The Sugar Bowl Cafe — Restaurant in Hamilton

We dined in recently as a table of 12 that included 2 young children. We rang ahead and booked the table for 10.45am When we arrived there was a sign saying "45min wait on food" I will note it was very busy when we arrived. After half an hour of us arriving no one had checked anybodies vaccine pass and no menus were given to us. We got up and got them ourselves. Once we ordered, we waited an hour a half for our meals. At this time 10 out of the 12 meals had been delivered. Another family member and myself waited about 15mins before going in and asking when our meals would arrive. I approached the desk and the staff member apologized for the wait and said it will be there soon and that he had not charged me for my meal because of the delay which was great, I thought. Once I got back to our table my meal had arrived but by then the rest of the family had finished up and the kids had naturally had enough by now. So I transferred my meal straight into a takeaway box and ended up eating my meal in the car. Meanwhile my other family member's meal never arrived. His order was lost in transition.The staff member gladly refunded him which was good but really disappointing considering he had waited almost 2hrs for for a meal that would never arrive. After some quick math I realised the staff member had in fact charged me for my 'unplanned' takeaway meal so I asked for a refund which was straight forward and I appreciated that. I wish they had told us over the phone when we booked that there would be a very long wait esp since we had children included in the booking. It would have been nice to be given the option. In my opinion, they over booked themselves and hoped for the best but unfortunately failed. There was another table of 12 down the way from us, there booking was for 11am (after ours) and they received all there food and drink well before us. I don't like to give bad reviews but this was honestly one of the worst experiences...

We visited the cafe due to good overall Google review rating. Food is very tasty and good serving size. Not the cheapest around but great flavour and value for money. Sufficient seating on both inside and outside. On a very hot sunny day, you probably won't be able to seat on the outside for too long even with the screens down. The WEKA coffee beans they use are awesome, this also means great coffee. The service was below average on the day we went. We went there in the morning on a publicly holiday, none of staff had smiles. Maybe they were tired from opening on most of the stat days but NO smiles and once you paid for the food, we got the feeling that they didn't want to know us anymore. (Even when people are wearing masks, you can often tell from the tone of the voice whether they are energetic or smiling etc) This is particularly so with the lady at the cashier, it was almost that we were bothering her too much (staff with multi coloured hair). They also appeared to be understaffed as the chef had to bring out the orders all by himself. Once again, the food and coffee are great but if you don't mind the below average service or you are ordering take aways then, definitely recommending you a visit. Limited parking spaces at the front and round the corner but plenty parking spaces on the side streets with little walking distance. This cafe appear to be popular with locals. The inside can be very cramped if you have multiple groups turning up at the same time or people with baby prams. And If it helps, we get better and friendlier services from Cinnamon Cafe,...

Refused side orders. Refused half size meals and adults are not allowed to eat from child's menu, too bad if you are Ill and cant eat much def dont come here adding and changing menu items ie one egg n bacon rather than just two eggs no bacon...dont even bother asking.

Staff member was rude and laughing about it when out back, forgets some people can lip read. She was sooo rude to my mother and daughter was our first catch up in months was meant to be a nice outting, some people should not be in customer service she is one of them makes me wonder how many others got the same treatment.

Grandmother Mother and Daughter outting ruined by shity rude service and undervalue meals - ei creamed mushrooms 2 slices of rubbery bread and only enough mushrooms to scarcely cover one piece the rest covered in HEAPS ! of deep fried kale that wasnt even on the menu ruined the mushrooms :( All in all huge let down for the good rep it's meant to have had clearly they have fallen far - we 3 will never be going back - too much of a clicky locals only kind of place not all are equal here. Oh n I dont like writing bad reviews so waited for a while to see if I calmed down but clearly reading this you can tell I obviously havnt - never before have I or those I'm with been treated like this and I hope never to be again. You have been warned visit at...