Lovely cafe in Beaumaris. I recommend the coffee and the muffins here as well. Closes pretty early

I know plenty of people who don't like this café, but I've never had any issues with it. Nice food, except the menu is limited & never seems to change. Staff are o.k without raving about them. Coffee is o.k too.

I hear a lot of mixed reviews about malt. Apparently it's changed owners a number of times and has been in steady decline. This is about the 20th time I've been here and so far my experiences have been good ones.

Presentation

So lovely I decided to make it my blog masthead. Everything looks like it's been placed with care and consideration, rather than just plonked down, and I appreciate that.

Toast

I'm not a great lover of sourdough toast, so ciabatta is always a nice surprise. This one is apparently sourced from the fruit and veg shop down the road and is light and chewy, as it should be. Kudos to the chef for the toasting, as opposed to the burning. Seriously, lately I've had to take a hand saw with me to breakfast just to get through all the ruddy organic, burnt toast.

Hashbrowns

They're store-bought, but if you can forgive them that you'll find they're flavoursome and much better than McDonalds. And I got two huge ones for $3, so I did a small dance.

Avocado

Yep, delicious and plentiful. I had enough avocado to cover both slices of toast, and the consistency was just right. I'm a bit of an avocado critic and have been known to spend actual days and nights at the supermarket, choosing the perfect piece of fruit, so I'm always excited when someone else does it well on my behalf.

Smoked salmon

Standard Tasmanian fare, but fresh and plenty of it. I couldn't finish the massive serving.

Eggs

Glossy and cooked just right and with deep yellow yolks. They were a little on the small side, but then so much of Beaumaris is. A little splash of cracked pepper finished these eggs off perfectly. I ate them. They were good.

Approximate cost: $18

I have been a customer here for around 7-8 years now and mostly I love this place.
I have on occassion experienced bad customer service,food,coffee but mostly the food,coffee is very good and beats most places around here.
I will remain a customer for a long time to come even though they do get it wrong sometimes.
I still really enjoy it here.

I've been to Malt a number of times over the last few years. The first time we went (several years ago) we were really happy with our overall experience. It was for this reason that we returned again and again. Unfortunately, with each consecutive visit, things got worse and worse. Service got slower, the food was bland and uninspiring and the prices kept getting higher. Inevitably, we stopped going there.

Fast forward to 2013: My husband and I were invited to a birthday lunch for a relative at Malt a couple of weeks ago. We were interested to see whether things had changed since the last time we went there. It was a Saturday, but we had a booking for 10 so we assumed they'd be prepared for the number of people in our party. We were placed around a large table in the back corner of the cafe. We were so incredibly cramped, it was ridiculous. They've crammed so much furniture into the place, I'm amazed that the staff can even maneuver around at all.

When we looked at the menu, we were certainly surprised. It was very different from the last time we had been there, with lots of new additions. However, the prices were INSANE. $24 for a big breakfast! I've NEVER seen a big breakfast priced over $18 anywhere, and I've had a lot of breakfasts at a lot of cafes! Everyone in our party was pretty gobsmacked by the pricing.

I ended up ordering a reuben sandwich. I hoped that, at $16, it would be a pretty amazing sandwich. Unfortunately I was wrong. It was made with regular rye bread, so it was reasonably small, and it came with a small pile of undressed, mixed lettuce leaves on the side. It tasted fine, but it was certainly NOT worth $16. At that price, I would have expected it to be made with thick slices of artisan-baked bread, not the rye equivalent of Tip Top.

In addition to this, I ordered a ginger mule, which is basically a lemon, lime and bitters with a shot of ginger syrup. It was priced at $7, so I expected a large glass. I shouldn't have been surprised that what I received was a glass so small, I'd be amazed if it was more than 250ml. It tasted nice, but it was not worth $7!!! (I could buy two large takeaway coffees for $7 from any cafe in the city!)

Most of us had a laugh at the prices, and resolved that we wouldn't be returning. However, if it was just the pricing that was the problem, one might overlook it. The service was also a let down. The wait staff were extremely slow, and our meals all came out after long intervals (so the first people served had almost finished by the time the second lot were served, etc.) The last person to be served waited the longest, and she had to eat on her own by that stage!

We foolishly ordered cake and coffees after the table was cleared away, and we waited so long that we would have cancelled the order if they hadn't brought it when they did (as we were all ready to just pay and leave!) It feels as if there is some weird kind of disconnect between the kitchen, the wait staff and the baristas, and it seems to be incredibly slow and disorganised as a result.

The only nice part of the whole experience was that, at our request, they organised a small, cupcake-sized cake with a candle for the birthday girl.

At the end of the day, there are so few redeeming factors about this place, I'm amazed that they're still open. I'll definitely go to one of the many other cafes in the concourse next time, because Malt has scared us away with their ridiculous pricing and very poor service! I would recommend you think twice before going, unless you have a lot of time on your hands to wait and don't mind paying over-the-top prices for below-average food and coffee.

They do good coffee here, it's quite popular so it's sometimes hard to get a table but quite a relaxed atmosphere, good for a catch up with friends

Great little place for brunch in the perfect location in the concourse. Great atmosphere with friendly staff, decent value on most meals and most importantly great food. Drinks could do with a bit of an update but overall a great experience here.

I cannot fault anything here. The food is great! Our children love it too...the little milk bottles that come with their coco pops are just too cute! Food excellent, service terrific and very friendly. Great spot for any meal I am sure, we have only done weekend breakfast.

Given the excellent location and appeal, I'm always disappointed with my experience here. Staff seem unfriendly and unwilling to help, the menu seems limited and as others have stated, the delay on the coffee's is just too much. There's no "atmosphere" with this place - no good feeling. It's a shame, and maybe it's just the time's I've been there, but it just doesn't work for me. Given the quality of some of the surrounding cafe's, this place really falls behind.

Approximate cost: $15

Food is quick, but we have been twice and already finished our breakfast before the coffees even arrived! The barista is clearly slow and whilst the coffee's are great once you get them, its not worth waiting for. The also stop takeaway customers sitting down - but given the 10min wait for coffee this becomes pretty unreasonable. With other great places in Beauy these guys need to get their act together and fix the coffee situation to keep customers coming back.

Approximate cost: $12