As a local in Waverley I know this cafe well, I know Rosie has been there a long time and they have a great following but I certainly won't be back and now understand why Bellagio up the road is spilling out the doors with customers 7 days a week. My lunch time experience today was an utter disgrace to say the least. There was no less than 4 people on staff, no more than 3 customers in the cafe and dirty plates absolutely everywhere.
This is how it starts - We order 2 very simple meals that don't need cooking and wait 25 minutes. Mine comes out and it's missing the avo - no big deal, so I tell the girl behind the counter who has a great excuse - 'The staff are new and inexperienced and they are doing their best'. Umm as a paying customer I don't need to know that!! So she sends Ava out who is all of 15 years old, with a piece of black and green avo on a plate, walks past all the filthy dishes on the table and goes back to the kitchen empty handed. I cut the avo up and put it into my soggy limp salmon salad that is more like a soup than a salad - dressing overkill guys :(
Next my friends meal comes out and his is completely wrong. So Ava is sent back to tell tell us 'No you ordered that' pointing to the plate in front of him. I replied 'No Ava, I heard my friend order and the staff (girl behind counter who won't come over) has gotten it incorrect, he doesn't eat bacon'. Ava stands there like a stunned mullet, insists we ordered the bacon roll and say's 'I'm sorry there is nothing we can do'.
REALLY Ava, how about someone in charge comes over to deal with this?' No one with any authority was willing to look at us, let alone come and speak with us. No offer of a replacement, no offer of a refund, no apology. So I said 'Ava, I think it's a disgrace you have been sent over here, I don't think you have the experience to manage this effectively and I would like to see a manager', to which Ava replied 'The manager is out grocery shopping at the moment because we are low on groceries in the kitchen'. Oh okay so Ava in all of her 15 years is the most senior person on the premises and management is out supermarket shopping for their commercial business. By this stage I'm looking for the camera's - Are we being stooged?
Ava walked back to the kitchen, still empty handed with dirty dishes all over a number of tables. So I call her back and ask her to clear the last persons dishes that she placed our food down next to and perhaps replace my friends meal with what he ordered. She comes back 5 minutes later with another meal, still not what we ordered, soggy bread and no sign of that schnitzel. I give up!
I can easily look past minor errors and judge a situation case by case. This however was next level. It was an experience from hell from start to finish and I paid $35 for that 'privilege'. $35 and one hour of my time I will never get back. The most disgraceful part for me was that the older girl behind the counter had no interest in coming over and attempting damage control. Instead, she sent a schoolgirl over to challenge us and insist we were in the wrong. The situation could have been so easily rectified.
Apart from all that, they all just happily chatted at the counter while the dirty plates fed all the hungry flies.
As a local and a business owner myself, the owners need to know this. I'm not a review junkie by any means, however if I have an exceptionally good or bad experience, I feel like people need to know. Cafe Sorelle, your entire staff let you down today.I left absolutely speechless.... and the food was CRAP. Bellagio and Stock - You have me back read more