13.7.2009

When we arrived here in Seaforth I picked up a few brochures from the shop

just to see what was happening around the place.

One of the best presented and most appealing was for The Old Station House –

advertising Devonshire teas and (more interestingly) wood fired pizzas at

Sunday lunchtime.

So we decided to take a drive out that way on Sunday to check out the rest

of this area and to enjoy some good food in what looked to be a pretty

special place.

The rest of this area is beautiful – Ball Bay, Smalley Beach (great secluded

campsite) and Cape Hillsborough were all worth the short drive and we

arrived back at the lunch venue ready to complete an enjoyable morning out

with some great food.

Sadly it was one of those places that exuded an unhappy vibe right from the

get go. The first waitress we bumped into (literally almost) told us that

‘you have to go around the back to order’ or if I interpreted her tone

correctly ‘you are in my way – get over there!’

So we wandered around the back and stood at the counter. I had checked out

the pizzas on the way in and was rather disappointed. The opportunity to

have some great gourmet pizzas was sitting in front of these folks but it

seems that their imagination stretched about as far as ham, tomato and

cheese. The menu certainly didn’t offer any hope that other toppings were

available. I hate bad pizza with a passion so I chose not to be disappointed

in that way.

So we decided on our ‘meals’ (3 cheesecakes and a Devonshire tea…) and

waited in line. As we waited we were privy to the conversations in the

kitchen and behind the counter and we came to realize that this was not a

happy place. It’d be safe to say that no one smiled the whole time we were

there and that customers were made to feel like an imposition. The staff

were clearly not happy with one another and you felt like you had walked in

on a family argument. It made you want to quietly creep away and come back

when everyone was in a better mood…

We waited 30 minutes for a relatively simple order and after 3 false starts

where various waitresses attempted to deliver other items to our table

(someone needs to work out their ordering system) the food finally arrived.

To be fair this waitress did apologise for it taking a little long.

Thankfully the food was great. The cheesecake was top notch and the scones –

tiny as they were also were enjoyable with some great home made raspberry

jam. Sadly the cream was the frothy kind out of a can, which is never as

nice as real cream. We didn’t risk coffee, but the tea was very good.

However the vibe was such that we finished our food and promptly got out of

there to escape the tension. The Old Station House is proof that good

advertising gets people in the door – but a reminder that bad service means

people will never return no matter how good your brochures are or how good

your food is.