My partner and I got seated by a rude seating staff and found out they only took cash, shows little communication with seating staff and counter staff. After a while getting cash out, we got seated again and we had to wait almost an hour for our food. One waitress did apologized but we still weren't pleased and satisfied with the rest of the experiences and that we had to pay $70 for a small portion of pancakes and waffles which were tough and chewy. That also includes the smoothies but they were served in a small glass. Lovely location but I don't recommend coming here.

May 2nd, 2022 We chose this cafe because it offered a 25% discount through my Entertainment Card. Yes I read lots of reviews and was curious to see what the fuss was about. For a Monday morning the cafe was over half full. The location is just perfect with views of the Nelson Bay marina. I found the staff friendly, informed and efficient. We ordered coffees first then omelettes. Service was quick and our omelettes were huge and delicious. No complaints at all.

We had breakfast here every day of our holiday. Staff were friendly and the food was great so we kept coming back every day. It does get pretty busy but we dont mind the wait, enjoying the view and quality time with my family. We will definitely come back here for daily breakfasts on our next holiday 😀

This cafe is located in the bustling D'albora Marinas strip right on the water. We found a seat with spectacular views over Nelson Bay. The menu is large enough and offers a selection of breakfast and cafe favourites for reasonable prices. The food we ordered was delicious and was presented very professionally. Plus the coffee was great! My only very minor complaint that stopped me giving 5 stars for service was the staff members that served us did not smile. Overall we can't wait to get back here for breakfast to try more 😋

Very pricey for bad food. The pancakes were doughy and the big breakfast was pretty bad too. The only good bit was the location. I’d imagine the rent is very expensive, invest in a good chef and you’d be a cut above the rest.

Staff were friendly and food was great. Location was also nice. Lots of variety in the breakfast menu.

We took the kids for breakfast.m, it's fabulous 👌 We always come here and we're never disappointed. Always a 10/10. Food ,coffee and juices are also great Thank you

This Cafe had reasonable service. They would benefit from a simpler menu which they do well. The coffee was ok. The food left a bit to be desired.

No complaints. Staff was accomodating. Breakfast was flavoursome. The venue was clean.

Our large group of 7 adults and 5 children were told by another Cafe we couldn't be seated together .....at Cafe on the Bay we were made welcome and staff quickly arranged our seating. Food was delicious and arrived quickly. We were served by some lovely ladies and really enjoyed it there. Thanks !

Took my partner there for breakfast. We both had pancake stacks, an iced chai and an iced chic mint. Absolutely delicious, amazing staff both friendly and approachable. A very welcoming place and will definitely be going again, looking forward to it!

Had lunch here last week. The place is in a very enviable position and surrounded by great restaurants but this one doesn’t really seem to be managed as well as the others. The food was at best a 3.5/5. The cocktail I had was like a milkshake with alcohol but even this seemed to be a bit watery somehow. The restaurant was clean enough but the tables and chairs seem like they’ve had better days. The waitress we had was the highlight for us. She was so friendly and tentative and took great care of our pup. Kinda feels like it is being run by people who are just keeping things going. Would be great for the marina if they give this place a refurb with a new menu.

Visited December 2019 ordered chicken schnitzel which was burnt on one side, and obviously arrived to the restaurant in a cardboard box , the poor salad was a bit wilted , the chips however were edible. A terrible meal served by staff with little motivation or desire to please and certainly not interested in smiling. A really great location just screaming for new management to take it over because so many locals and tourists will never step foot in this sad and dreary place again until someone else takes charge.

Excellent place and location. Great views. Good service and staff are friendly. Good breakfast, nice coffee and nice smoothie.

I had breakfast here two days in a row. I loved it. Didn't take pics of the food unfortunately. Day one we ordered a big breakfast for hubby and I to share and the scones. Portion was large and we couldn't get through it all. Hash browns were crunchy and not greasy. Toast and eggs cooked perfectly. The scones oh wow huge and fluffy. Beautiful cream and jam. Day two hubby had almond croissant and i just had Toast as I love the thick slice Toast with marmalade.

Surprised to see such bad reviews on this cafe. The staff were friendly, my family and I were served lunch straight away and the eggs benedict and green smoothie I ordered were delicious! The decor could use a little updating and to keep up-to-date with current standards, they need to switch their plastic straws to paper or none at all. A good place for lunch, though could be great with some improvements.

My wife's salad arrived when the rest of us had finished our meals. When enquiring as to why it was taking so long the waitress was rude and unhelpful.

Food and coffee were great - we had breakfest there twice. Service was generally good tho a part of our second order was missed and when we checked it was clear that that the kitchen hadn't made it. This is fine - mistakes happen - but the waitress never came back to let us know what was happening (we could see the kitchen so we did know 😉 but thats not the point). A little more professionalism from the service staff would be great.

