Cafe Lumos — Restaurant in Western Australia

UPDATED: The manager and owner reached out and apologised for what happened and promised to educate their staff on accessibility laws. Since then I have visited multiple times with and without my service dog and had an exceptional experience each time. I'm happy to change the review to 5 stars. It's rare that somewhere promises to educate staff and actually follows through. Thank you for that ❤️

I'll start by saying the food here is amazing. I have come here every Saturday for the last month and every time the food is great. However we went today and the undercover seating was in use. We went to eat inside and the staff member told me that my seeing eye dog could not enter. My husband tried to explain that he is a service dog and that's its illegal to discriminate against us. The staff member was very insistent that we could not enter. Eventually after some back and forth another staff member called out to let us in. No apology was given and it felt very awkward when we were served, not treated with the usual friendliness.

This has really soured my experience. It may seem like a small thing, and we were allowed in eventually. But these interactions are a root cause for social isolation in people with disabilities. It's a confrontation that says "we don't care about being accessible to you. You are less than"

It's incredibly frustrating and upsetting to still be having these confrontations. And it's disappointing when you think you have found a great place to eat.

Sorry for the essay but I think you need to educate your staff on accessibility laws and how not to make your customers...

Menu was fantastic much more choice than usual places. Food that arrived didn't disappoint either, neither did the price. Actually pretty cheap for WA prices. Fast service, good big coffees and plenty of staff. Venues tidy, big tables. Would happily go again. Would have been 5 star rating had it not been for the waiter who had been very friendly professional when we had eaten hadn't just come and snatched my coffee loyalty card that had a few stamps on it off the table of guys I'd just gifted it to and said "we don't do that here" 😯. (I didn't see any terms and conditions) All I know is I've been to a different cafe EVERY WEEK with a large group of 10-14ppl for over 4yrs. We always start a loyalty card so someone in the group gets a free coffee by the end and another card is started but not filled by the end. So I always gift it to a patron in the cafe as we know we're not going to be returning to use it up. Never ever had a problem doing that until today. Poor form. God it's only a coffee and is wasn't even a free one they still needed...

Someone had mentioned cafe lumos to us so we sought it out ... what a lovely little find! The cafe has indoor and outdoor seating and orders are taken at the table. We went for a Sunday brunch, and the cafe was quite busy.

Our table was fairly promptly attended to and our drinks came out very quickly. By comparison, the food took a while. Our order was bacon & eggs with hashbrowns (the bacon was tasty), and meatballs with poached eggs ... the latter was very flavoursome ... sadly however, our meals were luke warm. I did mention it when I went to pay, and the staff member was apologetic and said they would have gladly taken it back and given me a hot one, but the thought of waiting that long again would have put me off doing that! However, these things happen. It hasn't put us off. The menu is inviting, and the tea & coffee were lovely, so we will return to try it...