Simmer Cafe

7 Reviews on “Simmer Cafe”

• Orange_tree

  Grabbed a quick lunch at Simmer Cafe for the Sydney Writers Festival. They had a daily frittata and a choice of about 4 sandwiches. I chose the chicken with lemon mayo, pinenuts and currants. I didn’t expect much from it to be honest, considering the crowds and occasion but the sandwich was actually decent. Not life changing but I enjoyed the combination of flavours, the pinenuts and currants were an interesting addition.

  August 22, 2016, 1:02 pm

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• Kai Luv

  So I turned up to Sydney Writers’ Festival naively expecting to walk straight into a session – SO not the case. The place was absolutely thronging with the grey army, out for the day and ready to queue. I beat a hasty retreat to Simmer, where I found a deckchair and sat and read my book for a couple of hours, ah bliss. Not a lot to say about the cafe fare – the coffee and muffin were school tuck shop quality (or maybe that’s unfair to tuck shops) so definitely not a foodie destination. Great location though if you have some time to while away in the sun,

  August 20, 2016, 4:59 pm

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• Whitney Jay

  Wedding venue advice for those considering Simmer!!!I strongly recommend NOT booking this venue. If I had to sum up my experience with Simmer on the Bay it would be the three following statements:1.Awful customer service2.Poor value for money3.Good quality foodI hope this review is helpful for Brides who are on the hunt for the perfect venue and I hope it might make Simmer lift their game. Whilst they may run many functions every year they certainly do not treat every customer with respect. Unfortunately as soon as Simmer had my deposit the customer service I received was dreadful.When I first viewed the venue I dealt with a lovely lady who was the event manager. She responded to emails straight away, answered my questions in detail and made me feel like a valued customer. She explained costs and inclusions and led me to believe that Simmer would put on a fabulous function for me. I paid the deposit and locked in the date. Once some of the planning got underway I needed to confirm details with Simmer. I sent multiple emails and made multiple phone calls with no response. I was starting to get concerned. Once I finally got through to the venue I was advised that the event manager I was dealing with had left and there was a new contact appointed. I was advised that my phone messages and emails had not been received (despite their contact details not changing). So I started again working with the new event manager to plan the type of function I wanted. It was difficult. This person was very hard to get in contact with. My emails on more than four occasions were claimed to have not been received, despite me having no problems sending emails to all my other vendors. However the most frustrating part was that information the original event manager had given me was now being changed. This meant financial implications that we had not budgeted for. I was advised by the original event manager that we could choose to spend money on production lighting if we wanted but not that it was compulsory. I was then told by the new event manager that if we didnt spend the money on production lighting we would have no lighting at all. Which seems ludacris to me when you are spending almost $24,000 to cater for 130 people. We were upset with the inconsistent information we were getting and tried to raise this with the event manager and then the company director. The Director Brigid sent me one of the nastiest, rudest emails I have ever received after we had simply tried to say we were concerned with the poor customer service we were receiving. This truly showed that Simmer only care about banking dollars and not helping the people who are providing the money. Planning a wedding is one of the most important functions that most people will plan in their lifetime. It is also one of the most expensive functions most people will plan and it is unacceptable to receive poor customer service and to be treated like you dont matter. It was heartbreaking. Our concern was simple. If dollars were going to change, if we were not going to get timely responses to our emails and phone calls, and if they didnt want to help us plan our wedding then please return our deposit and we will give our money to a company that does value our business. Simmer refused to return our deposit but also continued to provide insufficient support. We were between a rock and a hard place because we couldnt afford to lose the $15,000 we had already paid. Luckily my mother in law offered to take over dealing with Simmer as she had more time to chase the responses required.In addition to what is above, if you are thinking of booking Simmer please take the following into consideration:The furniture list that they provide wont necessarily be available. Multiple items we had asked to hire (and that the decorating company was relying on), were not available on the night. Brigid was using these for a private function the same weekend.They had told us that the dated furniture that they provided would be recovered in new fabrics before our wedding, this did not happen.You will need HEAPS of time to liaise with them as they do not return emails or calls.The bar/wait staff were not experienced but were very friendly. And it appeared they ran out of ice halfway through the night.Simmer did not return the bond until 6.5 weeks after the event and their policy is to provide a cheque. They request bank transfer from their customers yet do not extend this same service when it comes to returning funds. It just seems a little old school and just another inconvenience for the customer.The food was excellent.The alcohol list is pretty poor and we had to supply a lot ourselves.I would never recommend Simmer despite it being a great location. There are MANY other venues in the same spot who were offering much more for the same amount of money. Do your research so that your perfect day is exactly that, perfect.

