This is my favourite cafe in Wollongong. Lin and Carmen make the best coffee around and it's always extra hot and the decaf is freshly ground! The food is cooked well and good value too.

I went here to order a tea the other day and paid $4. When I saw the size of the teapot I asked them to put 2 teabags not 1 in the pot. I was told that would be $8. I will never go here again. What a rip-off!! (Needless to say I told the guy I wasn't paying $8 for a cup of tea.)

Approximate cost: $28

The service was so rude here that the quality and value of the food was irrelevant. When we arrived we were blasted by bland manufactured pop music that was too loud and grating. We were about to leave but then a waiter came to give us menus. My partner asked him if they could turn down the music. The waiter made a bit of a fuss as though he couldn't understand the question. I was forced to repeat the request. However, he did then turn the music down although on the way to the stereo he stopped and looked at us incredulously.

Next when he came to take our order, I ordered a baguette and requested that it be buttered. This seemed to make sense to the waiter at the time yet he came back several minutes later only to pretend he couldn't understand what it was that I wanted them to do with the butter. Confused with what the problem was I explained that I just wanted the bread buttered before the filling was put on it. The waiter made an elaborate display, complete with exaggerated facial gestures, claiming that he couldn't understand what it was that I wanted. My last effort to explain involved comparing the baguette to a sandwich where one might put butter on it. After another show from the waiter where his manners seemed to have abandoned him altogether, it dawned on me that he was getting me back for not liking his music. The last straw was when he swaggered into the kitchen from where we could hear sniggers. A woman then appeared at the kitchen window rudely staring and smirking at us.

We decided not to stick around and got our orders as take-aways. After all their fuss about the butter, I looked at my roll and found there was butter on it. Not so hard to understand after all then.....

Some people are just not suited to customer service positions. If you want arrogance, ignorance and attitude, then this is the place to get it.

We come here for the soups before seeing a film at the Gala or Hoyts Warrawong. The service is very quick and the meals are great value and very filling. I had the chicken laksa which was as good as the ones I usually get at the laksa place at the bottom of the QVB. My laksa came with prawns and plenty of chicken and a tasty authentic flavour, and was only $8. My husband had a chinese seafood soup with vegetables which he was very happy with. However, he was very thirsty for the rest of the day which we usually associate with MSG. Next time we will ask for no MSG in the meals. I have previously had the short soup with wontons here and that was also very good.

Approximate cost: $8-$10

This cycle shop is packed full with 2 storeys of bicycles and accessories. There is a cafe as part of the premises and a customer car park. The staff are very helpful and directed me to a bicycle that suited my requirements very well. When it wasn't on display in the size I wanted, they were happy to put one together for me to come and try a couple of days later. I was also told I could go for a ride down the road to test it out before I made a decision. All up, I couldn't have asked for more.

We dined here for Sunday lunch. The restaurant is in a great spot overlooking the Shoalhaven River. We sat inside at the window in overly chilled air-conditioning. They didn't seem ready to open up as 2 of the dishes we ordered were either not ready, (one of the desserts at 1.15pm still wasn't ready), and the fish of the day hadn't arrived yet, half an hour after they'd opened. The restaurant was only occupied with 6 tables, being about a quarter full or less during the lunch period. We ordered fish tacos for an entree which was tasty with a nice dressing on it, sides of duck fat cooked potatoes and a tomato and goats cheese salad. The potatoes ($12) were a bit soggy and tasted like yesterday's roast potatoes reheated, but the salad was just the right mix of flavours although at $18 a bit steep for a very small salad. For mains we had a mussel dish and a paella. The paella ($30) was very filling despite only having 2 prawns and 2 mussels in it, but unfortunately was very bland. The mussels were the most flavoursome part of it. For dessert I missed out on the chocolate fondant as it wasn't ready, so settled for the churros instead which came with a dish that was like a cross between a lemon souffle and a creme brulee. Both parts of the dessert were excellent and for me were definitely the highlight of the meal. The others shared a cheese platter ($12) with a good sized chunk of blue cheese, a bit of fig paste and some lavosh which was enough to share between 2 and was of good quality. The wine list was fairly extensive with a good range of different wines by the glass and bottle.

There was a woman at the nearest occupied table to us that had ordered lobster that she sent back and seemed quite upset over. We couldn't hear what the problem was but she was given a replacement lobster meal and still didn't seem too happy.

Our dining experience had its highs and lows but the lows unfortunately have put us off going back.

Approximate cost: $25-45

This is a great little suburban Thai restaurant tucked away in a backstreet. They do a tasty stir-fry and a good mussaman curry. The dishes are authentic and tasty, and very good value. They are open every night for dinner to eat in and for takeaway. Alcohol is BYO.

Due to it's location, parking is available right outside.

I am seeing Sue (the owner) for neck and back problems. I was referred to her by a health professional as being very experienced with 20 years in the field and able to help people with complex problems. She has impressed me with her scientific/factual emphasis and no-nonsense manner. Her focus is on trying to work out the cause of your problem and then providing an exercise-based recovery program. I am hoping to get to the point where I can join in the Pilates classes that they run here. I have seen several other physiotherapists with no improvement resulting, and am hoping that Sue can make some inroads where others failed.

His Boy Elroy opened in 2012 with an inner-city vibe and great coffee. The coffees are great - if you ask for it strong, you get a nice strong coffee with a good crema. They don't have much on the menu but most of it looks pretty good. They are open for breakfast through to dinner and serve 2 mains for dinner, one of which is a curry. The small cakes are tasty but the muffins not as good (taste a bit like a cheap cake mix - too lightweight). You need to sit around the perimeter of the cafe to get a chair with a back on it, otherwise all the seats in the middle of the cafe are stools, which tend to be the least popular spots to sit for obvious reasons. The cafe is a bit too dark with music louder than the usual background level but the place has a certain ambience and the coffee is worth coming back for. A welcome addition to the Wollongong coffee scene.

Maybe I just struck Fishnets on a bad day but the 3 packages of fish and chips I bought were unanimously panned by the people I bought them for who each had a few bites and wouldn't eat the rest. It was a Saturday lunchtime when I entered the store and there was quite a queue, and about a 20 minute wait for my order to be cooked. I didn't have a problem with that, thinking at least it wouldn't be precooked. However, when I got home with the fish and chips, the chips were way undercooked (i.e. like snow white mashed potato, not in the least bit brown or crunchy at all) and the fish was quite hard as though it had seen better days. We all threw most of our meals out. Go to Belmore Basin or North Wollongong kiosk - they both do way better fish and chips.

Approximate cost: $8 fish and chips