CafeBlog

I’ve often driven past Car-fe and thought that’d be the place to go to one day when I’m feeling rich.

Well, the car needed a damn good wash and I was in Greenlane, so why not. I was quite surprised at just how cheap a hand-wash and polish actually was. For just over $50 the car got a hand wash and polish, all the glass cleaned, a thorough carpet vacuum, and the wheels polished; I got a soy mocha and a home-baked cheese scone.

Ah yes. While you watch the lads outside busily cleaning your car, you can sit inside and admire the hard work whilst supping a decent tasting coffee. The scone was mighty tasty too. So all up, absolutely no complaints over either the car clean or the food.

Car-fe is located at 127 Greenlane Road, right beside the roundabout, and when I’m feeling lazy and the car needs another clean I’ll most likely be back.

Originally we had been going to visit Escape on the recommendation of a friend with the comment “best coffee ever”, but being the Christmas season so many cafes are closed. This included Escape, so we crossed Mt Eden Rd and enjoyed lunch at Sierra.

We ordered the usual soy mocha and trim latte, and for food chose chicken fettucine and a caramel square. The coffees were great: with strength, temperature and flavour all checking the right boxes. The food was superb. The chicken fettucine came out of the display cabinet and was heated to a good temperature with extra cheese added, but what really impressed us was the bowl it was served in.

Most pasta dishes come in a very wide and shallow bowl and your pasta ends up drenched in oil and gets cold very quickly - you may like this, I don’t. The bowl from Sierra however, was deep and not overly wide. This had the benefit of keeping the food at the lower levels warm while you were eating it, as well as allowing the majority of the oil to drain to the bottom, leaving the pasta pleasantly moist but not a stodgy-gooey mess. I think of our entire visit here, this is what impressed me most.

The caramel square was divine - a firm chocolate top, gooey caramel centre and very crunchy base added up to more than the sum of it’s parts. I don’t know if it was created on the premises or ordered from a contract bakery, but it’s the best caramel square I’ve had in a long time.

Whether it’s just for a coffee or for food as well, you can’t go wrong with a visit here.

Aroma Cafe is located at the food court of the 277 shopping mall in Newmarket, and is one of the best mall cafes I’ve ever visited. There was such an extensive and delicious looking range of cabinet food available that I had a really tough choice trying to decide what would be best for lunch.

I ended up choosing the curried chicken panini, which was as great tasting as it looked. My soy mocha was also hot, large (although it came in a mug ) and tasted superb.

Coffee and food this good is highly unusual in a food court, so top marks to the staff of Aroma Cafe - oh, and you’re forgiven for using mugs.

There are two Meccas in Mission Bay. One in the old Stone House, and the other in the “shopping strip” on Tamaki Drive. We visited the Tamaki Drive cafe for a lunchtime snack.

It wasn’t overly busy and we were able to grab a table right away and order the usual soy mocha and latte reasonably quickly. The coffees were strong. I didn’t think so at first, but once I got through the frothed milk on top - whew! - it was almost enough to blow your socks off. Similar to my experience at Mink Cafe in Parnell the cups were smallish, but you certainly got your caffeine quota. We had also ordered the ricotta pancakes to share. These were great; they were light and fluffy with just the right amount of bacon, banana and maple syrup delivered to last the entire stack. I’m not a fan of cream cheese, and was a little concerned that there may be cream cheese everywhere, but again, there was sufficient to get a taste without overwhelming you.

The service was polite, but it’s a pity that so many of the wait staff in what I guess you’d call the “posher” areas have so much trouble cracking a smile. Oh well - I guess you can’t have everything.

If you’re after a real caffeine hit, then this is your place.

Mink Cafe is situated on the corner of Parnell Road and Heather Street. There was plenty of seating around lunchtime when we wandered in, and as it was a nice day we chose to sit outside.

The coffees were a tad smaller than I would have expected. For $5 one normally gets a reasonably large cup, but this is Parnell and your dollar certainly doesn’t go as far here. Aside from the size issue, the coffee was good and strong, no quibbles there.

Interestingly, when it came to paying, the staff seemed to have not much idea about who sat where and whether it had been paid for. One wonders if perhaps the higher price / smaller coffee is to make up for those sitting outside who just get up and walk away once finished. I don’t condone this sort of behaviour at all, however a little more attention from the staff may have been a “good thing”.