Oliver Brown

Not a great customer service and the store hygiene issue needs to be improved!
I went there last Friday night for a dessert. Our order was simple, 2 coffees + 2 cakes, but somehow we only got 1 coffee made. While I went up to the counter to ask the 2^nd coffee, the staff is totally poker face, and no apology.
We tried their brownie and chocolate mousse, definitely not fresh. Brownie fell apart as soon as I tried to spoon it.
What’s more worst… I actually saw this boy using his bare hand (no glove), put in to a tray and tried to get all the chocolate buttons out. Somehow the chocolate buttons have melt or stick to the edge of the tray, I could see he tried hard using fingers to scrap them out. Shouldn’t they use gloves or is it me so picky?
I won’t go back.

Now that I can’t get tea from the T2 Teahouse any more, I’m a little stuck when it comes to morning tea in Hornsby. While we have a lot of cafes around here, I don’t drink coffee and I usually find the tea selection to not be to my taste.
I do, however, like hot chocolate. The darker the better. And this is where Oliver Brown fits in. It’s a smallish chain of Belgian Chocolate Cafes where, naturally, the focus is on chocolate based drinks and food. Having said that, there is a range of coffees, teas and fruit-​based cold drinks for those who don’t want chocolate.
In the few times we’ve been here, I’ve learned that small is the key. I get a small dark hot chocolate. Today I splurged and had it with whipped cream. I wouldn’t do that again as it made my dark chocolate too weak for my taste. The hot chocolate is made properly by melting chocolate bits in hot milk. Good stuff, not the horrible compound muck sold in supermarkets. They serve a marshmallow or choc bits on the side so that they don’t change the taste of the drink (personally I don’t like marshmallows in hot chocolate as it makes it too sweet for me).
I had a small caramel slice. It was a good one. Too often they aren’t. This didn’t hit the «too sweet button» until the last mouthful so it was an ideal size. And yes, I do get the discord between not liking a too sweet drink and eating a caramel slice. I’m contrary like that.
In the past we’ve tried the chocolate ganache tart, the churros, the waffles and the mud cake. They’re all good but we do tend to get «over chocolated». They also sell cookies, macarons, various fruit breads, scones and small truffles so you wouldn’t be stuck if you didn’t want a chocolate-​based treat.
Order at the counter and get a number if eating in. Delivery is pretty prompt. It’s definitely not cheap with my morning tea setting me back over $ 10 but as a rare treat that’s OK. If I bring the kids we’re looking more at $ 40.
I’ve tried Max Brenner at another shopping centre but to my way of thinking, OB is better and less expensive. Oh, and they offer a 20% discount to school students in uniform in the afternoons.