May 18, 2008...4:29 pm
Review: Karori Park Cafe. Great spot. Awful service. Fatty food. Avoid it. Not a joy of Wellington
Despite a bad review in the Dominion Post recently, we decided to go to the Karori Park Café for brunch today because it was handy and because visits there for afternoon coffee and cake since it opened last year had been good ones. But brunch was a more than a disaster, it was a disgrace. This place needs an urgent quality review.
This is a fabulous place for a café. Karori Park underwent a massive reconstruction and was reopened last year with some of the biggest playing fields in the capital for summer cricket and winter soccer, with a perimeter running, walking and cycle track that has since been used day and night by half the neighbourhood.
The three-level café is in one of the old wooden sports pavilion buildings fronting the park by Karori Road and is open seven days. The ground floor and counter with its coffee machines, cakes and menu board, opens to the park. The in-between level has the kitchen and a childrens’ play area that has deservedly made this place popular with local mothers; while the top floor has a deck overlooking the park, which we noticed today has bizarrely been renamed in big letters the David Bain viewing deck.
On asking, we were told “no it’s not named after the murderer,” a response that was as unfortunate as the sign. The Mr Bain in question is apparently an elderly long-time member of one of the park’s sport’s clubs, but the size of the signs and their placement are in bad taste at present. They had better hope the Solicitor General doesn’t turn up and ask the same question I did.
Anyway, we arrived about 11.20am and each ordered a “Sportsman’s Breakfast,” which the menu said had eggs, sausage, toast, hash browns and bacon. We asked for additional mushrooms and tomatoes. The value was good, about $12 each with the extras. We also asked for a flat white and an Earl Grey. Given number 8, we went upstairs to the David Bain viewing area to admire the view while we ate.
After about 15 minutes, the plates arrived. The food on them was barely luke warm, and fatty. The eggs were fried, and instead of the hash browns there were fried chips.
The coffee and tea didn’t come with the food. Frankly I had expected to have gotten it before the food, while we waited. Who drinks a flat white with a plate of eggs and bacon? But so fatty and luke was the food that I was pleased the drinks were late and expected them to turn up as we ate, to wash this awful stuff down. But they never did.
After we had eaten (ok, I was hungry from an early Sunday morning, we’d just returned from dropping family members at the airport), and with still no sign of the hot drinks, I picked up the Number 8 card and went down to the counter and asked where our drinks were.
“I took them to you,” said the woman behind the counter, who I’d never seen before. She certainly wasn’t the one who had taken our orders, nor the one who delivered the luke plates of fatty muck to our table. “No you didn’t,” I said. “Yes I did,” she replied. “They were a flat white and an English Breakfast tea.” I was sure we never ordered English Breakfast, but I was confused by her dogmatic response so I asked her to show me the docket for Number 8. “We throw them out,” she said at once. Well get it out of the bin, I replied. “It blew away in the wind,” she replied, waving at the open doors to the park. “But there is no wind today, it could not have blown away,” I replied.
Here I was, a paying customer, not having been served the coffee and Earl Grey we had ordered and paid for, but being told by someone I had not before laid eyes on that I was a liar as she had personally delivered to me an English Breakfast and coffee that we had never received.
This was far worse than the experience of the DomPost reviewer who had said this place had deteriorated since a recent change of owners but expressed the hope that it would improve. Even had I been lying, or mistaken, any proper café staffer would have apologised and given us a coffee and tea on the spot. This one was out to fight every cent. We left at once and said we would not return.
“Where are the cups you said you gave us, if you did?” were our final frustrated, but very polite, words.
Go there at your peril.
28 Comments
May 18, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I *hate* it when stuff like that happens. It’s really just a little thing, but in that moment, it can drive you half insane in seconds to find yourself facing something as irritating as the woman who declared you had received that which you did not.
What a shame you had already paid. When she asked you for the money after that you could have said: “I already did.”
May 18, 2008 at 7:32 pm
What a shame you had already paid. When she asked you for the money after that you could have said: “I already did.”
All we wanted by then was the coffee.
Never got it.
May 18, 2008 at 8:35 pm
i’d be inclined to refer your post to the owners, and then tell them your traffic stats.
i still find it surprising that the occasional and incredibly poor levels of “service” in good old enzed can still actually shock me.
