Cafe Andronicus Restaurant

Whenever my husband and I are in the area, we always drop in for the best coffee on the North side. We've always found the owner and staff very friendly and offer great service. It's such a great location, and the best place for a late night dessert treat after a movie or a light healthy lunch break when shopping.

The last 5 post about Cafe Andronicus for example:

- 5 different reviews in 2 weeks by 5 'different' reviewers all praising Cafe Andronicus - even 2 on the same day.

- All '5' reviewers have only ever made 1 post to this forum

- All joined in August

- All posts were made at similar times of day (morning or night)

- A similar style of writing for all posts

I smell a rat in other words. This is not good.

Cafe Andronicus isn't great either.

Admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised to find somewhere open one night after a few beers with a friend. I had a steak sandwich, he had a pasta dish, we had a cola each and maybe some extra sides, fries, salad, whatever. The food was good but there wasn't much change from $90 - if I remember correctly. Whatever it was, we were both shocked at the price. This is more restaurant prices - which it definitely isn't.

On another occasion I had a coffee and New York cheesecake - this was good too, but probably best shared between two.

Overall, it's okay but overpriced for what it is. There's another Andronicus in Turramurra so I'm guessing it's a chain of some sort.

I think Carlo's comments about the staff being like 'death warmed up' were a little unfair. But maybe I'm biased because I like the dark-haired girl who seems to be working there most days when I walk past. Don't know her name though.

Anyway, on a warm day if you fancy a coffee or cold drink outside and don't mind the traffic too much (it's on the corner of Archer and Victoria Ave. - very busy) you can certainly do lots of people-watching as it's probably the busiest corner in Chatswood.

Verdict: Okay for a coffee outside, expensive for food, big thumbs-down for the obvious attempt to hijack this forum - big no-no.

I take offence at your statements, but I will leave them on the forum. Lively debate is not a bad thing.

A number of reviews

This forum is only just starting to get popular. The search engines have only recently picked it up giving it high rankings for each restaurant and for 'Sydney restaurants', 'Chatswood restaurants' etc. So it is totally reasonable that the site has only just started to get reviews.

Then there is the crowd effect. A bad review can be good in that it encourages comment from others that have had different experiences. People feel obliged to 'right the wrong' of the bad review and share their experiences. In fact, you probably would not have reviewed Cafe Andronicus if there had been no reviews for it!

When people add reviews, that restaurant goes to the top of the heap on the forum - the default search order for "Chatswood restaurants" shows the one with the most recent post. So again, crowd effect works to get more reviews for the restaurants that already have reviews.

Similar times of the day - well how about that - people have evening meals at similar times of the day, or get back from restaurants at similar times of the day. Is it any wonder that posts are at similar times.

Are they the same people??? - they all have quite different email addresses - as the admin I can see them. And there are now one or two that have made other posts. They look quite valid to me. Is it an offence to have only one post! People have to start somewhere!

__________________
T2DMan
Michael Brandon

I don't know why you've taken offence, it's not as if I was suggesting you were responsible.

Anyway, I found the following on an alternative review site:

I see bauer made the first one and bauer60 made the third on that particular site. Recognise the name? Oh look, tere J is thare too!

But hey, 3 reviews (the only printed ones for Andronicus on that particular site), maybe it's just a conicidence?

Maybe thay had such a good time they had to search out other review sites to let everyone know what a GREAT place it is?

In the interest of Lively Debate I hope you allow this post.

It's obvious what these guys are up to.

I realise the nature of this site also makes it impossible to prevent people with a vested interest in a cafe/restaurant making bogus positive reviews, but this one was so obvious I had to point it out.

Cheers,

Ramondo.

My review was based on my expirence of this place cira 2001 - 2003. I think the business has changed hands and the staff are ALOT better these days. Its still expensive, food is still fairly average but its the only place open in chatswood late at night. Maisys is my favorite cafe, its just busy at night.

Pritty lame that they are giving them selves reviews (Should that be the case... which it looks to be).