Retro

1.5 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  3      Service  1      Value  1     

This cafe has so much potential if it wasn't for the disgusting food and the extremely rude senior staff. We also had the steak which was expensive and so tough we couldn't cut it let alone eat it! When we pointed it out to the senior staff he laughed. I would never go back! It also looked very dirty.

May 23, 2011 

3 Below Average

Food  2      Ambience  3      Service  2      Value  5     

I went to Retro Cafe during the week and won't be going back. The food was average and the service was not good. It has such a great location it's a shame it's not better.

Dec 04, 2010 

1 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

This is quite possibly the worst cafe I have eaten at in Sydney. The service was terrible made even worse by the rude manager. The food was over priced and definitely not worth the money. I paid over $20 for a steak which was over cooked and tough! I would definitely not recommend this place. With so many great places to eat in the city I would walk straight past this one!

Nov 28, 2010 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  8     

Attending the state theatre to see Chris Rock last month booked in at the Retro for pre show dining. Arriving late at 7 pm we were amazed at how packed the cafe was with people all over the place waiting to be seated. We were sceptical at first thinking we were pressed for time before the show but were promptly seated and our drink orders immediately taken and delivered in a flash.

The cafe has an amazing ambience and the speed of service in what looked to be a crazy atmosphere was phenomenal!.. our food to our amazement took only 10 minutes approx to arrive and was of excellent quallity, amazing flavour and great value! The menu is quite simple yet has a great variety covering salads, pastas, risottos and some interesting unique main meals.

Our young tall waiter was a pleasure to deal with, providing prompt service and a great personally adding great flair to our dining experience at the retro cafe. Overall the retro is a little undiscovered gem in the city which is full of dull cliche' cafes and provides a great overall dining experience.

A standing ovation for the management of the cafe is justified for providing a highly functioning system that enables the cafe to operate when busy given its limited space and resources. Highly recommended if you are ever in the CBD.. we will definitely be visiting retro again.

Sep 06, 2008 

2 Not Recommended

Food  5      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

Would not recommend to any one. Following being offered a table that not even a midget could sit at, was then asked to leave because we only wanted a snack and coffee and did not want to order a full meal.

Jul 05, 2008 

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  8     

I've been a visitor to Retro for years. The decor was a lot better before the TV/stackstone but the ambience is still excellent, the food is great, the service is wonderful, the music is independent and not too loud - you can have a pleasant conversation and hear yourself think. And Tony and Phil, the managers are just wonderful people who take really good care of regulars.

For a thrill, if nothing else, ask to use the loo. It's down in a nuclear bomb shelter beneath the State Theatre. Very cool.

May 06, 2008 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  9     

A fave for breakfast on the go and takeaway sandwiches for lunch. Friendly staff who remember your name and your coffee after a few visits. Can still get a coffee for $2.50 which isn't always easy in the CBD. Haven't gone there for dinner, though its often packed so I assume its pretty good.

Mar 18, 2008 

7.8 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  8     

The barista is 'super lindo' and the cafe isn't bad either. Always attentive, always friendly.

Apr 21, 2007 

7.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  8     

Embedded in the grand facade of the State Theater is Retro - cafe, bar, brasserie etc. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner they seem to be covering all bases including Saturday opening hours catering for hungry retail therapists. Being fully licensed means you can also indulge yourself with a sambuca to accompany your espresso which is taken for granted in the rest of the world but strangely absent in most Sydney cafes. It's small but elegant shop front hiding a true art deco interior, leaded glass mirrors and original plaster moulded ceiling with plain wooden tables and chairs. The recent uninspired refurbishment of the counter and kitchen area has resulted in some out of character stackstone clad walls and a pointless plasma screen providing chewing gum for bored eyeballs. The staffs choice of chillout music provided a good alternative to a more décor appropriate Noel Coward which I had expected to hear in these surroundings.

Breakfast options follow the traditional line with heavy emphasis on eggs: Eggs Benedict, Eggs Florentine, bacon and eggs, open omlette, Spanish omlette and protein omlette; made just with the egg whites. If you like eggs you have found your Sydney mecca. All of the above are reasonably priced with not much above $8, you can also supplement your choice with a whole load of extras which are all priced around the $2 mark.

Prompt service returned my choice of poached eggs, bacon, sauteed button mushrooms and grilled tomatoes with leaf tea amusingly served in a cafeteria instead of a teapot. All were cooked to perfection, the mushrooms a lovely golden brown and cooked in butter, the tomato just right, bacon crisp but not dehydrated and lovely toasted bloomer bread. The eggs were slightly overcooked and not as runny as I would have liked, I suspect mise en place and the chaud font being the culprit there. The French waitress was very helpful all along; providing a newspaper, grinding black pepper onto my breakfast and offering towels when a particularly flustered corporate warrior managed to pour most of his american coffee down my leg. I shall return here to try lunch or maybe even dinner, despite the hazards of coffee wielding office yahoos and the horrific stackstone/plasma TV combination.

May 27, 2006