The Red Door

The Red Door Cafe, located in the middle of Leura Mall is alluring with the iconic Red Door.

On a lazy Saturday in the search of a late lunch, the crowds of The Red Door Cafe were an immediate attraction. The cafe itself had reasonable amount of space for prams or kids so it was definitely crowd friendly and the position perfect for a sit down lunch. The space had some outdoor seating which was nice on the sunny afternoon but unfortunately that's the best The Red Door could offer us.

We obeyed the large sign stating 'Please take a seat it's table service' and enjoyed the sun outside.

15 minutes pass and the table hasn't been cleared from the previous patrons and eye contact with multiple staff completely avoided.

15 minutes became 25 minutes and still nothing.

My patience began to wear thin when I asked at the main counter for some menus and if our table could be cleared. The response was an eye roll and I

was fuming. I took the menus in a huff and thought ‘their food better be good’!

Our tables were finally cleared and our orders were ready to be taken just after I had sat back down. We asked for a couple more minutes to at least read the menu and the waitress stomped off.

Another 20 minutes passed before we finally made our orders and I was left in a sour mood from such terrible service. No eye contact, no smiles, no talk of specials (which were written somewhere apparently) - there's nothing worse than bad service to ruin your dining experience.

Cold Drip Coffee with Spiced Sugar syrup

AfterWe requested table water with our menu and were advised that the water was self service inside the café. The cups were disgustingly dirty that smelt

like old towels, stained by being coffee cups and from the heat of the dishwasher. 

Apparently these were ‘clean’.

Maybe we have unrealistically high expectations of coffee but what we were served was a disgrace of a Cold Drip coffee. The spiced syrup just tasted like sugar, no kick or spice was completely lacking.

The coffee tasted like the beans were burnt or the the blend was overly bitter. What we were served was an abomination of coffee beans.

If that's what it was like as a cold drip, I would be appalled to taste what it would've been like treated as a normal coffee.

It was bitter, tasted like dirt and the partner compared it to Jack Daniels, and not in a good way.

Bad service… bad coffee… this cafe lost me at the lack of ‘hello’. And we haven’t even tried the food yet!

Smoked Salmon Baguette

I got a Smoked salmon baguette which was presented nicely with lots of aioli and mediocre pieces of salmon.

The overall sandwich wasn't balanced very well. There was an evident overdose of salad that it was practically falling out with every bite. The bread wasn't quite the texture you want a baguette to be - it was chewy and hard. The best I could say was that the aioli was nice, garlicky and creamy and the salmon was nice when you got some of it, but they were both probably bought from the supermarket anyway.

Chicken Turkish

Follow my blog with Bloglovin Evident from the image above, there was practically nothing in this Turkish but bread.

The bread was hardly even toasted and its fillings were all still at room temperature. It

seemed like a lazy teenagers sandwich, but even a teenager would have had more

filling.

The combinations didn't work and again the bread was chewy and tough to swallow.

There was hardly any chicken and more chilli jam than anything else. The flavours didn't blend well, the salad was bland and seemed like an afterthought to say the least. The cracked pepper couldn't give this dish flavour to save its life. 

The prices for both sandwiches sat at $15 each and took another 15 minutes to arrive on top of the already hefty waiting time.
Overall my experience was terrible to say the least, bad food, bad service, bad coffee, bad prices. 

Don't waste your time here, such a disappointment after all the positive reviews from previous patrons. There is hardly anything positive I could say about this visit and I won't revisit this place again. 

Every expectation you could have from a cafe went out the Red Door. 

xx