Cafe Ish

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  9     

Have had breakfast/brunch here a couple of times and found the freshly baked bread and pastries amazing, some with an unusual japanese twist. Laidback, friendly atmosphere without the pretension you find in other nearby cafes. Very good bang for your buck.

Jan 25, 2012 

6.3 Average

Food  6      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  6     

There's a lot of hype about this cafe, but I fail to see what it's all about...

I have to say, the menu is very interesting with its fusion of Japanese and modern Australian. However, the food did not quite match the high expectations set from reading many good reviews.

We ordered the Cabbage, Apple and Chicken salad which was very plain tasting, along with a Kangaroo Yaki Udon with tasteless miso soup. The soft shell crab omelette was nice, but not outstanding.

And $7 for an iced latte served in a tiny glass? Not very worth it to us. The ambience is nice and quaint, but the service wasn't too good. Either our waiter was stoned or simply trying to ignore us. The food also took very long to arrive.

Dec 04, 2011 

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  8     

Wow, Wow, Wow! What a great little find. Small older style cafe. We booked here after reading about the ribs they do.

With no big expectations we were very surprised. Service was great! Not your 5 star dining experience, but more relaxed which makes for a more comfortable experience. The menu had lots and being like a Japanese tapas makes it ideal to try lots of dishes (that we did).

So some of the highlights would have to be the Lamb Ribs of course (amazing), fried chicken and beef tataki. The macadamia tart with black sesame ice cream was also great. We loved the mixed flavours of native australian/asian which made it quite unique! I don't see why you need to choose a cuisine and stick with that, the mix of both is what makes this place different.

They provided us a good easy going dinner without a lot of the fuss that comes with most restaurants these days. All the bad reviews on here seem odd after the experience we had. So take a leap and give it a go!

Nov 26, 2011 

1 Not Recommended

Ambience  1      Service  1     

I had possibly one of the absolute worst experiences of my life at Cafe Ish and I didn’t even get to eat the food! I won’t go into the minutia of our ordeal, save the following key points:

1. We booked via a website promoting a discount on the bill, but the discount was an added bonus rather than the motivator for booking this restaurant.

2. A group of 4 of us were booked in for a 7pm dinner for which 2 of us were on time and 2 of us were late.

3. The disagreement began when the owner stormed over to our table to announce that he would not be giving us the discount as the table was running late. I’d already had my heart set on going to Café Ish, discount or not, so I would’ve had no problem with it if he hadn’t been so rude about it!

4. It ended with the owner shouting profanities at us and threatening my male companions (plus the arrival of the police).

I’m genuinely upset that our visit to Café Ish ended this way as I was extremely eager to try what is apparently some amazing food, and now I’ve completely lost the opportunity as I’ll never return here, and it seems I’m not the only person who thinks so – see Not Quite Nigella.

Read more on my blog

Oct 22, 2011 

5.3 Average

Food  6      Ambience  5      Service  5      Value  5     

This small cafe suffers from a serious identity crisis. Is it's cuisine native Australian, contemporary Australian or Japanese? Very confusing menu, the highlight of which is the wasabi mayo that accompanies the side of fries. And yes I agree, assuming they have insurance there's really no excuse for the delay in having the dodgy window fixed. Quite perplexing, confusing, and ultimately disappointing.

Oct 04, 2011 

7 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  7     

I too came here on the 8 course banquet deal, and I find it hard to understand how people can complain about it. This is not a fine dining establishment, and so should not be rated as such. The place is a cosy little cafe, with very decent food. Out of the 8 courses, the wagyu beef ribs (if a little too fatty) were "hurricanes-esque", the crab omelette and the prawn and kangaroo dumplings were stand outs, while the cabbage with sauce, and crocodile sushi roll were average.

If you live/work around here, this place could be a good local, but I wouldn't go out of my way to come back.

Sep 26, 2011 

9.8 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  10     

This is the second time my husband and I have been to Cafe Ish for dinner and I cannot recommend this restaurant highly enough. The food is delicious, and I think the fusion of Native Australia & Japanese is brillant, and totally unique to the cafe. Well done to the Cafe Ish team for coming up with something new... Love it and cannot wait to come back for the Sake Dinner at the SIFF in October.

Sep 12, 2011 

9.3 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  10     

This is my 2nd time back and they didn't disappoint me at all. This place is great. We enjoy the food every time especially the Freaky Chicken and I don't fault it one bit. Three people, $35 each and we walked out of there full and satisfied.

Not all food is to everyone's taste but there is no need to bad mouth a good restaurant.

Aug 25, 2011 

1.8 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  1      Service  2      Value  2     

Disappointed with the overall quality of food. There was very little flavour and texture. Thank goodness we had a voucher yet I still feel ripped off. Also, one window had a huge crack that looks like it was about to shatter on top of the couple dining next to it. Wouldn't recommend at all.

Aug 21, 2011 

4.8 Average

Food  4      Ambience  6      Service  3      Value  6     

The only delicious dish of our visit to Cafe Ish was the soft shell crab omelette, one of their signature dishes. But overall the food was quite disappointing with the negatives outweighing the positives by far. Having been to Cafe Ish before, it does a good breakfast and lunch menu but otherwise I will not be coming back for dinner anytime soon.

A lot of the ‘fusion’ combination flavours just did not work with some cooked terribly (emphasis on the ribs and chicken). Thankfully we had the Spreets voucher which made it affordable, but otherwise their food was below par by far and I would have rather gone elsewhere in a heartbeat. The disappointing quality of the food combined with their snappy attitude towards us taking photos of the dishes, it was not an experience we would like to go through again.

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Aug 18, 2011