We ate here for lunch one day after seeing it had a good rating on Yelp and Google. When we…read morearrived, we saw that they had painted on the front window that they had been a finalist for top cafe in New Zealand three times 3 times in the past 8 years or so. However, from what I saw, this was completely unwarranted.
This cafe was average in every way. I can't think of a single thing they excelled at, though at the same time I can't think of anything that was clearly subpar. I tend to give 3 stars in this situation, but I just can't do it here because of the feeling I got eating here. Think of your oldest living relative, someone who doesn't go out much and who never travels far. This is the kind of place they would like. People's tastes have changed over the decades, but this restaurant hasn't changed with them.
They had a menu posted outside, and at least two inside, and all were different, so examine them all carefully before placing your order. I ended up with the fish sandwich because I didn't see you could get a half portion of the fish and chips because I assumed all menus would be the same. My wife ordered lasagna. After ordering we had to go up and request water separately, which was unusual. My sandwich came, it was fish on store-bought bread with lettuce, tomato and mayo/tartar sauce; it also came with fries. Mine was very bland and just not that good. It was also messier than you'd expect. My wife didn't enjoy her lasagna either; it looked like a hot mess; she picked away at it, scraped off a bunch of cheese (she said it had no meat or tomato sauce, something I thought all lasagna had), picked at her salad a bit then just gave up on her meal altogether.
Simply, this place just isn't that good, let alone great. You'd be better off picking another restaurant at random, or as my wife said after leaving, at one of the fast food places in town. Maybe they were good once, but they sure have fallen.
