I haven't been to Paperbark Cafe for a few years and after today I'll definitely be steering clear and won't recommend it to anyone any more.
The nursery and surrounds are lovely and they have a well stocked gift shop (pricey and much of it dusty!)
The restaurant wasn't particularly busy, maybe half full when the two of us arrived at 2pm. We were offered coffee straight away but the coffee was nearly finished before we finally hailed someone down to take our order which was a vegetarian option based on their Paperbark Breakfast ($32.00)
Eggs your way, native basil tomatoes, native thyme mushrooms, mixed greens, house-made beans, halloumi, mashed avo and salsa.
During our wait my elbows were constantly sticking to the table (minor problem of course, but just added to the poor experience).
We waited nearly 40 minutes and hailed down someone else to ask about our meals, the waiter looked perplexed and went to check. A few minutes later a waitress arrived, said nothing, put down one plate, handed me the other mid air and walked off. It was plated nicely and the array of colours was nice but I immediately noticed nothing was hot. The halloumi, greens and mushrooms were all medium/warm but the small poached eggs sitting on dry cold sourdough were both tepid. And "house-made"beans were straight from the fridge.
After the lengthy wait and knowing their kitchen was closing in a couple of minutes, we chose not to say anything but just ate what we could and warmed ourselves up with 2 mugs of hot chocolate. One with Almond and one with Soy milk.
We questioned the bill which was near $97.00 and were told it was because of a 10% surcharge (which was not clearly displayed anywhere), mugs cost more and Almond and Soy milk are $1.10 extra.
There was not one smile offered while we were there and another customer waiting to pay while we were questioning the bill was anxiously awaiting his turn to exit so we didn't raise a scene by saying how bad the food or service was.
I don't know how they would cope if the whole restaurant was full but it was a poor show of management today at half capacity.
As for weekend surcharge, this is the busiest you'll see this restaurant and they rely on customers during those days to hold up the business!
They should be honest and price the 10% into the cost and maybe advertise 10% OFF during weekdays instead.
Not only was this overpriced, but the fancy 'bush tucker' names had no impact on the food whatsoever.
Extremely disappointed! read more
