Simmer Cafe - DAWES POINT

Handles a fast lunch in the Simmer Cafe for the Sydney Writers Festival. They had frittata daily and a selection of about 4 sandwiches. I chose the chicken with lemon mayo, pinnuts and currants. I did not expect a lot of it to be honest, in consideration of the crowd and the opportunity, but the sandwich was actually decent. Not life changes, but I have enjoyed the combination of flavors, the pinnuts and currants were an interesting supplement.

So I turned to the Festival of Sydney Writers, which naive expects to go directly into a meeting - so not the case. The place was absolutely with the gray army, for the day and ready for queue. I struck a premature retreat to simmer where I found a deck chair and sat and my book read for a few hours long, ah luck. Not much to say about the Café tariff - the coffee and muffin were school-tuck-shop quality (or maybe the unfair for tuck shops), so definitely no foodie target. Great location, but if you have some time to be away in the sun,

Wedding venue advice for those considering Simmer!!! I strongly recommend NOT booking this venue. If I had to sum up my experience with Simmer on the Bay it would be the three following statements: 1. Awful customer service 2. Poor value for money 3. Good quality food I hope this review is helpful for Bride’s who are on the hunt for the perfect venue and I hope it might make Simmer lift their game. Whilst they may run many functions every year they certainly do not treat every customer with respect. Unfortunately as soon as Simmer had my deposit the customer service I received was dreadful. When I first viewed the venue I dealt with a lovely lady who was the event manager. She responded to emails straight away, answered my questions in detail and made me feel like a valued customer. She explained costs and inclusions and led me to believe that Simmer would put on a fabulous function for me. I paid the deposit and locked in the date. Once some of the planning got underway I needed to confirm details with Simmer. I sent multiple emails and made multiple phone calls with no response. I was starting to get concerned. Once I finally got through to the venue I was advised that the event manager I was dealing with had left and there was a new contact appointed. I was advised that my phone messages and emails had not been received (despite their contact details not changing). So I started again working with the new event manager to plan the type of function I wanted. It was difficult. This person was very hard to get in contact with. My emails on more than four occasions were claimed to have not been received, despite me having no problems sending emails to all my other vendors. However the most frustrating part was that information the original event manager had given me was now being changed. This meant financial implications that we had not budgeted for. I was advised by the original event manager that we could choose to spend money on production lighting if we wanted but not that it was compulsory. I was then told by the new event manager that if we didn’t spend the money on production lighting we would have no lighting at all. Which seems ludacris to me when you are spending almost $24,000 to cater for 130 people. We were upset with the inconsistent information we were getting and tried to raise this with the event manager and then the company director. The Director Brigid sent me one of the nastiest, rudest emails I have ever received after we had simply tried to say we were concerned with the poor customer service we were receiving. This truly showed that Simmer only care about banking dollars and not helping the people who are providing the money. Planning a wedding is one of the most important functions that most people will plan in their lifetime. It is also one of the most expensive functions most people will plan and it is unacceptable to receive poor customer service and to be treated like you don’t matter. It was heartbreaking. Our concern was simple. If dollars were going to change, if we were not going to get timely responses to our emails and phone calls, and if they didn’t want to help us plan our wedding then please return our deposit and we will give our money to a company that does value our business. Simmer refused to return our deposit but also continued to provide insufficient support. We were between a rock and a hard place because we couldn’t afford to lose the $15,000 we had already paid. Luckily my mother in law offered to take over dealing with Simmer as she had more time to chase the responses required.   In addition to what is above, if you are thinking of booking Simmer please take the following into consideration: • The furniture list that they provide won’t necessarily be available. Multiple items we had asked to hire (and that the decorating company was relying on), were not available on the night. Brigid was using these for a private function the same weekend. • They had told us that the dated furniture that they provided would be recovered in new fabrics before our wedding, this did not happen. • You will need HEAPS of time to liaise with them as they do not return emails or calls. • The bar/wait staff were not experienced but were very friendly. And it appeared they ran out of ice halfway through the night. • Simmer did not return the bond until 6.5 weeks after the event and their policy is to provide a cheque. They request bank transfer from their customer’s yet do not extend this same service when it comes to returning funds. It just seems a little old school and just another inconvenience for the customer. • The food was excellent. • The alcohol list is pretty poor and we had to supply a lot ourselves. I would never recommend Simmer despite it being a great location. There are MANY other venues in the same spot who were offering much more for the same amount of money. Do your research so that your perfect day is exactly that, perfect.

Wedding location advice for those who consider simply !!! Grief I strongly recommend booking this place. If I would have to summarize my experiences with Simmer on the bay, the following three statements would be: Grief 1. Terrible customer service Grief 2. Bad value for money Grief 3. Good quality foods Grief I hope this review is helpful for bride, which are hunting for the perfect place, and I hope it could rise his game. While you can perform many functions each year, you certainly do not treat each customer with respect. As soon as simmer had my deposit, the customer service I received was terrible. Grief When I first watched the venue, I dealt with a beautiful lady who was the event manager. She immediately answered emails, answered my questions in detail and let me feel like an esteemed customer. She explained costs and inclusions and led me to believe that simmer would wear a fabulous function for me. I paid the deposit and locked on the date. Grief Grief Once some of the ... read more

So I turned up to Sydney Writers' Festival naively expecting to walk straight into a session SO not the case. The place was absolutely thronging with the grey army, out for the day and ready to queue. I beat a hasty retreat to Simmer, where I found a deckchair and sat and read my book for a couple of hours, ah bliss. Not a lot to say about the cafe fare the coffee and muffin were school tuck shop quality (or maybe that's unfair to tuck shops) so definitely not a foodie destination. Great location though if you have some time to while away in the sun,