Cafe Sweethearts
263 Conventry St, South Melbourne 3205
I think it is always disappointing when a favourite regular is crossed off the list due to change of ownership; I think it is even more disappointing when such an event inspires and motiviates one to return to food blogging. This was the exactly what transpired out of my experience at Cafe Sweetheart today.
After hearing that Guy (previous lovely owner) has decided to move on from the industry, we thought we'd pay Sweethearts a revisit to see if the change in ownership had left any battle scars in the quality of the food, as it had always been one of my favourite places to fall back on for Sunday brunch.
Arrived at just past noon, the place was surprisingly quiet for a Sunday. By that I meant there were actually tables availble, without any signs of queues reaching out to the door. We were seated promptly and offered menus, and to have our drink orders taken. So far so good.
The chai lattes (soy and normal) arrived in an upgraded teapot, with a healthy sprinkle of cinnamon. Our meals arrived shortly after; the eggs benedict still worked its spot on hollandaise magic, albiet the scrambled egg whites were missing a lot of the smooth, creamy punch-factor. Possibly the healthier version, although I would still much prefer to have the extra taste and remain in denial about the accompanying calories.
And Then (the famous last words). And then, things started to go slightly pear-shaped. Sure the service at Sweethearts was mostly amicable, although somewhat inconsistent and inefficient at times. Having known most of the wait staff by face, we had never had any problems with their service standards. We were even OKAY when we had to wait for 40 minutes for our meals to arrive because the waitress had forgotten to put in our order.
So this time, when we waved the waitress over and asked her if she could bring our waters we ordered at the beginning, politely using key words such as 'please' and 'if it's okay', I didn't think twice about it. But apparently, as we found out 10 minutes later when our water was brought by another waitress, we 'shouldn't snap our fingers and scream at waiters' if we wanted something. And apparently, the said waitress is now very upset and angry, and would not come to our table, so it would be good if we could 'refrain from asking her for anything for the remainder of our time there'.
Now, it may be a while since I've blogged, it also may be a while since I've visited a breakfast venue, but since when did the waitresses decide who the customer should and shouldn't ask for glasses of water from? Especially when they are all EMPLOYED to have that as I would imagine part of the job description!? Also when did it become OKAY for staff to start reprimanding customers for something they had complete zero knowledge of?!
I also found that feedback wasn't taken specifically well, or at all. When we tried to raise our concerns before leaving, we might as well be talking to a plate of unorganic, over-buttered, and under-sauteed mushrooms. The final nail in the Sweetheart coffin was when we brought up our 5 years of dining relationship with the resturant and ex-owner, we were told 'well, Guy's not around anymore, Darling'.
Looks like we won't be either, Darling.
Rating: 1/10
Encore: only if they lose the attitude
