new zealand coffee review (archive)
new zealand coffee review (archive)
Reviews by DoubleDee:
This is a great little shop. It reminds me of one of those French movies - Chocolat or Amelie - with the beautiful Esther bustling around greeting people, brightening up their day, and making them wonderful coffee. Sue's made a great job of her cafe. It's an oasis.
The Globe is great. Not only is the coffee great, but I love the way when I go in there and just want a poached egg on a bagel with some hollandaise they grant my wish instead of getting all silly and saying 'Oh, that's not on the menu.' I also love that range of sauces, pickles, dressings and jams that they are now selling. These make great gifts.
I love this place. When I am in Dunedin to work I often make a bee-line to go here for dinner. They have a wonderful Caesar salad and once when I had to lead a workshop the next day I had a divine Tiramisu (the best I have ever had) except that I laid awake all night with my eyes jammed open from all the espresso. Not so good for my clients the next day. Good coffee too. And the last time I went back - unfortunately the tiramisu had gone from the line-up.
What an oasis this place is to find in the desertland that is Tekapo country. Have you ever tried to get a good coffee in Tekapo. What a travesty that with all that wonderful scenery there is no decent coffee in Tekapo. But this place in Fairlie - it's great. We discovered it on our last trip through the lakes and I had a wonderful paella there - and the coffee was good too. Thank you - I could now consider staying at Tekapo and driving to Fairlie each day for a coffee!
This is a local for me and despite a great location the coffee is always marginal and I find the staff aloof. This is a shame, and what gives Merivale a bad name! At one stage the coffee was one of the 'Roberts' (either Harris or Timms - both equally awful) and now they have converted to a boutique brand which is better, but the staff still need to get over themselves and furnish a smile now and then.
This has been one of my favourites for many a year and I have a photo of me standing at the original one in Rome. It's Caffe with two 'f's too because it's Italian remember! I used to work in a nearby office so this became our auxillary off-site office and Caffe Roma, the coffee, chocolate fish, and eggs benedict with the genuine hollandaise is the only thing I miss from working in that office as I have now escaped. I have to plan my trips there now to make sure I don't miss out. Excellent Supreme coffee even though it does come from Wellington!
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!
What a wonderful idea to have a cafe in a library and one worth supporting although as time has gone on the quality has drifted a bit. To begin with there were lovely fabric couches which were replaced by repulsive lime green vinyl. The coffee is usually acceptable although sometimes the staff are surly and disinterested.
It's great to see a cafe start up and survive on this corner. There were a few failed attempts but good coffee and committed owners have seen this place qualify as a good cafe. I used to work nearby and so it was a handy haven for a break or a chat with a colleague. Nice cakes as I recall and good coffee with a complimentary jaffa.
I love the idea of using the old Oddfellows Lodge and giving it a new lease of life. Now that the garden has taken off a bit sitting outside is an option as it gets quite noisy inside. The coffee and food is great.
Pictures from DoubleDee: