. At $12.50 for 2 slices of toast with some avo they need to treat all their customers with the same love and respect as those eating the delicious...

The food was very good. We particularly enjoyed the chilli eggs. But unfortunately the overall experience was let down by poor service and an unexpected surcharge.

The serving staff seemed disinterested and unengaged. Basic questions about the menu were met with indifference, and information was only sought when I pressed further.

What truly left a bad taste, however, was the hidden surcharge added when ordering via the QR menu. After going through the entire ordering process, the final screen revealed a $2.90 surcharge on a $48 order. When I asked the manager, she said it was because we had ordered through the app rather than at the counter — even though the QR code was the only menu provided at the table, and there was no signage indicating an additional fee for using it.

To make things even more confusing, the actual surcharge applied was only $1.39, despite the app clearly stating $2.90. When I questioned this, the manager said she wasn’t authorised to remove the fee and could only offer the owner’s email address.

This lack of transparency and unwillingness to take responsibility for misleading charges significantly impacted our experience. It’s disappointing that such a well-regarded place would rely on unclear and inconsistent practices, especially when the food itself...