Chilli Jam Cafe - Caloundra

This breakfast place is fantastic with a wide variety of delicious choices. They offer more than just the traditional bacon and eggs options. The food and smoothies were excellent.

To Friends Cafe is a recently opened cafe that has replaced Chilli Jam. The coffee and food at To Friends are excellent, making it the best coffee spot on the coast!

I do not recommend this restaurant at all. It used to be a busy cafe with great food and staff, but now it is absolutely terrible. The new owners seem to have been influenced by cooking shows on TV and think they can cook, but it takes more than just thinking you can cook to run a successful cafe. The food was the worst I have ever eaten, with egg shells, rotten spinach, hard bacon, and sauce that tasted like melted butter. Even my Eggs Benedict was a disaster. The service was just as bad, with coffee never being made, ingredients missing for smoothies, and the wait staff having to go buy milk for replacement drinks. It's a shame that the young wait staff will leave thinking they know how to work in a restaurant, only to struggle in their next job. I made the mistake of going to this empty cafe on a Sunday morning, but I never expected such a poorly-served meal of basic bacon and eggs.

We decided to revisit this restaurant after having a great experience a few years ago, but unfortunately, we were left feeling very disappointed. We needed one gluten-free meal and inquired about the gluten content of the chicken salad. We were initially told that it was not gluten-free, but then were later suggested the same chicken salad as a gluten-free option, which was confusing. When our meals finally arrived, they were bland and unsatisfying. The chicken salad was particularly small and left my aunt still feeling hungry, despite not being a big eater. My order of the big breakfast consisted of overcooked eggs, minimal accompaniments such as one mushroom, a quarter of a tomato, and small pieces of bacon, along with very little beans, all for $15. My mother’s order of zucchini and haloumi fritters with smoked salmon did not meet expectations either. The fritters contained no haloumi and there was no smoked salmon on the side, even though the menu indicated that it was included. Although we were informed that the salmon was only served with the fritters during breakfast hours, we were still charged full price, with only a minimal deduction offered upon complaint. Overall, we left the restaurant feeling hungry and extremely disappointed with our experience.

The food was excellent, but the decor could use a refresh. Updating it would likely attract more customers.