Terrible food... The kids schnitzel was overcooked bordering on burnt, their chips were dried and shrivelled and the salad on the plate was just dumped and drizzled with something. My pasta was swimming in its white sauce and was bland, my wife's chicken was rubbery and the sauce it was in was not seasoned at all she couldn't finish it and to top it off the food was so overpriced compared to the rest of the establishments around it. We don't recommend it and will not be going back and if I could get my money back I would.

Food and drinks are average. However a simple toastie was brought out after people who arrived after us received their more complex orders Touristy

Perfect spot for a cafe but the food wasn’t nice and very overpriced $20 for beans a piece of bread and one poached egg??? Ridiculous..also 2 poached eggs and 2 pieces of bread $14 I think?? Very high over priced for absolutely nothing they only positive was the beautiful girls nothing else never come back

Asked for takeaway and received a number and so I changed it and then they gave my coffee to someone else. I also questioned why I was originally charged $40 for a croissant and coffee and she advised she made a mistake. Overpriced and lacks enthusiasm in this place.

the lunch menu was great and I recommend the chicken schnitzel and the beef burger. All halal as well. Steak was great too.

Poor service and exorbitant prices

Scones were delicious and massive. They have a generous amount of cream and jam. Serving size was pretty big. The worst thing about this cafe is that my partner had a leech in his leaves that came with the big brekky. When he showed the staff, they simply awkwardly said sorry, took the plate and 5 minutes later came out with a new one and only said sorry once again. I worked in customer service for 3 years and to simply say sorry then walk away is not good enough if your customer had a LEECH in their food. They didn’t even ask if we wanted anything different or just wanted a refund. Very horrible service after we lost our appetite from seeing a leech in the food. They must not wash the leaves that they put in the plate.

beautiful view and beautiful coffee&food, Sunday has a 10% surcharge though but was alright. great spot just by the bay, pretty busy but didn't have to wait for a long time for food. The girls who served us were super nice but can see they are a bit flat out 😂😂 Thanks a lot for a great arvo!

Awesome food and service, great cafe!

Can't go less than 5Star, yes they do get busy in the season. Their food is excellent with so many choices. Great views and atmosphere

The view of the marina was nice. The food was yummy and the serving size I thought was quite generous. My only complaint was the cappuccino was a bit too frothy with too much chocolate on top (just my personal preference).

I saw many bad reviews about this restaurant. But when I was there, the scones were massive and fluffy. I really enjoyed it. And the hot chocolate was yummy too. It was cold rainy winter day, the heater inside was toasty.

Tasted nice. We had the smashed avocado. Not sure the beetroot hummus is plated well though as it’s very dry. A bit pricey though. So come here if you want to leave hungry.

We felt robbed!! We went to this Cafe for brekky. We had asked the lady at the counter if we could swap the bacon on a dish to a sausage instead. She informed us that we can and proceeded to charge us for the extra sausage. When asked about the extra cost, she said that it was an extra charge because the sausage cost more than the bacon. We showed her on her menu that the cost to us was both the same being $4.90 each. She had nothing to say and we felt like they were taking advantage of the situation. We felt like we had been taken for a ride

Fast service, great food, lovely coffee. Came here after a dolphin cruise. The salt pepper squid was great.

Had a big breakfast asked for hard eggs didnt get the sausage tasted sour ,the coffee was luke warm ,the cost was over the top family couldn't afford to eat there,it was plesant looking at the boats outside not a great experience wish i had something better to say

8 of us rocked up for lunch. All seated and orders made at the register (that was hard when 14 customers lined up to order), meals delivered quickly, though haphazardly. Food was hot and delicious. We were all finished by 1pm. Good food, quick service, prices reasonable. Thank you, we will return.

Beautiful staffs / food / drinks and view

Fast service, food was nice. Will be back for sure

Nice coffee.. nice burger... Will go there again..

I believe this cafe has low star for reasons, to be fair, it has a great location. but the food is just OKAY, my coffee is quite bad and they added sugar without ask, even 7/11 coffee is better...

horrible steak. overcooked and rubber

Would give 0 stars if possible. Worst eating out experience. Ordered first and others, eating the same dish had finished their food before I had received mine. Had to ask multiple times and still waited over an hour. Food was 1/5, service was 0/5.

loved it great service and awesome food

I would be ashamed to present a few scattered pieces of seasonal fruit with an almost non existent pot of yoghurt, under the menu line of 'Fruit plate', and overpriced at AUD 20.

Great location, but terrible coffee. Latte was way too hot and milk could have been smoother. Not recommend!

Big breakfast was amaZing. Great coffee and service. Don’t listen to the reviews this place is awesome. Great value and portions!!

