elena1

6.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  2     

The food is good, the service is good, location is great - but value for money is poor.

Nov 13, 2011

8.3 Highly Recommended

Quality  9      Ambience  7      Service  10      Value  7     

A great shop! Staff are knowledgeable, friendly and helpful, explain everything in detail and never push you into buying anything. The store is short on space though, with everything crammed together. Can be a bit of a challenge to navigate if you come in with the pram.

I highly suggest using their website instead. There are specials on all the time and you can find the right product (the store carries a great range!) from convenience of your own home. Your purchase can be delived to you for a small fee or you can pick it up for free from the store. So its very convenient if you live in the area - order and pay online and then just drop by to pick it up - no waiting around, no searching for the item - just get it on the spot.

Nov 13, 2011

7.5 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  6     

I love this place!

The offerings are 60% - 80% same as in Bourke St Bakery (a related business), which helps to deal with the sence of deja vu when you first walk in and notice many eery similarities in everything, from decor to menu to writing on the walls. Its like a Bourke St Bakery under a different name. The only differences I spotted were the inclusion of soup of the day and breakfast items like granola in the Central Baking Depot menu.

As with Bourke St Bakery, the tarts are gorgeous, breads are delicious. Pizza slices are excellent value at $6.5 as are ham and cheese croissants at $5. I do wish that other items were better value - they are a little bit too expensive at the moment.

I am not a big fan of the coffee blend used in the cafe but thats just me. Coffee is still good but I think it can be better.

There is inside and outside areas to sit in, so good at any weather, and given the location at the Waverley Mall it is great if you have a stroller (accessible) or kids who want to play while you take some time out.

I found service to be good - friendly and helpful. Overall, highly recommend for a nice lunch or afternoon tea

Nov 13, 2011

7.8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  8     

The tarts are amazing - the best in Sydney! Other offerings are also good but nothing really special. Mind you, its difficult to try anything else when all you want are tarts! The owner has great relationship with the locals, who he knows by name and chats to when they drop by - very friendly!

I also had the voucher for the tarts. The voucher clearly stated that you need to call ahead to ensure availability. When I came in without calling I left with nothing as they did not have any extra tarts left. However when I did call ahead I received my tarts without any issues on the required day and time. So this is fair enough - just need to follow voucher terms and conditions.

Nov 13, 2011

8.5 Highly Recommended

Quality  8      Ambience  8      Service  10      Value  8     

A good salon to visit, young friendly stylists, great service, very professional. I also like the little secluded courtyard where you can seat with your coffee and mags while waitng for the haircolor to develop, very relaxing!

Nov 13, 2011

6.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  2     

The food is good, the service is good, location is great - but value for money is poor.

Nov 13, 2011

8.3 Highly Recommended

Quality  9      Ambience  7      Service  10      Value  7     

A great shop! Staff are knowledgeable, friendly and helpful, explain everything in detail and never push you into buying anything. The store is short on space though, with everything crammed together. Can be a bit of a challenge to navigate if you come in with the pram.

I highly suggest using their website instead. There are specials on all the time and you can find the right product (the store carries a great range!) from convenience of your own home. Your purchase can be delived to you for a small fee or you can pick it up for free from the store. So its very convenient if you live in the area - order and pay online and then just drop by to pick it up - no waiting around, no searching for the item - just get it on the spot.

Nov 13, 2011

7.5 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  6     

I love this place!

The offerings are 60% - 80% same as in Bourke St Bakery (a related business), which helps to deal with the sence of deja vu when you first walk in and notice many eery similarities in everything, from decor to menu to writing on the walls. Its like a Bourke St Bakery under a different name. The only differences I spotted were the inclusion of soup of the day and breakfast items like granola in the Central Baking Depot menu.

As with Bourke St Bakery, the tarts are gorgeous, breads are delicious. Pizza slices are excellent value at $6.5 as are ham and cheese croissants at $5. I do wish that other items were better value - they are a little bit too expensive at the moment.

I am not a big fan of the coffee blend used in the cafe but thats just me. Coffee is still good but I think it can be better.

There is inside and outside areas to sit in, so good at any weather, and given the location at the Waverley Mall it is great if you have a stroller (accessible) or kids who want to play while you take some time out.

I found service to be good - friendly and helpful. Overall, highly recommend for a nice lunch or afternoon tea

Nov 13, 2011

7.8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  8     

The tarts are amazing - the best in Sydney! Other offerings are also good but nothing really special. Mind you, its difficult to try anything else when all you want are tarts! The owner has great relationship with the locals, who he knows by name and chats to when they drop by - very friendly!

