Ampersand on Crown Cafe Bar Bookstore

I was quite shocked to read the poor reviews for this place. Our experience was different. We had coffee and a toasted ham and cheese croissant. Both were good quality. We've eaten here before without any issues. Seating inside and outside. Cost for 4 x coffees and the 2 x toasted croissants was $29 so that is reasonable. I would definately eat here again. We found the service to be fine.

So many snappy cafes on Crown Street, but this ain't one off them - which is a shame as as original owners of this place when it opened several years ago had interesting menu and table service down-pat. Seemed every table today received shoddy slow service, with owner making excuses that staff were in training. Table next to me waited 30+ minutes for simple order of 3 glasses of Coca-Cola. NOTE TO OWNER: New staff on trail shifts should be working along side existing staff - not instead of them! Avoid this place at all costs!!!

A wait of 40mins for basic breakfast, seems they forgot the order. No apology. Overpriced basic grub, I had a avocado & poached egg. Supposed to have been on sourdough but was served seeded toast. Avoid unless desperate. Disappointed.

Here in Surry Hills on Boxing Day just looking for a cafe for lunch and decided to stop in at the Ampersand because it was busy everywhere. It was the longest 45 min of our lives all we ordered was a chicken salad and a chicken with roast veg. The service was shocking with the lady at the counter shouting at the customers and being very rude. However I blame the management there was only one staff in the kitchen and one on coffee another on table service and register. PATHETIC. I have never had to write a review this bad before but I feel as though it deserved it. I will never be back and would not recommend anyone to ever eat here. Food was average when it finally arrived. I'm standing here at the register waiting to pay, been here for 5 min, the waiter is cleaning cutlery already made eye contact with me several times. This is the worst place I have ever eaten.

After a slow to serve totally mediocre breakfast on leaving I forgot my phone. So dismal was I from having a sub standard omelette. So 30 minutes later my wife calls to let them know my phone was left on the table. They say, no no phone found and hang up on her. I then call and ask, the person on the phone says they have asked all the staff and no one has seen a phone. So we head on back. I walk up to the counter to ask about the missing phone as my wife calls the number. Guess what. Lucky I have a loud ringer tone. Because sure enough, it was stashed out the back. Give this one the miss.