  May 13, 2016, 12:30 pm

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• V Smith

  Wouldn’t bother again. I mistakenly bought a voucher for this Restaurant & when I tried to book I was told they were full on the day requested & that I should email for a booking as they don’t take bookings by phone. Three days after I sent the booking email (I had requested a confirmation email) I received an email stating the deal had ended on the day I had tried to book which differed to the voucher details which stated I had 3 more days. When I asked if they were going to honour the voucher I was told they couldn’t do anything for me….what a shame….wonder how many other people got caught

  July 28, 2014, 5:51 am

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• In Sydney

  Shame, so much potential. We booked Dinner at Simmer on the Bay after reading positive reviews. The place appeared to be a upmarket restaurant from their website. When we arrived, we saw that the place was closed and we thought the booking was for the wrong day. Somebody walking past told us that they were now a ‘pop up’ cafe around the corner.We went there and then it started ..We waited for over 15 minutes to be seated. Standing around like losers while the waiter attended to other customers, despite many empty tables.The place is actually NOT what is on the website. It’s a small kitchen with some tables outside. We went on a cold night in May (not realising the place was outside). There was one heater but it was nowhere near our table, so it’s was so cold.The food was actually ok, but, the whole location, atmosphere and of course service would mean I would NEVER go back ..What really annoys me is when companies promote something on their website, but then deliver something very different.Bad business .. Not recommended .. Sorry !

  August 14, 2013, 11:33 pm

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• Mrsd

  Great Voucher. Dined Alfresco at Simmer using a voucher and had a wonderful meal, even without a voucher they had a deal, main plus a glass of wine for $25! Pork Belly was fabulous and I look forward to dining there again in the warmer months.

  July 10, 2013, 12:07 am

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• Cmuk

  Such a shame……… As a local resident and someone that actually had my wedding at Simmer on the Bay venue we wandered over yesterday morning for a Sunday breakfast in the sun. With so much potential of perfect Sydney weather and a beautiful outlook we were incredibly disappointed. The cafe seems to either have been taken over by someone else or the employees selected not at all what they should be. We took a nice seat and sat for 15 minutes with the two non local staff looking over at us several times but neglecting to acknowledge us or inform us that you order from the small window. Once we figured this out for ourselves we went to order. 3 options later that were all ‘sorry we don’t have any of that today’ we ended up with a settement of whatever was there. Fine no problem. My husband ordered poached eggs and a side of avacado and tomato (each side an additional $3), again not an issue until 10 minutes later we get told there is no avocado would he mind bacon. There’s a supermarket and Fratelli Fresh right across the road with plenty of avocados and we wouldn’t have even noticed them going. The eggs arrive, hard yolks! and the two very thin slices of tomato at $3 an addition were up against what looked like microwaved bacon. I order the spanish omelette that is pre made. It comes with one piece of toast and is still cold. I have to ask for it to be heated up. We finish quickly as we just want to get out of there after our moods are altered by the whole disappointment. As we go to leave we watch the waitress spill an entire mug of coffee over the man next to us. Sorry Simmer but even though we live less than 100m away. We won’t be back.

  January 17, 2012, 2:10 am

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