new zealand coffee review (archive)
new zealand coffee review (archive)
We don't have any pictures of this café yet.
WHERE: 2 Worcester Bvd, Christchurch (STREET MAP)
PHONE: (03) 366-7722 (SEE WHITE PAGES)
Added by Coffee Monster on Tue, 31 May 2005.
Went to have lunch there during a work day and when we arrived, saw a few tables outdoor with customers enjoying the sunny weather but we chose to be seated inside. 5 of us ordered open sandwiches and the time then was 1.07pm. After waited for 50 mins, there was still no sign of our meal appearing. When the waitress was approached, her answer was "its coming". Don't they always say that to all waiting customers? The meals finally turned up at 1.55pm and we had to feed the parking meter to extend the parking time. Service is horrendously poor!!! Don't they realise it's a weekday and some people need to get back to work? It's no surprise to me that they business has gone down. I said to the table that we can write this place off for meals.
wow oasis666 you went to town(see below) perhaps micheal guy might be interested in setting you up with a regular spot in cafe magazine but sadly i went to sleep before I had finished reading the "review".
Anyway...le cafe... le quality has le sadly been le slipping for sometime, I fear the capitalist beast is at work here. Death to the money system!
Luckily location is prime tourist central, great sun and a great spot on the weekend to people watch (if your into that sort of thing)
Coffee....le average stick to le bottled drink
Sunday morning, busy hour, we get in and order two coffees, a flat bread, and a bagel.
We got our coffees promptly, however, waited about 15 mins before calling the waitress and asking for a muffin because we were getting quite hungry.
We waited another 5 mins for the muffin to be brought to us. When the waitress did, it was cold so we asked it to be heated.
While we were waiting, we looked behind, there were two tables: one with a group of 5 who all had coffees and some muffins. They were seated after we had ordered, yet they had already finished their muffins and were leaving.
The other table was a couple who were also seated after we had ordered, who were already having their meals including what looked like an eggs benedict.
The muffin didn't arrive so we asked when we could get it. The waitress replied that it was still in the kitchen. At this point it was well over 10 mins since she had taken it to be heated.
We finally got the muffin but there was no apology for late service.
We were again waiting around for about 10 mins for the bread and bagel and again had to ask the staff where our food was.
We finally got our order, but again, no apology.
On top of the poor service, my partner saw red when found a short piece of hair in her coffee - what looked like male facial hair - and asked the staff to call her manager.
The american waitress called the indian guy to come over. The point of this long review is about his disgusting attitude. He was the guy who was operating the coffee machine.
I'm not sure if he was the manager because there was a christian name on the duty manager's board (S McIntyre) at the time.
He came over and said that he was sorry, but then he stuck his finger in my partner's face to show the hair (he had the hair on his index finger) and said that it could have come from anywhere and that the hair could have come from her. He also said that it was out of his control.
It was clear that he did not care, and he seemed irritated for bothering him while he was busy making coffees. When asked if he was going to stick to that attitude, he said, "I said I'm sorry, you don't have to pay anything, you can just leave, now what more do you want?"
Clearly there was no point in getting into an argument with this guy, so we let him get back to his job. I feel sorry for him for being who he is. That is probably as far as he will get in his life.
The whole experience at the cafe was well below substandard. The servers seemed unprofessional, slow and disorganised. They had the palm gadget things but that only seemed to make things more inefficient as they were continually seen chatting away near where the gadgets are kept and fiddling with the gadgets. The staff were giggling at us when the indian guy was over at our table.
I'm not sure if our comments will be taken seriously, as the cafe will continue to make a profit just because of it's great location and the tourists flooding in. I hope the owner does something about training the staff, if he wants to keep the locals as customers.
Le Cafe's coffee didn't have a spark or anything special. It just seemed another average coffee. However the food wasn't bad but the worst aspect was the service-over 35 minutes to recieve a Salad!
For that i'd rate it 1/10
expensive but pretty fantastic I think. sometimes the foreign staff are hard to understand. nice iced tea. I chose the 'erally good' rating because it had a picture of a cup smiling with thumbs up
I love Le Cafe! It has been a social hotspot for many years, as well as providing top notch coffee and food (although the food can be a bit pricy). I would highly recommend giving Le Cafe a go to anyone.
My partner and I often puzzle as to how this place continues to make good coffee because they don't seem to have any systems - like insisting that tables are waited on and then forgetting to bring the coffee. We often joke that we must have our invisible paint on when we are ignored. This has improved somewhat since they painted the table numbers on the tables and the wait staff have Palm Pilots to take the orders. It's always been a mystery to us how with such a turnover of staff they can make consistently good coffee. Maybe it's the Burton Hollis beans. I also like the fact that they are open all hours and on Christmas Day as I often sneak out to have their tiramisu while hell is raging at home - it seems to help me get through from Christmas lunch to Christmas dinner intact - must be all that espresso. Sometimes they won't do takeaways when they are busy which is disappointing. The food is also expensive I think. I wish the breakfast menu went longer than 12pm as I always seem to arrive just after that and can't then order the breakfast bagel - bugger!
The coffee is good here, and so is the food. It had a nice atmosphere as part of the Arts Centre. In the summer it is great to sit outside under the huge tree, and watch the trams and bustle of the Arts Centre. The service is usually pretty good, and the waitress got us our trim milk cappuchinos quickly, as we told her that we were going to the Court Theatre. However there can be long waits in the summer, when it is busy.
Le Cafe does a good coffee - the food's not bad either.
The milky coffees aren't as good as the short blacks, but my favorite is the afogato (essentially a short black with icecream). Recently the food has become a bit more expensive, which is a shame, but it's pretty good.
The atmosphere is fairly bustly in the main resturant, but there is a side room that is good for medium sized groups. There are lots of outdoor tables as well.
Now the prices have gone up, the dynamic has changed for me. It's a bit casual to be a good resturant, and a bit pricey for cafe food. For a lunch on the weekend, before visiting the Botanic Gardens, not a bad choice.