Friendly staff but raisin toast arrived just as I sat down, then waited way too long possibly 15-20 minutes for our pot of tea and hot chocolate- tea arrived brewed already to the point of nearly being undrinkable disappointing morning tea really

Location 4 stars. Food, 2 stars and overpriced. Summary, location is the one you paid for. If you want good food and great dining experience, look for other restaurants. If you're not too fussy about the quality of food and just wanted a great view while dining, then eat here. Otherwise, avoid....

Noted Saturday breakfasts can be busy time and needs to be staffed accordingly. Restaurants timely service and good product to clients in reasonable time, ensures restaurant survivability. Simplistically this process chain is CORE to restaurants reputation. Our experience this morning. My wife and I had a table and menus in good time and selected breakfast. The patrons then had to go to counter order and pay. Getting orders logged quickly and receiving revenue one aspect of how businesses survive. One of the most important roles and window to the customer is this role of taking orders. That person also determines the tempo of rest of delivered service of the remaining restaurant process. There was a junior person in the role. It was actually painful to watch. The current person was doing anything but moving customers one. At one point they had head buried in till, went out back for a minute or so, then came back to order station, then some more activity, then decided to take an order. The queue of money paying patrons was 20 plus deep out the door and getting larger. Most people know it’s a seaside location and are happy to have a relaxed timeframe. BUT we were NOT going to wait 20 mins just to place an order. Why there was NOT two order stations there I will never know. So, we cannot comment on the food. This restaurant needs to fix the order taking process buy having experienced staff on that post and double the capacity especially during busy times.

We dined as a party of 6 for breakfast, service was quick, food was reasonably priced and tasty. We would definitely dine there again.

Disappointed. Poor service, unfriendly staff, average food.

If I could give 0 stars I would. Salad was a small pile of cabbage with no dressing, chips were hard and almost burnt, fish was processed and looked like it was just bought frozen from woolies, chicken was almost inedible. Staff were rude and no help. I asked for tomato sauce and got gravy, when asked if I could get tomato again, she just walked away and rolled her eyes. While waiting almost an hour for our food I realised that a lot of the young girls just stood around and leaned on the counter. We paid over $40 for this food and honestly would’ve rathered maccas. Very disappointed

Popped in for a takeaway coffee. Burnt beans Rude barista Ordered before a group and they received food and coffees first. Not at all impressed with this place.

Paid over $60 for a sandwich, burger and coffee. Was charged for another meal price for adding chicken to the BLT! I have only ever been charged $4-6 in the past. Had we realised at the time we would have cancelled. The food was cold, burger flavourless and my BLT "sandwich" was a big disappointment. The only thing we enjoyed was the sprite. Absolute rip off!

Nice friendly service, great freshly squeezed juices.

Had the garlic bread and two surf and turfs for dinner tonight. Service was good and meals came out quickly, although it was pretty quiet.

Ordered 5 coffees today and waitress couldn’t get the order right. Won’t be back. Shame Kate the previous owner isn’t still there.

Food here was amazing but took awhile to come out. Only fault would be the waitress who took our order was rude and seemed annoyed by any alterations we made to our order. Other than that would highly recommend!

Fabulous food, barista could be a little friendlier

Coffee was not hot, breakfast was cold, husbands and eggs where not soft poached, breakfast took an hour wait for daughter, then ours took another half hour after hers.

Ordered some coffee/breakfast and milkshakes here and all was prepared as you’d expect from a small cafe! The eggs Benedict tasted awesome and the smashed avo was a bit too! The coffee here is good and smooth! And the milkshakes taste very rich The big downfall here is the service, nobody I’ve seen here seems like they want to be working in this cafe at all and the level of service reflects this

(Translated by Google) The food comes out late, the fries aren't good and the nuggets taste like they bought at the grocery store. I don't want to give you one star. (Original) 음식도 늦게 나오고 감자튀김도 맛없고 너겟은 마트에서 산 것 같은 맛이 나요. 별 한개도 주기 싫네요.

Have come to this cafe a couple of times this week. Every single time we sat and ate, we enjoyed there food. It was absolutely fantastic. We tried there big breakfast, pancake stacks, French toast, and bacon and eggs. Coffee was awesome. Their service was fantastic. If your in Nelson Bay drop by. You won’t be disappointed.

Went here for lunch - something for everyone on the menu. Had a prawn salad, prawn fettucine, salt and pepper squid and flathead fillets. The prawns were nice and fresh - salads were very nice. Flathead fillets were cooked well, I'd rate the fish 8/10 and the batter 6/10 - was okay but nothing amazing. Fettucine was very filling, really enjoyed it. Salt and pepper squid was nothing special at all, and quite bland and overcooked. Still okay to eat but I wouldn't really order it again. Price is very appropriate for the meals also. Overall would eat here again 👍😊

Two stars for location only. Coffees had a terrible taste and was burnt.