Service Without a Smile & a Sub Par Salad Bowl 🥣🥣🥣

I'm a sucker for a quirky cafe. I've been meaning to go to Torquay"s 'Bowlz' for some time. I imagine it's a bit of a play on the Bells Beach 'bowl", a very specific part of the break there. Starving after a surf, and needing some nourishment for my nervous system, I decided against a vego pastie and thought I'd have a nutritious bowl of food instead.

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The cafe was very lovely as soon as I walked in. Green velvet couches with large knit yellow throws, leather seats and sofas - clearly they'd gone to some expense on the decor. There were also colourful Morocconn style plant pots and ottomans, and textured cushions - very boho gypsy style.

I'm also a sucker for a good chai. None of that sugary powdered stuff please. It's actually really hard to find, but I sure enjoyed this one.

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For lunch, a Buddha bowl. I'm not sure you have these where you are, but they are generally a bowl of healthy food from grains and noodles to avocado, pickled vegetables, salad and so on. At $22 it felt pricey but I definitely needed something to nourish me. I didn't fancy anything fruity but they did have a good selection of smoothie bowls which sounded nice.

When the waiter brought it out, she plonked it down with very little ceremony and didn't bother taking away my empty chai cup. I'd read that the serving staff were lovely but she wasn't very friendly or smiley at all. Perhaps she was having a bad day, but it started putting me off the place a little.

The bowl was a coconut bowl, which was cute - but you can't fit a lot of food in a coconut bowl for $22, and it can be awkward to eat from without spilling things over the side. Hmm. It did look nice though.

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The bowl I chose had smoked salmon, vermicelli, pear, edamame beans, avocado, roast peppers, cucumber, and red onion. It was nice enough I suppose. The peppers were clearly out of a jar and over marinated, and the dressing was overwhelming. The noodles were a bit undercooked for my liking. I started feeling I was being fussy and grumpy but when you pay money for a meal you expect it to be above and beyond, which this wasn't. It lacked subtlety, a theme, or sense. There was a lot of soggy lettuce in the bottom making up the size of the bowl. Impressed I was not, but hungry I was, so I did finish the entire bowl, bar the soggy bits at the end. The dressing was over done and too acidic, but I enjoyed the avo, pear and edamame.

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Would I go back again? Unlikely, unless someone invited me or I really fancied a smoothie bowl and decided to give them a second chance. I think if it was a little friendlier I might be more willing. It's not too hard to smile, even for a hospitality wage - I've been there, done that, and even on my worst day I'd make someone feel welcome with a smile.

Saying that, this could just have been a bad day, and maybe I chose the wrong meal for me. The reviews online seemed to love it, but I don't trust online reviews so much, unless they're on HIVE.

With Love,

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 10 months ago  

I would close my eyes and have you lead me to any restaurant and eat whatever it was that you ordered.
No, I don't want to sulky service person attending to me at all. It's a shame because the shop looks so fuckin' fancy and all. I love the theme and decor.
Yes, that coconut bowl is a creative idea, but maybe they would be better off giving you a whole coconut and dividing the portion in 2. With it so small, you might feed the table and walk out hungry feeling like you threw your money away.
I'm now salivating a good chai 😋
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I'd love to take you out for lunch here in Australia mate. But not here.... !!! Good idea with the whole coconut 😂 How cute is the decor!

Oh my, you’d expect for that price top notch quality. I know I should not do that but in my home currency it is about R300. For that amount you could eat at some very fancy places. It is crazy though how much people have inflated prices these couple of years. Even though I say that R300 or $22 could get you a pretty fancy dish, R300 pre-covid was almost double that. I do not know about how things are there but here in South Africa prices have almost doubled since covid at some places.

Anyhow, hopefully it tastes as good as you mentioned!

Oh yeah things have gone up here too, though not the wages!

I reckon you or I could make a better salad bowl than that easy, and with foraged greens, half the price!

I have always wondered why people like us never open restaurants with homegrown and very rare types of food. But then I remember the stressful days I spent working in a kitchen and remember why!

It is so stupid; wages and salaries remain the same but food and living expenses have almost doubled in some cases. Modern economics is a strange creature.

This is a good reminder that a friendly attitude is the key to return business. Ambience and quality food and drink are important, but not as important as a smile!

