It seems that for one reason or another I’ve spent a bit of time around Pittwater lately. A week or so ago I dropped in to a place I’d been wanting to check out for a while, the Waterfront Cafe at Church Point for lunch. I liked it so much I came back again for breakfast this last weekend.
Church Point Store and Waterfront Cafe
Right at the tip of Church Point, in a courtyard leading to the wharf, there is the Church Point Store and Waterfront Cafe.
As you walk into the building there is a tiny post office to the left, then a small general store with all of the essentials, leading on to an area where you can order take out food. The pastries, the pies and cakes, all look yummy. Sometime I’ll try some of them. And then on around to the right you head out to a deck overlooking Pittwater.
The place is rustic, but the touches like the flowers on some of the tables adds to feeling of being at home. And then there’s the superb view looking out across Pittwater, with so much activity continually, with people coming and going on their boats, their kayaks.
Last week I ordered the mezze plate, which was one of their pizzas topped with cheese, gorgeous by itself, served with dips. There were five generous mounds of dips: a beetroot one, an olive tapenade, a guacamole, a roasted capsicum one, and a spicy eggplant one with dukkah-type flavour.
I didn’t know exactly what I was getting, so it was a pleasant surprise, and better than I could have imagined.
Lunch dishes on the menu include seafood dishes, pizza, pasta, gourmet hamburgers and other dishes which vary from time to time.
This weekend, returning for breakfast, I ordered the mushroom medley.
It was a beautiful mixture of mushrooms, spinach, and roasted tomato, on woodfired wholegrain toast, topped with a perfectly poached egg, and drizzled with truffle oil.
The person I was with ordered the eggs florentine, poached eggs on spinach and woodfired toast, with hollandaise sauce. That, too, was tasty.
It was a perfect morning. What a great way to start the day, with tasty food, overlooking such a gorgeous view.
The Waterfront Cafe has jazz playing on Friday nights, and on the first Sunday afternoon, and other special meals at different times.
Scotland Island
After eating, on both of these visits to the Waterfront Cafe, I then hopped on the ferry just next door, to Scotland Island. The ferry goes on a 40-minute or so ride around the Island and over to the western foreshore of the Pittwater.
The best place to sit on the ferry is right up front there! It takes you by some incredible houses dotted around the Island, nestled in the trees. And then the views across the water, are picturesque.
The ferry master is friendly, and checks with you when you get on the ferry to see at which wharf you’d like to get off the boat. You could stop off somewhere like at the Tennis Court Wharf, and have a picnic at Katherine Park, or a swim at the beach, and then stroll across the island.
The ferry leaves about once an hour during the day on the weekends, and more frequently during the week. See the Church Point Ferry Service site for more details.
Details
Here are the details about Church Point General Store and Waterfront Cafe at time of posting. Please check their web site for more current details.
| Web site | http://www.waterfrontstore.com.au/ |
| Address | 1860 Pittwater Road, Church Point, NSW 2105 |
| Phone | (02) 9979 2793 |
| Open | breakfast, from 6:30am every day; lunch, from 12:00 noon every day; dinner, Fri/Sat/Sun last order by 8:30pm, rest of the week order by 6:00pm |
| Menu | breakfast, average $10-$15; lunch, depends what you order, but probably in the $15-$20 range |
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This is one of my new favourite peaceful places to spend some time, overlooking the water. It has views, good food, places to walk, and the ferry tops it all off. Where do you like to to eat, with a view?
Eat. Travel. Bliss. 
WATERFRONT STORE AND CAFE
This is honestly one of the worst restaurants i have ever been to. The service was appalling, the staff were ridiculously rude to other patrons (patronising, degrading them, speaking down to them) and had no idea what was going on. Food was dry and tasteless. From the 10 of us that were eating, not one person enjoyed their meal. In-ability to poach an egg (hard, rubbery), compote dry and sour tasting, and fruit was floury. This restaurant should not be in business. Sad way to start off my sister’s birthday.
Hi Luce, I’m sorry you had a bad experience there! I’ve been there numerous times, and that hasn’t been mine. For me, the staff have been friendly and helpful, and the food has been tasty. I don’t have expectations of service in a cafe that I would expect to see in a 5-star restaurant. It will be interesting to hear other people’s comments about the place over time.
I’ve been back to the Waterfront Store and Cafe again today, and looked to see if there was anything which matched what you said. It was a busy lunch-time, being a gorgeous sunny day. The food was excellent, tasty, and couldn’t be better. I had one of the pizzas today, and it was full of gorgeous flavour, with lots of topping. All of the food which came out looked fabulous, with things like the burgers and the seafood platters being huge serves. As I looked around, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, loving the location, enjoying the food. Nothing remotely like “the worst restaurant”. So, dear reader, I’d suggest visiting and judging for yourself.
Sorry that was very negative. But I do LOVE this blog/ website! Keep it up!
Thanks, Luce.
The weather was appalling but unfortunately all the inside seats were reserved, hardly the restaurant’s fault and they did provide blankets to wrap around ourselves at the table outside.
Because it was cold we ordered 4 Cauliflower and White Bean soups and our mains only to receive the main course first. We objected but because it was already on the table we would eat it first and then decide if we still wanted the soup course.
We decided against the soup, opting for the dessert menu and chose 4 desserts; 2 Sticky Date Puddings with caramel sauce, 1 fruit dessert and 1 Rhubarb & Apple crumble with a crispy top. All three desserts were atrocious – a complaint was made about the crumble because, contrary to the menu description, the top of the crumble was runny. The waitress took it back and returned with the same hot, runny crumble and a cold one with some cling-film over the top. She explained that the crumbles did have a crispy top when cold but the heating process reduces the crispy top to soft. we removed the cling-film from the cold crumble only to find that was also soft.
The waitress avoided coming back to the table and we left very disappointed.
Yikes. Not a good experience. In all the times I’ve been there I’ve never had a problem, but you certainly did strike a series of problems. No excuse for the mains appearing before the soup.