My wife and I visited the DFO Spencer Street store on Sunday June 10th for breakfast after checking out of our nearby hotel before flying home to Tasmania. We selected the Coffee Club based, in no small part, on the amazing service we have always received from the Northgate store. Perhaps the level of exceptional service regularly provided in this store had set my expectations too high for the Spencer Street crew, or perhaps the service, was actually as poor as I feel it was. I'll let you decide.

After selecting our table, and deciding what we would have, I placed my order at the counter - I was served promptly, but without personality, all in all a rather generic first experience, but in a location so close to the busy Southern Cross Station, I guess that is to be expected. Our coffee was delivered to our table in a timely fashion, and did meet my expectation of maintaining the standard I am used to from the Northgate store.

My wife also received her French Pancake Stack in good time (delicious by the way), and that's where things went downhill. I waited a good 7-8 minutes (possibly longer) for my Bacon & Eggs to come out of the kitchen, watching no less than 6 plates of food be delivered to other tables in the interim. When I go somewhere for breakfast with my wife, I really do prefer to have breakfast WITH my wife, not after her. I was probably about 12 seconds away from cancelling my order and asking for a refund when the food arrived.

Once my meal finally did arrive, it seemed as though an error may have occurred in the kitchen with the eggs originally, and the bacon sat on a hotplate or under a heatlamp whilst it was being rectified. The end result was the bacon was lukewarm and a bit rubbery, whilst the eggs were scrambled perfectly.

Now whilst I appreciate I wasn't charged any extra for it, the bonus hair (or possibly eyelash) really wasn't necessary, nor was it a particularly pleasant addition to discover whilst dipping my toast in my Hollandaise sauce. Something small, that would possibly have been forgivable on its own had it not been for the preceeding disappointment, as well as the way it was actually handled. Upon taking my plate, to the counter (away from other customers) to highlight the offending foreign body, I was met with an expressionless, insincere and unentusiasticly muttered single word "sorry". The response was extremely underwhelming.

Based on this total experience, I would certainly not return to the DFO Spencer Street Store and if my experience is typical of the service provided at that location, I dread to think the damage they are doing to the Coffee Club brand. I understand that the service I receive at the Northgate store is exceptional but the Spencer Street experience was so far down the opposite end of the spectrum that it was hardly recognisable af the same organisation.