Little T's Cafe — Restaurant in Western Australia

I’ve never written a review before, but I feel I must share this truly upsetting experience.

Around noon, I went there starving with my 6 month old baby, hoping for a nice brunch. We sat outside near the playground so my baby could be comfortable. I ordered a steak sandwich (asked for medium), but it came out incredibly tough, dry and chewy impossible to enjoy. Out of the two pieces of steak, I only ate about three quarters, and barely touched the bread, chips or salad.

It wasn’t just the steak: the bread was completely soggy from being soaked in tomato relish, and the rocket salad was served completely dry with no dressing at all. Overall it felt sloppy and poorly balanced.

When I politely went to the counter to ask if I could change to another dish, the owner immediately got defensive and said things like, “Where’s your steak? You ate it all! You can’t just ask to change the menu after eating most of it.” She also said, “Stuff like this closes down small businesses,” and told me “If you don’t like it, go somewhere else.” Her attitude towards me was outright hostile, aggressive, and humiliating I even wondered if it was due to racism or something else. I said I’d record the conversation on my phone, but instead of calming down, she doubled down, insisting this steak sandwich was their “best seller” and there was nothing wrong with it without even properly checking my plate. When I asked to speak to the manager, she glared and bluntly told me, “I’m the owner.”

After all that, she first refused to refund or replace the dish, and only offered another menu item at 50% off completely missing the point of my complaint and how humiliating and disrespectful her attitude was.

What hurt even more was that I had gone there hungry, with my baby, just wanting to enjoy lunch and ended up leaving upset, hungry, and feeling disrespected. Blaming a paying customer for honest feedback? Saying “stuff like this closes down small businesses”? It was unbelievably rude and dismissive.

The food itself was disappointing, but what truly ruined everything was the owner’s aggressive, defensive attitude. Everything I wrote here is based on what actually happened, and I even have a recording that shows exactly how she spoke to me.

I absolutely do not recommend this place. /////

Let’s be absolutely clear: your reply that I “ate the whole dish” and even the bread is a flat out lie and you know it. The bread stayed completely untouched because it was soggy and inedible, and the chips and salad were also left on the plate. All clearly shown in my recording.

While I did try a part of the steak itself and left about a quarter because I was starving and tried to salvage what I could. That’s completely normal. But twisting that into “she ate everything” just so you can blame me publicly? That’s not just defensive, it’s deliberately dishonest.

Even worse, bragging that “every other customer saw it” only shows you were gossiping about me behind my back after I left, deeply petty and unprofessional.

This was never about getting a free meal. It was about how you reacted: instantly hostile, blaming a customer for daring to say the food wasn’t good, and then lying publicly to protect your ego.

The fact is, I have the entire exchange on recording. The truth is there for anyone to hear and deep down, you know exactly what you said, and how you behaved.

That’s not bad service. That’s wilful...

Lovely premises. Sadly the food was dreadful. I ordered the pulled pork. It tasted like a prepackaged meal from a supermarket that had been over heated. The egg on top was cooked perfectly. The slice of plastic cheese covering the meat was unappealing. The meat was dry and greasy and tasted like preservative. The sauce was not pleasant and the toasted bread underneath became a soggy mess. As much as i tried to enjoy the meal, I ended up leaving more than half of it. Not worth the $25. I felt sick the rest of the day. Service wasn't great. I was told to go inside to get the cutlery myself after the waitress had walked straight past it. Having a station where people are touching the cutlery with their hands and possibly spreading germs wasn't ideal. It felt unhygienic. Maybe the problem was we arrived after 2pm and they were in clean up mode. Such a pity as the place has so much potential. I really did want a good experience because it is so close to where I live and it would be great to make it a regular catch up place with friends.

Thank you to the owners for your reply. The site doesn't allow me to respond to your reply.

Just a couple of things in response: i enjoy freshly cooked pulled pork and am happy that you and your husband enjoyed it freshly made last weekend. However if it is the same batch then my portion served the following Friday was 1 week old. It was past its best by the time it was served to me. Possibly the reason it made me feel sick. self serve cutlery. I understand that it is easier for your staff to follow this procedure but in a covid environment where disinfecting hands is the norm having cutlery open to other peoples possibly dirty hands and sneezes is not really ok. Can I suggest that each set of knife/fork be wrapped in a serviette to satisfy this procedure. But then that would mean far more work for staff. I infact didn't have an opportunity to ask the waitress for cutlery ... it was blurted out " you can get your own cutlery inside". So I guess as she was expecting the question most people previously had asked for cutlery. As she made a separate trip for my friends plate of food and then mine could she not have brought out the cutlery from the kitchen with each trip? cheese i have no problem with cheese being melted on food. But plastic cheese from a wrapper is what I expect from a cheap fast food burger place not on a $25 plate of food. Grated cheese with some flavour would better suit the restaurant prices. bringing complaint to staff attention. After the cutlery incident I didnt feel the staff cared so didn't bother.

I dont mean any disrespect but a truthful review is something to build on. Most people walk away and tell their friends not to bother going. Like I said in my initial review the premises are lovely and sets a tone for a good experience sadly that wasn't the case this time but I may go back for a coffee at an earlier...

If I could give zero stars, that would be my only choice for this cafe—it was an utterly disappointing and infuriating experience from start to finish.

Let me start with the overpriced and tasteless food. However, the so-called "best-selling, I will sell 50 of them a day" brunch priced at 25 dollars was completely a joke. It only came with one piece of bread, two poached eggs, and a bunch of rocket leaves. To make it worse, the food had absolutely no flavor. I had to reach for the salt shaker just to make it barely edible, but even that didn’t save it. The texture and taste were so unpleasant, it was truly disgusting, especially for a dish that’s supposed to be a "best-seller."

What made this experience go from bad to unforgivable was the horrible attitude of the manager—a stark contrast to the two staff members who at least showed basic decency. When I politely brought up my dissatisfaction with the food, the two staff members were understanding. One even apologized sincerely and offered to get me extra coffees to make up for it, which I appreciated that. But then the manager stepped in, and everything changed.

Instead of listening to my concerns or trying to resolve the issue, the lady was extremely bossy and dismissive. She didn’t bother to ask for details about the problem or show any empathy. She was rude and said, "It is what it is" and "We can’t do anything about it." Her attitude was so confrontational and arrogant, as if my complaint was a huge inconvenience and I had no right to be unhappy with the overpriced, tasteless meal I paid for. She didn’t make any attempt to appease a dissatisfied customer, instead, he made me feel like my opinion didn’t matter at all.

I’ve been to countless cafes in the area, and this one by far has the worst customer service, thanks to that blond hair manager. A good cafe doesn’t just rely on food; it values its customers and treats their feedback with respect. But here, the manager’s refusal to address complaints and her rude attitude have completely ruined any chance of me ever coming back.

Reply to the comment you responded me, I guess a restaurant or cafe should always take both positive and negative feedback, not trying to attacking all the bad feedbacks, and try to learn from your employees, the young barista girl can be better manager than you! Don’t you think you are boring to reply all bad feedbacks? What a shame for a “busy cafe”. Lastly can’t I finished my 25 dollars order? If you going to a restaurant see someone like you, and they did nothing with your complaint, you might even finish...