I also had the voucher for the tarts. The voucher clearly stated that you need to call ahead to ensure availability. When I came in without calling I left with nothing as they did not have any extra tarts left. However when I did call ahead I received my tarts without any issues on the required day and time. So this is fair enough - just need to follow voucher terms and conditions.

Nov 13, 2011

8.5 Highly Recommended

Quality  8      Ambience  8      Service  10      Value  8     

A good salon to visit, young friendly stylists, great service, very professional. I also like the little secluded courtyard where you can seat with your coffee and mags while waitng for the haircolor to develop, very relaxing!

Nov 13, 2011

7.8 Recommended

Quality  8      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  7     

Always a good service and a good hair-cut!

Nov 13, 2011

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  7     

I organised my sister's birthday party at Kazbah and it went very well. As some of you know it can be hard to find a decent place with parking in the vacinity, that takes group bookings on Saturday night and doesn't charge you through the roof. This was a good place to take the family to and my various requests, like extra table space for the pram and delays in serving food as some guests were 40 minutes late, were all attended to without a problem.

You do need to be organised though if you do a group event, its banquet menu only if its more than a certain number of people and you need to confirm final numbers the day before the event as, otherwise, will pay cancellation charges.

I've also attended a house party where Kazbah did catering (they can come to your home and serve the dishes from the restaurant) and that was very good, the smoothest and the most hussle free party I've ever been to. I was very impressed with how they run the event (took over the kitchen, lots of food, great service, cleaned everything afterwards).

I would recommend Kazbah. While it may be a little pricey and hard to get into, its also one of few places that you can actually book for a weekend breakfast and that it definitely appreciated, expecially if you like catching up with friends at breakfast and don't want the hassle of waiting for an hour before the staff find you a spot.

Oct 04, 2009

4.8 Average

Food  6      Ambience  6      Service  5      Value  2     

I thought the place was very average, there is certainly better Japanese food elsewhere, both in price and in quality. The problem is with the lack of flavour, it makes the dinner a poor value.

While the place itself was rather authentic (Japanese-themed interior, simple decor), it got very noisy and it was very hard to hold any kind of conversation. The food was OK, nothing spectacular or interesting. The sashimi plate was disappointing, 9 pieces of thickly sliced sashimi (salmon was very stringy due to incorrect cut), 2 pieces of scallop and 2 prawns, for $25. A vegetarian platter for $22 consisted of a plate with marinated eggplant next to slices of fresh tomato (huh?), 2 small potato skewers, 3 tofu dumplings and a roll of cold soba noodles with seaweed.

Wouldn't have minded the price if at least I got some good flavour but that was missing, very average. Will also recommend against ordering agedashi tofu its unremarkable. The service was slow and while the restaurant was full, it took way too long to bring out our dishes, 15 minutes to take the order, another 15 to bring our drinks, rice was the last dish to arriv.

Will not be back, too expensive for what it is.

Oct 03, 2009

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  8     

Brown Sugar is my favourite Bondi restaurant, I've been coming here for over 2 years and have never been disappointed with food, it is consistently delicious.

For breakfast I would recommend dill salmon eggs or banana bread, for lunch try pasta or fish and for dessert the decadent chocolate souffle (inside is melted hot chocolate) or the tiramisu (perfectly fluffy, not too coffee-ish, light). The service is always very friendly and the manager is very helpful. She also doesn't allow queue jumping, which is good when you and 5 others have been queuing outside for the last 20 minutes waiting for the next available table

My main complaint with the restaurant is coffee. There must be something wrong with their coffee ordering/preparation procedures. Every time I come in for a breakfast and order a coffee followed by the food order, the coffee arrives well after the food has been served, very often towards the end of the meal. When the place is busy and the food takes 40+ minutes to arrive, this leaves a lot of time to just sit around drinking water.

The only solution that I have found is to actually remind staff about coffee 15 minutes after the order, seems to work! It does get very noisy, however, if you manage to get a seat outside or next to the window then its fine. I really wish they would expand into a bigger space, it would only improve the restaurant and allow all to enjoy it

Jan 09, 2009

10 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  10     

Absolutely wonderful! Had the best dining experience here. The food was delicious, the service perfect and attentive, atmosphere elegant and understated. All in all a wonderful evening. We spent over 2 hours over dinner and loved every minute. Will definitely be back.

Jan 02, 2009