Dekalto Cafe, Greenwood Plaza, North Sydney

Dekalto Cafe, Greenwood Plaza, North Sydney
Saturday 15 July, 2006

On this cold, wet and windy day I was running between appointments when a friend called to see if I was free for lunch. Sure! Never one to turn down an invitation we agreed to meet at Dekalto Cafe in Greenwood Plaza - why? I've never been there before but I was in Greenwood already and it was convenient and, well, I've now learnt my lesson - don't go somewhere for convenience sake! You will be disappointed.

Anyway, I arrived first and grabbed a table. There were 3 staff hovering around the front counter talking, making the occasional coffee and not much else. Some service please???? I waited for 10 minutes before thinking that maybe it wasn't table service so I got up and walked over to the counter to obtain a couple of menus. As I reached out one staff member mumbled a 'sorry' and then went back to his conversation. At this point we should have left....

The menu was breakfast only even though the cafe is open until well into the afternoon. There are your typical breakfast offerings - bacon & eggs, omlettes, toast etc but it was after 12pm and I wanted lunch. At the bottom of the menu were a few toasted sandwiches but that was about it. Also mentioned on the menu was the statement, 'We do high quality catering. Please talk with Larry'. How bizarre....do they state this so that potential customers don't confuse them with the people who offer low quality catering? I wish I could have spoken to Larry myself to give some feedback on the quality of the service!

I had to repeatedly wave down a staff member for us to order coffee to start. These arrived promptly and were spot on - hot, as requested and very good. During this time a few people arrived and sat down but due to the lack of service or even acknowledgment of their arrival got up and walked out. We persisted. I ordered a toasted cheese sandwich and my lunch buddy decided to forego lunch and settled on another coffee.

The sandwich arrived and was pretty average but edible - the cheese had melted but not as much as I would have liked. It was OK but I should have done what my lunch buddy did - forego lunch and settle in for another coffee.

There's only one reason to visit Dekalto Cafe and that's for the coffee - don't get worked up about the lack of service as you have been warned!

Dekalto Cafe - Greenwood Plaza, 36 Blue St, North Sydney - (02) 8920 2255

http://www.greenwoodplaza.com.au/