Merchant Tea & Coffee, The Kalamunda, Perth and Fremantle

User Reviews of The Merchant Tea & Coffee, Kalamunda

Displaying: 1 - 2 of 2 reviews

1.5 Not Recommended

Food 1 Ambience 3 Service 1 Value 1

How hard can it be to prepare a fresh burger at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon when the cafe is almost empty (that should have sounded a first warning),...? Obviously, even harder than frying some fresh chips that looked like they had been zapped to impotency by the microwave!

In an almost empty restaurant our 'Burger' took 15 minutes or so to arrive, Fair enough, if it was freshly cooked as was indicated by the staff. However, the outside of the patty was lukewarm to say the least and when my delicate taste buds reached the centre they almost died of frostbite from the shock. The inside of this somewhat large beef patty was almost icy, Indicating that it had been defrosted in the micro, but sadly not defrosted enough.

Come on people, Even a mindless person can fry some chips and cook a beef patty!
To add insult to injury when I asked for the remnants to be properly heated (For fear of food poisoning from tepid meat), it came out smoking making the bread roll (which had obviously accompanied my patty into the electronic crematorium) taste like rubber and almost impossible to cut.

It's no wonder they make you pay $15.95 up front for a burger - Try before you pay and they would go broke. Mind you, if they keep up this kind of food quality they will no doubt go broke anyway. With apologies to Chris Isaacs - Burger did a bad bad thing!

Feb 13, 2012

therudefoodcritic
1

1.5 Not Recommended

Food 1 Ambience 3 Service 1 Value 1

I have been to the Merchant Kalamunda many times and enjoyed the food, coffee and customer service. However, this all changed earlier on in 2010 when the cafe was taken over by a new owner. It has gone down hill very fast. The coffee has changed, a new bean I think and it tastes terrible very bitter, the coffee makers themselves aren't much better they are very slow and it takes roughly 20 minutes to get a coffee take away or dine in.

I ordered a latte and it was awful it was lukewarm, bitter and the milk was bubbly quite simply it was disappointing. The prices for all drinks have gone up and I don't fancy paying $6 for a takeaway coffee. The food has changed and is very overpriced they now serve meals, I have tried one of these meals the Moroccan lamb and the lamb was cold and icy in the middle so I believe the meals are frozen and just wacked in the microwave.

I don't appreciate paying $15 or so dollars for a meal that is defrosted in the microwave. The service is extremely slow and in the past month or so the waiters have been lacking in personality and could not care less about the customers. All in all the Merchant Kalamunda is terrible I no longer go there and recommend others not to either.

Jun 28, 2010