The Ethical Food Store

My husband and I live locally and have dined here many times. The food never disappoints. All the food is made from scratch, a rarity in today's world. They serve the best coffee in South Gippsland, and their chicken & leek pie is the best pie I've ever eaten. The building is an old house, quaint and charming. There a beautiful cottage garden for alfresco dining, great for your pooches.
This place is unique and special.

I've just travelled all the way down the NSW coast and into Victoria and this is my favourite cafe of the journey. Absolutely delightful, nourishing and restful place.

Lovely country cafe. The staff were outstanding. Nothing was too much trouble. Food was great. Highly recomended

Lovely decorations and friendly staffs. I wish they have more to say on the products that they sale. Hope to see more local Gippsland products than stuffs from great ocean road or lederdeg

The most wonderful pies! Delicious pastry and great fillings. Can't recommend them highly enough.

Needs more cakes, only caramel slice, coffee and carrot cakes. When you can't have coffee it is very limited.

We sat outside with our dog in the beautiful gardens. I had the homemade beetroot gnocchi which was good, my husband had the carbonara which was very good. Service excellent, really lovely place.

Beautiful shadey garden to sit in with our dogs and enjoy iced coffees and yummy slices on a hot day

Currently we meet there once a month and it is very popular with our group of BMW motorcycle enthusiasts

Delicious and reasonably priced food, which has locally sourced fresh ethical ingredients, a wide variety and very friendly staff.

A warm, wholesome and inviting environment for a breakfast or lunch date.

And the specials are worth keeping a eye on their Facebook page.

A place to go to fill your pantry and fridge with yummy wholesome food.

Quite disappointed in how much the old Koonwarra store has changed. Our main meal was fine, but the coffees and hot chocolate were weak. A lot of the charm and character has been lost with the new owners. Very limited range compared to the previous owners. Bought two pies for takeaway, which ended up being the worst pies we have ever had. Absolutely zero taste, may as well have put a piece of cardboard in the oven and eaten that! As for the "ethical" part-leave that to the philosophers! Meaningless virtue signalling isn't going to make your food taste any better. If this review seems harsh it is only because the old store had food and atmosphere to a significantly higher standard. Would not recommend eating here.

We were a cycling group of 30 people doing the Great Southern Rail Trail. We came here for breakfast on Saturday (we booked ahead). They were short staffed but they put on a great breakfast for us all and they were all delicious.thanks EFS team.

Wonderful milkshakes! Breakfast was very bland and prices are far too steep for what you get. I can not stand a bunch of rediculous flowers draped over my food in an attempt to look fancy. A nice sauce or spices would be much better.

Nice food, very fresh. Bread, pies and more baked on premises.
Sit inside or out. Dogs welcome in the garden.
Local wines and preserves available for sale.
Very uncomfortable chairs.

I've been here since I was a kid back when it was just the koonwarra store. Place was brilliant! I used to love coming down during the holidays and having their burgers.but now? Awful. Had the burger and the bread was stale, would fall apart in your hands. Became soggy because of all of the watery, not oil, water. People I was with had the pie and it seemed really bland almost like it was frozen beforehand. Their ethical creed is very vague and seems very virtue signalling. I implore you to go in and have a read it seems like a lie when coupled with their bad food directions. Very disappointing, I loved this place: (

Very lovely staff. Came here for morning tea. Pavlova roll was great and the pancakes were so good, we shared. Nice little place with things to look at.

Koonwarra oasis. Quaint building & pretty garden, perfect venue on a 22 - 28 degree day. Menu caters for wide range of taste & food good cafe quality fare. Recommended well worth a visit.

Good food, great service and a lovely garden area for el fresco dining. Especially loved the orange almond cake.

Very quaint little eatery with friendly and hospitalitable staff.
Choice of indoor or relaxing outdoors dining.

Friendly, smiling (genuine) staff
Just the best coffee (couldn’t stop at 1)
Food - generous & tasty
C&W music (non-invasive, yet loud enough for me to hear the tune & words & hum along with)
Crisp
Uncomplicated
Unpretentious
Loved it!