May 18, 2008 at 9:15 pm
There is nothing bizarre about naming a sports viewing deck after somebody that has made a large contribution to a local sport. And if I was David Bain of Karori I would probably be pretty disappointed if anyone thought otherwise.
What is bizarre is that people give so little credit to the commonsense of community administrators. Why on earth would a sports club in Karori have named a viewing deck after ‘that’ David Bain of Dunedin?
Neverthess, I think its perfectly natural for somebody to notice the coincidence of the name, and I can even understand how it might prompt some to make a comment or ask a question about the origins of the name. But, I think its really unfortunate that anyone would notice the name, ask the question, get the answer, yet still suggest its bizarre (particularly with time to reflect on it before commenting in a public forum).
I wasnt involved in the building project or the naming of the viewing deck, but I do happen to know Mr Bain - and this post disappoints me bc I feel it unnecessarily disprects his longstanding contribution to local sport.
The deck was not named after David Bain “the murderer”. End of story.
I generally think this blog is great - thoughtful and well reasoned. But, I do suppose a good blog needs to get you worked up from time to time. So, credit there.
May 18, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Two of my sisters (one dead just now aue) are/were sooo effective at justly confronting people like your
till-person: they dont get angry; they simply & calmly state was is wrong from their perception of the event. They then announce they are not moving until satisfaction happens…I’ve been with them when they do it. I cringe. I cower. I go away. I cannot confront people, however they’ve ripped me off, directly…
but now! The whole world of blog just revenge has opened up!
May 18, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I run past that place almost every morning and often wonder if it’s any good - thanks for sparing me a gruesome experience.
May 19, 2008 at 8:53 am
> They had better hope the Solicitor General doesn’t turn up and ask the same question I did.
Maybe you’d like to explain why.
May 19, 2008 at 10:08 am
I had my first experience of the Karori Park cafe later that same afternoon. From ordering coffees to receiving them took 15 minutes. And even then we got our 2 coffees so far apart that the idea of drinking them together was never going to work.
It’s got a lot of potential. But the management there need to really rev up the staff and get them organised.
May 19, 2008 at 10:43 am
Completely off topic but perhaps of interest given the number of posts your review of his book generated - Ian Wishart will be on Nat Rad after 4pm as part of The Panel with Brian Edwards.
Now that should be an interesting contrast of opinions. I wonder if they will be sitting in the same studio. Radio with pictures would be revealing.
May 19, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Insider: The Panel (and Mora’s show in general) is all too genteel an affair to degenerate too badly. Even such diverse characters as Michelle Boag and Bomber Bradbury have been known to share a generous helping of enforced bonhomie.
L
May 19, 2008 at 2:16 pm
You’re back - brilliant! Missed your observations of Wellington life and great wrinting/commenting.
Haven’t been to Karori Cafe, but for Wellington cafes would rate Capitol (excellent menu and service, yes I acknowledge it is more a restaurant than cafe), Liquidate (great muffins and used to be amazing brioche), Cafe Laffare (almost a cliche to include it), Lido (the fries of course) and Bellagio in Hataitai (quiet, competent and nice chicken pie).
Places for coffee alone is a different conversation e.g. Coffee 32, Fuel, Kaffee Eis/Mojo, Havana. But talking about coffee is likely to create divides due to the strong views people have about their particular brew.
May 19, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Don’t forget the loudest cafe in town - Marenui
May 19, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Heh - Brian and Ian genuinely despise each other. I predict that its going to take a more powerful force of nature than Jim Mora to keep the blood off the floor.
May 19, 2008 at 5:21 pm
It seems to be a bit of an axiom that cafes in nice places will have average food and service, unfortunately. The exception is the Bach outside Island Bay, which has reasonable food, if slow service.
Oh, and I don’t think it can be contempt to call ones deck after the namesake of someone who will soon be on trial for murder, really.
May 19, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Then again, you could look at the service issue like this:
http://theimpostume.blogspot.com/2008/05/thats-when-i-reach-for-my-other.html
May 20, 2008 at 10:31 am
Me mum lives next to the park and we have been there a couple of times. It’s complete pants, but I would go there again just to look at the fantastic photos on the walls. The pictures of the 100 year old cricket teams are wonderful. It confirms that you shouldn’t sell your naming rights to a corporate sponser. Westpac Trust Stadium. Yeah, that’ll really catch on. Way better than something like, Lords, or even the Basin Reserve. At least there’s a story behind those names, a story other than: “This big corporation paid to advertise on our site”.
