Matinee Coffee

Came for brunch on a Monday and it was an unpleasant experience. It was not very busy, yet took half an hour to get two coffees, brought out 10 minutes apart. The servers were low-key kind of rude, and they came up and said “do you want food” in a dismissive manner, after waiting ages for them to come and take our order. I ordered the Gnocchi Hash and it was disgusting, I wouldn’t even call it gnocchi. We had a conversation to the table next to us and they said “what is happening here”… The place is cute so I thought it would have potential but I did not enjoy this cafe at all.

I came here to check the reviews before posting to make sure it wasn’t just me. Been coming to Matinee for 5+ years, never had a bad word to say until today. Not sure if the owners changed or the chefs but I ordered something similar to what I’ve always had here and it was disgustingly greasy and generally average that I barely touched it. Zero seasoning in anything. And a bowl full of grease. Told a waiter, and his response was ‘so have you finished?’ And took it away. No one cared to ask questions, apologise, compensate. Where has good old customer service gone? When I paid I was greeted with a very frosty attitude from the barista. Quite a wait for our food too, and were one of two tables in the whole place at 8am. Disappointed to pay just under $100 for essentially a few coffees, orange juice and some scrambled egg and toast for my 4 year old. Hope this place can pick itself up again and return to an iconic brunch spot it once was, truly!

We had a group of six dine here over the weekend. Although we were told food would be 40 minutes when we ordered, it ended up taking just over an hour. The food was nothing extraordinary, and wasn’t presented well. The pancakes weren’t fluffy, and tasted bland. The poached eggs were cooked completely through. Although there is hype over this cafe, I would not recommend.

The chicken burger and fries were nice. I didn’t like the steak sandwich or the gnocchi hash. The coffee, although we asked for decaf, was still far too strong. Our gnocchi came out with chorizo in it, even though we specifically said the person eating was allergic and not to put it into the dish. We then had to wait ages for it to be re made and we all ate our food as it was getting cold, our friend had to eat hers later. Aside from all of this, the atmosphere was nice and I would probably try them again and order something different to see how it goes. It does have potential. The service was also friendly.

Could've, should've, would've been a great Cafe but lack of servers let it down. Our food was sitting under the heat lamp for at least 5 minutes with a bug flying around it. Shoestring fries were not crisp and soggy. Food & coffee overall was decent and would've been much better if wasn't left for such a long time.