The Chalkboard Cafe

Great ambience but poor service. That pretty much sums up my experience at chalkboard today.
We were pretty amazed by the interior design of the place. The chairs and light fittings were all loaned from the furniture shop inside the PYD building and they all had a price tag on them too!
It was Saturday arvo and service was incredibly slow, we waited 10 mins for a waitress to come take our order and to clear our table (we kept waving but they kept saying someone will get back to us). It took another 20 mins and a walk to the kitchen to get some water for the table. (I walked to the kitchen to help myself but was told that someone will bring it to me shortly). I wish I know who ‘someone’ was.
We finally managed to corner a waitress and ordered a loose leaf chai, Waterloo brekkie and egg benedict. The chai came first. It was unusual because it was not brewed with milk, and instead made like an English breakfast tea in a pot. I never had chai like this. There was also no sugar on the table and we had to get the milk ourselves from the counter (we learnt our lesson and took initiative).
We never got to try the food because the kitchen was busy, and a waiter advised that it will be at least another quarter hour before they get to our order. This was after 30 mins waiting hungrily for our meals. Needless to say, we cancelled our food orders shortly thereafter.
That’s why I can’t comment on the food. Maybe it’s worth the wait. Fellow Unilocaler Maria’s pictures sure looked yummy! We came into the café because of Maria’s review but we had a completely opposite experience to her.
Maybe we were incredibly unlucky. Maybe it was a new crew running the café. You might have better luck on a less busy day. I give one star to the awesome interior design and another star for the manager who decided to not charge for the ‘chai’.
We were quite disappointed because we drove all the way to Waterloo to try this place out. Better luck next time, I guess.

Let me first get something off my chest — whats the go with the cello music on their website? A little left of field donchathink? Right-​o onto the café.
So this café sits in the PYD building on Young St in Waterloo and shares its space with a bunch of other stores — and what a space it is !!! When you walk up to where I suspect is the start of the café (though I’m not 100% sure), you have the choice of sitting wherever your eye settles on — lounges, bar tables and stools, glass tables and metal chairs, window seating — the choice is all yours !! Service here is quick draw mcgraw quick so before you know it, your brekkie/​brunch/​lunch is over, but in saying that, they don’t mind if you take your sweet time.
What impressed me most about this place is that even though the dish I ordered was not on their lunch menu, they still managed to rustle it up for me — SCORE !!! Sure, the item is on the online lunch menu and I had the chef come out to explain why it wasn’t on their printed menu — if they’re running super low on something, they will remove it in the event a bazillion people want to eat the exact thing — lucky for me, no one else did (if anyone is interested, it was the salmon fillet with fennel and citrus dressing. and YES it was gewwwwwwwd).
The 1 star deduction was for the coffee — by no means was it offensive, but it certainly wasn’t a highlight.
Ohh I almost forgot to mention — EVERYTHING is on sale at this café — if anyone has a spare 5gs to drop on the table, its all yours!