Food & cocktails were amazing. Service was great. Shoved at how easy it was to get into on a…read moreSaturday night. Perfect spot for a date night.

Probably the worst meal we've had in New Zealand. Starters were lamb croquettes and scallops. Both…read morewere deep fried to within an inch of their lives. The lamb was peculiarly puréed with all the consistency of paste. The scallops had been robbed of all flavour via the deep frying process. Both inedible, leaving a greasy taste in the mouth. Dire. Removed by the very pleasant server without comment. We shared a sirloin steak which wasn't bad although the miserable helping of French fries was not appreciated. The béarnaise sauce was thin and tasteless but cost an additional $5 for some reason. We had a cosmopolitan and a margarita which, oddly, arrived after the starters but seemed to have little or no alcohol content. At least they couldn't mess up on the very nice Pinot Noir. Never again.

We walked for a while along the banks of Lake Taupo, before we settled on the Lake House for…read moredinner, located centrally in town, right across the street from the Lake which allowed for beautiful views of the lake. The large terrace wasn't very busy, but there were only 2 or 3 servers, for both inside and outside, so it took an awfully long time for someone to come and take our order. My husband ordered the lamb rump and I went with the roasted lamb salad. My lamb was roasted to perfection, and combined with the feta cheese and a delicious dressing, this salad was absolutely scrumptious. The lamb rump was also cooked to perfection, but it was kind of drowning in sauce. Just too much of it. Water is served free here in New Zealand, but just don't ask for ice in it. Most places don't have it. Also, count on getting just one napkin and make do with it. The wait staff was friendly, but kind of timid and not very attentive to the customers. At the end of our meal, we had to wait again a considerable time for the bill to come. Even trying to get the attention of the wait staff turned out to be a chore. It would have been nice for someone to come by our table to ask how our meal was and if we needed anything else. In short, nice view, tasty food, but mediocre service. I couldn't really give more than 3 stars for that.

I was looking forward to this place. Bunch of drunk kids where idling there when we got there…read more Service was awkward. The chocolate fondue is not to be taken. Waitress over sold it. It doesnt worth 20$ at all. Get some whitakers and fruits from the grocers and enjoy that one at home. It was suppose to be dark chocolate. It was chocolate syrup with few sad piece of banana and pear, marshmallow and brownies. Everybody I asked afterward for a good place to eat told me they could have warned me about this place.i guess next time I wont trust the other famous website I checked on... Bartender was good though. His service was good and his attitude as well. I enjoyed the beers.

My husband I drove here to try Spoon and Paddle after seeing the great reviews. BUT, it apparently…read more4-5 years ago according to a local resident.

We read great reviews for this place so we had to include it as one of our breakfast stops on our…read moretrip. We were here during winter so there wasn't anyone outside, but we did notice their adorable outdoor patio seating with a fenced in yard complete with picnic table. The inside was bright and cheerful with lots of natural lighting from the large windows and fun mint paint. We ordered at the counter while salivating at all of the delicious looking items in their display including fresh creme brulee, regular and gluten free sandwiches, and yummy looking salads. We went for some coffees, a gluten free sandwich, and of course..the creme brulee! Everything came out beautifully presented and tasted delicious. We relaxed and enjoyed our meal before heading off on more adventures. Great place to stop for a coffee and a quick bite.

Amazing menu, fun atmosphere, friendly staff! Great food and priced well. Will definitely go again.read more

My wife and I went to Bodyfuel and had a coffee, a flat White. It's the best Flat White we've had…read moreso far after one week in New Zealand and about 20 well done Flat Whites. From the first sip to the last drop, the balance of well roasted beans and perfectly creamy steamed milk delivered great satisfaction. It's not often that the quality, high quality, of the bean roasting and flavor comes through. The beans were roasted brilliantly for a Flat White, not so dark that that all of the origin flavors are gone, not so light that my face puckered from wild green beans. The coffee flavor was strong, balanced and nicely tempered with perfectly steamed milk. A sign in front of the shop said something like Try our award winning espresso made by our award winning barista. We're very happy we did. Sorry we haven't tried any of the food yet, it looked great.