Bring back Victorian facial hair - how I tire of the hairless models on the naughties.
May 20, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Perhaps you should cut and paste your review in the review section for the Karori Park Cafe found at menumania.co.nz
May 20, 2008 at 7:31 pm
JY,
That’s one of the reasons ‘The Cake Tin’ was such a good name.
I was surprised at how many people complained about it being called that. The Aussies have a great tradition of nicknaming their stadiums (stadia?? whatever) and I wish we did more of it.
May 21, 2008 at 1:05 am
“Stadia”?!
The ‘correct’ way to form plural in English is to add an ’s’.
“Stadiums” for me, and “forums” while I’m at it.
May 21, 2008 at 7:47 am
Cafe Laffare (almost a cliche to include it)
Meh… the last time I went to Cafe L’Affare the service was slow, and not helped by having to send my food back because it wasn’t what I ordered. S**t happens, and I don’t expect waitpersons to be flawless replicants, but my meal wasn’t made any more savoury by the generous side order of crap attitude from someone I hope was a holiday temp. Is it totally unreasonable to (politely) ask for what you ordered?
OTOH, I’ve been to places where the food and coffee wasn’t exactly brilliant but the service was. It does matter. It seems to me that too many cafes don’t get that they’re a service industry.
May 22, 2008 at 11:00 am
Sometimes staff forget that they are running a business. Their business is to provide qauility food and service so that customers will come back again or spread the word. Ripping customers off and implying that they’re lying is the best way to make a person never come back again. And their food was shitty! Word will spread quickly around Karori that its not a place worth going to; no one will go and the place will have to be closed or sold. End of story. I often run around the park and have thought of stopping in. Ew ew ew, luke warm food. No thanks! Would love to see Gordan Ramsey in there knocking that cow of a woman down.
May 22, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Forgive my ignorance, but can anyone tell me what ‘OTOH’ means in Craig’s post above?
[Poneke: "On the other hand." While shortforms like this might look like txtspeak, they predate txting by many years. They were developed for use in email in the 1980s when email cost a fortune to send. Other examples include IIRC (If I recall correctly) and the fatuous LOL (laughing out loud). When txting arrived about 1999, these terms were quickly adopted by txters who tended to have no idea of their origin.]
May 22, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Ah! Of course. And BTW, thank you.
May 22, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I always thought they started on Usenet / Fidonet then carried through to email & IRC. I think it was in the IRC chatrooms were all the very bizarre roflol, roflmao, pml, and ever stranger permutations developed. Ah, those were the days.
May 22, 2008 at 7:49 pm
KARORI PARK CAFE is fab! I have been there at least a dozen times to have the cooked breakfast, which is always hot, delicious and a really good price. The perfect pick-me-up after a night out. The staff have never been rude to me, in fact I think the lady that runs it, Julia, is pretty funny. She is always smiling and has a joke to share, she’s always polite and friendly. I sit upstairs, read the paper and enjoy the view looking out over the David Bain deck (how ironic that two men share such an innocuous yet famous name). I would recommend Karori Park Cafe to anyone, great food, lovely staff, nice venue. It’s a bit like the ad on TV: Try it before you judge it. Don’t let someone elses bad experience put you off, I’m sure there’s a thousand great stories about that cafe that haven’t been blogged.
May 22, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Im sorry, but the irony of sitting out over david bain deck and enjoying a coffee is just too much…
June 4, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Um you ordered a cooked breakfast with bacon, sausages, hashbrowns etc. why would you expect it to be anything other than fatty?!!!!
You can’t expect cafe staff etc to be perfect every single second of their working day, they make mistakes like the rest of us and it sounds like what you experienced on your visit was a plain old mix up, which happens all the time in busy cafe’s such as this one, maybe if you hadn’t confronted them in such an agressive manner they would have been more receptive to you???
June 4, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I’m sorry, but the irony of sitting on the david bain deck murdering your family is too much….drinking coffee on the deck…not so ironic
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