Olive Branch Cafe - BALHANNAH

This restaurant makes a commendable effort with straightforward dishes at reasonable prices. The staff is very friendly. However, I usually avoid dining in because the presence of mothers with children tends to deter me—I'm not sure if that's changed. On one occasion, I arrived at 8:55 hoping to grab a quick takeaway coffee, but I noticed the staff inside setting up and completely ignoring me. By 9:05, they still hadn’t opened. I understand it’s a quiet village and maybe I should be more patient, but with four other cafes nearby before reaching the freeway, I decided to leave that day and might not return for a while. The coffee itself is quite mild in flavor.

The staff here are friendly, and the café offers decent food and coffee. I’ve been coming here occasionally for a few years now, and the service has always been pleasant and helpful. The menu features a nice variety of dishes, and it’s one of the few spots in the Adelaide Hills that serves breakfast all day. However, it can be quite challenging at times, as many parents seem comfortable allowing their kids to run around in the spacious, echoey environment, even with a designated play area. This can be a bit overwhelming if you're not in the mood, and it's something that affects both the staff and other customers.

Really yummy salads and great smoothie! Would go again.

I'm sorry to be mostly negative in my review, but this will hopefully encourage the owners to respond in improvements. Positives-spacious, well lit, generous seating, enclosed kids play corner, beautiful art work for sale on the walls was the only thing that brightened up this cafe.Negs-outdated decor, dirty walls, chairs comfortable but looking worn, basic menu, signage with specials above serving counter is handwritten on paper, prices didn't reflect quality of food (higher end price, average presentation and taste) service was slow (sunday lunch at full capacity), felt more like a cafeteria than a restaurant/cafeLacks life and atmosphere. So much potential in this quaint town, tourist area and great location.PS upon reading other reviews, I see it's popular and loved as is, owned by locals, with a personal story of loss attached. So please don't take my review personally. I may have come on a busy, understaffed day, but these are just my observations as a in comparison to visiting customer to this area.

Friendly service and great food, was happy to serve us lunch even though kitchen had just closed