I know the problem. Its your own fault. Torquay? You are far too young to be in Torquay. A town where the elderly go to spend their vast fortunes before walking up the hill and dropping dead of a heart attack thus making it the town with the most undertakers in the whole of the UK (possibly...)

It did look rather nice though, not like the Torquay I remember being taken to almost every summer holiday as a kid!

Brixham's the place. Fish and chips and seagulls sitting on your head. Can't beat it!

Hope you're both flourishing, healthy and happy.

Have a beautiful weekend:-)

Ahhh Torquay in Australia....whoops ;-)

Damn that seems like a lot for a small Buddha bowl. And soggy lettuce is a big let down. I can understand your disappointment for sure.
Place does look inviting though, pity the waitress couldn't afford to give a smile xxxx

Nevermind. At least I got a post out of it 😂😂😂

That salad bowl looks delicious and the place cozy. Too bad about the service. Like you said, she might've been having a bad day. Who knows what secret battles she was fighting? Or maybe she was just being a grumpy cat.

In places around here, service staff can be overly friendly and interact with you in an highly upbeat attitude that some may find off-putting. I was surprised on a trip to Eastern Europe when people just seriously went about their business at restaurants, stores, and cafes. When I smiled at one, they lifted their heads and smiled broadly, awkwardly, as if not quite sure what to do. Then I read that they don't have the same culture of overly cheerful service we do in North America. From the sounds of it, in Australia you also expect a friendly smile or even small word or two. This makes sense given the similarities in cultures.

Australia is much the same as North America by the sounds. I found the same in UK - when I first moved there I found it so odd that shop staff didn't really interact. I love chatting to them as it's sometimes the only company I get in a lonely day.

Who knows what secret battles she was fighting?

Utterly agree - I do practice compassion. But I also think people need to be mindful about how their mood might affect others.

My hubs has a hard week at work. His colleague who shares the office with him, a friend who is usually chatty, has been ignoring him all week, like picking her stuff up and leaving as soon as he gets in. I said she might be super stressed and busy but he said she was particularly blatant in utterly ignoring him and was convinced he'd done something wrong. Pretty horrible. Anyway via texts (we are also friends and surf together sometimes) I gently got to bottom of it - she is indeed utterly paralyzed with stress. We utterly empathize... BUT. BUT. No matter how bad things are, your behaviour impacts other people. You need to say 'sorry I can't talk, I have sooo much work to do" or at least 'hi mate, morning, sorry, just busy'.

I know what you mean. My mother is really great at being charming even when facing adversity. Her trick is that she genuinely means it. I'm more erratic in my behavior and don't have to be facing adversity to bring on the chaos 😁

but I don't trust online reviews so much, unless they're on HIVE.

😁
I'm often disappointed with places that are so cute. Your expectations are raised by the well done, thought out decor. The food was visually appealing, gotta give them that. Maybe I'm just becoming a grumpy old man but I feel like service isn't coming back to pre-pandemic levels. Covid gave places a valid reason to be short staffed and focused on getting by not excelling. Now Covid is out of crisis level and I feel standards may have taken a permanent hit.

If it helps you - I would have complained most likely but I´m german and germans like to complain. For 22$ I would also expect a bit more, not more food necessarily but a bit more quality and friendly service. Don´t jugde me but I don´t get the hype about these bowls. Ingredients in that bowl are worth how much? There is absolutely no cooking needed and when the peppers are from a glass...puuhh I don´t know. But as you said when we´re hungry we just shove it down :)

By the way the food you sometimes show here looks a hundred times better ;)

Such a shame to have a bad service in beautiful place like this. If you are having a bad day then don’t go to work, try to swap with a colleague if possible, if not at least fake it for a minute. Its not that hard to smile for a few seconds, to say your fruit bowl, enjoy and go back being miserable 😅 I work in hospitality myself and it’s not a customers problem that you had a bad day.

I remember I had a bad service in Uk Brighton Small batch coffee shop by Norfolk square. Guy didn’t smile, didn’t say hi nor bye. I being myself loudly but nicely said to him: “thank you very much, have a nice day”. Just kill them with kindness 😂 Never ever went to any small batch just because this one bad experience. A lesson for employers, look who you are choosing for a staff and make sure to treat them right, so they would be motivated.