Toroa cafe

Our family planned a trip to the Royal Albatross Centre for some sightseeing and lunch (as we heard there was a caf at the isolated location). Please note this occurred on the 2nd of January 2023. Lets review how our caf experience went Lets start with the positives: It was good to see that they spoke English and how we got a place to sit very quickly. Also uh thats about it. I guess the seats supported our bodies and the tables didnt collapse? But now the negatives After placing our order and we took our seats, there was a view of seagull poop on the windows, a bad start but our hopes remained high. Then our first drinks arrived where the waitress smacked our drinks down exclaiming thank you! as she hastily walked away. Interesting. Our fish and chips arrived a while later. I would have enjoyed it if there were any fish with the batter that they gave (the fish was paper thin). But, the chips were nice. As for the rolls, they wouldve tasted nice if there were any cheese in it too. This was strange as it was advertised as cheese rolls. This was when I realised this experience was going to be poor. As for some of our drinks, after 30 minutes had passed we became confused as we noticed tables who had ordered after us were receiving their drinks before us so we asked politely to ensure our drinks were still on the way. SHUT UP I quote the manager yelling aggressively at us. She exclaimed to stop asking her questions and told us that the restaurant was very busy, therefore there MUST be a long wait for our drinks. She said to look around to see how packed it was! I in fact did take a look around and noticed there were 5 tables free? Im not sure how half the restaurant being empty means very full and busy? Interesting once again. Soon it had been 45 minutes, so we mustered up the courage to actually ask where our last coffee was; it turns out they forgot it and they didnt even have the order! Finally, our coffee arrived after nearly an hour-long wait and it came BURNT. Yuck. Furthermore, one of our milkshakes was the wrong flavour but due to the aggressive nature of the manager, we were too scared to ask the other kind waitresses. Due to the isolated nature of the venue, you are only left with these two caf options! Talk about a duopoly Would recommend eating before heading to the Royal Albatross Centre (that experience was good)... To conclude this review, lets end it on a final positive: The clock was working! There was a big clock on the wall of the dining area which is good to tell the time as we have an Albatross tour starting soooooon. SH#$! THE TOURRR!!
Jan 31st, 2023

Food : 3/5 | Service : 3/5 | Atmosphere : 3/5 More
Jan 2nd, 2023

I never write reviews but I wrote to them privately on their Facebook page and they have read it and have not replied. My friends and I went on Monday of this week (2nd January 2023) They were short staffed and very busy but that is no excuse for rudeness. The lovely Asian family beside us had ordered before us and when we eventually received some of our order the quietly spoken Asian man asked poliety on two occasions where something was because we had received the same things as he had ordered. The waitress snapped back at him with a rude response both times. He apologized to us saying he was not upset at us for receiving our food first. We had understood that. They had numbers for our table. The waitress came with a sandwich that wasn't ours so she took our number away. Then she came back with a few dockets and was asking which one ours was. We then got our same number back but still something arrived which wasn't ours. Very disorganised. The cheese roll had no butter on top so was dry. The hot drinks were not filled to the top of the cup. The sausage rolled had white icing spilled on it. On a positive note the coffee was good and the sausage roll tasty. Never in my life have I seen such rudeness from hospitality staff. Is it because they don't care because most tourists only visit once to the Albatross colony and they don't rely on people coming back a second time. They will always have the tourists visiting the Albatrosses and most will use the Cafe.
Dec 30th, 2022

Had a very nice lunch here. Friendly staff, quick service and reasonably priced. Thank you.
Oct 17th, 2022

unbelieveable AWFUL food in this cafe: $24 for a plate of fish & chip plus "salad" .except chip is normal (yes normal size & flavor which you can buy it from take away in $3) . the fish is extremely thin which makes you shocked disappointed and loose appetite at the first sight. you can't help wondering they sliced a normal size into half ? I lived in NZ a couple of years it's definitely my first time to see the fish's thickness like a paper A4 or B5 any paper you can imagine how thin the fish is . how they did it ? "amazing professional" cook they must have ! the salad include normal carrot slice and sprouts BUT the rest are completely abnormal . the nightmare is , the soggy tomato slice was frozen and they keep tomato into FROZEN do they have common basic knowledge ? huge thanks for the chillynippy frozen tomato successesfully test one of my malor sensitivity and remind me I should go to see dentist. the spinach just travel through time machine from last year ? why the spinach is yellow as everybody know its colour should be green. are you serious we customer paid and ate them not for chlorophyll but luteinanyway the waiter buddy is handsome and his hair is green but not our spinach. the mince in another plate we ordered is COLD and we have to ask them to put into microwave again. from a foreigner's perspect I started to worry for the international tourist. Toroa Cafe ,you know ? you looks like a window which tourists see NZ through you in Otago peninsula. food sometimes means a comfort in people's traveling. please REFLECT yourself what did you do. unless you correct or improve I won't come back. currently REMIND others be aware of this cafe "RED FLAG "
Nov 20th, 2022