Great little place. Good food pleasant people. We enjoyed a nice coffee and pastry that was…read moreoutstanding

What a great cafe! We stopped in on our way through to Auckland. Had an amazing breakfast and…read morecoffee. It's nicely decorated and good amount of seating for customers. Not too much parking. The coffee came with a licorice candy that was very good; nice added touch! The corn fritters and omelette were both very tasty! Service was friendly and fast. I would highly recommend you try this place out! They serve breakfast, light meals, and lunch.

We yelped this place before we came to eat. 2 things made us go here, location and star ratings…read more Not sure why it was rated so high. First thing you notice is the service. It's very clear from the start that we won't wait on you, you will do it yourself. I won't call him a waiter as he did don wait, but the guy behind the counter gladly told us where the menus were, allowed us to sit where ever and said come back when ready to order. It was a freezing morning so we opted to sit by the fake fire, which is located right next to the freezing windows. So it was A waste of time lol We returned to the counter to order our breakfast and took our number. We both ordered our fave, eggs benny. 1 with salmon the other with bacon I'm the salmon lover to I was really looking forward to my breaky, look very presented and fast delivery. It would have been perfect if it weren't for 2 things. 1, the salmon was cold, like ice cold. I had beauty warm eggs, bread, crispy spinach and cold salmon. My husbands eggs were not runny and he was a bit crushed. Other than that the sauces were delicious. I ordered a latte and asked if they do it with double shots, like lattes is made and it came with a single. No biggy but not what I asked for. Not 5 star. Only a 3

Never judge a book by its cover. Everything about this restaurant seemed great but In the end it…read morewas a huge disappointment. The service was extremely lacking. We waited for our food for half an hour before asking how much longer it would be, and were told food takes 25-30 minutes to prepare, but then 10 minutes later we were told by a different waiter it would be another 15 minutes till we got our food. At this point, we were in a time crunch because we had to check out from our hotel in 20 minutes, and the food was not in sight. Another waiter said we could come back after checking out and our food would be ready, so we did just that. We got back 20 minutes later and still the food wasn't ready. It should be mentioned the restaurant wasn't even that full when we were there, easily less than a fourth of the tables were seated. Then after another agonizing 20 minutes the most basic food you have ever seen gets to our table. Poached eggs came with dry toast that looks like something from a school cafeteria nightmare. My bagel with salmon, cream cheese and avocado was alright but was ruined by a cream cheese that appeared to significantly sweetened. The BLT another at the table ordered seemed pretty good, but it's fry's we're flavorless grease bombs. The crowning jewel on an already frustrating meal were the straws. Straws are really just a huge pet peeve of mine that always brings down a restaurant in my eyes, especially when they bring them opened from the package in the drink with no prompting from the customer, because even if you say you don't want them at that point, their just going to throw them out anyway because they have your drink all over them. They really show a restaurants inability to get with the times and though serving plastic straws isn't enough to bring down a restaurant completely, it certainly doesn't help. The one good thing I can say about this restaurant was the view. The patio looks out on the beautiful lake Taupo and it is well shaded. I really wish our experience could have been better, Maybe the restaurant staff were just having a rough day, but in my eyes, a restaurant that makes you wait over an hour for basic uninspired breakfast food has some serious issues.

Doesn't look like much when passing by. I stopped out of hunger and had a simple wrap that was…read morepassable at best but it wasn't rancid so I guess that's good.

We had a great long black and flat white along with a fresh date and lemon scone. One of the better…read morecafés in Taupo based on our morning walk-about checking out the competition. Highly recommended.

Good value bakery…read more Great selection of pies sandwiches cakes etc. Had a ham wrap that was packed full and tasty. Small meat savoury pie great. Chicken roll had a good amount of filling also Quality of ingredients equal to the price.

Another place where we liked it so much, we came back for round 2 while on vacation!…read more They just offer a really simple thing, we put delicious filling into our flaky golden yellow pies. They also have sandwiches, fries, and other things but you come here for those pies! It's a cafeteria style service where you get a tray and just slide down from each heated display window to the next. You can pick out the delicious goodies that you want to eat and then pay at the end. We absolutely adored their flaky crispy pies that had all sorts of different fillings. A lot of classic combinations such as chicken and mushroom, steak & kidney, smoked fish, sweet lamb curry, and butter chicken. It's hard to have just one. I think my favourite thing I discovered there was their double happy roll. What makes it double happy? It was filled with ground beef on one side and creamy mashed potatoes in the other. Yum yum! There's nothing fancy about the food but it's just great great comfort food at a great value. It's bound to make you smile.