CafeBlog

Pumped Cafe is located at the Glen Eden Railway Station on West Coast Road in the historic railway building.

We ordered a ‘build your own’ breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, hash brown and toast. The bacon and eggs were fine, but the hash (which was made on-site) was not cooked long enough - the potato was still quite crisp and had that raw-ish taste.

For coffee’s we ordered a trim latte and soy mocha. The latte was fine, but the mocha came with standard milk. On querying this, the mocha was promptly remade.

Perhaps they were just having a bad day; the service was ok, but the food and coffee just didn’t really come up to scratch.

Drive about a minute past Kumeu and you’ll come to the architecturally designed building that is Bees Online. Aside from being a cafe Bess Online is also a premium honey producer, several hives are on site - one with a glass viewing area from inside the building. Although there are hives on site there never seems to be any bees floating around your food or the cafe area, so there’s no need to worry too much about being stung or annoyed while you’re trying to enjoy yourself.

The food here is always delicious and focuses on using honey as an ingredient, but this visit was just for a coffee. My soy mocha was just as good as the food, and couldn’t be faulted. If you’re looking for a place to take your Mum on Mother’s Day, then this would be it. A reminder though to phone and book at least a week before. This cafe is often packed on weekends, and there is a good chance that without booking, there will be a long wait for a seat.

Bees Online also has a comprehensive website where you can view the cafe menu and order their products, along with other information about the business.

Recommended.

We visited Fresco Garden Cafe around lunchtime on a Saturday afternoon. I was expecting it to be quite busy, and when we walked in and saw only a few customers, I was beginning to wonder what we had let ourselves in for.

I shouldn’t have worried though. The food and coffee were excellent. We ordered a big breakfast to share, and it was big with sausages, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, etc. All you could expect and plenty of it. The coffees were also of a good size and went down well.

I guess we either struck it lucky with a quiet patch, or perhaps the fact that this cafe is not on the main road makes it one of those local secrets.

Fresco Garden Cafe is located in the garden centre on Margan Avenue in New Lynn and is well worth a visit.

Situated on the corner of State Highway 16 and the Riverhead / Coatesville Highway, Blossoms sits on the edge of an orchard. When you first approach the building you might think it’s a little small, but it’s like the TARDIS, larger on the inside. Add to that an enclosed deck, and an outside patio area, and you’ve got plenty of choice for seating. The deck is a great place to sit, overlooking the fruit trees and the various chickens and ducks that are roaming around, certainly makes you forget that civilisation is only a couple of minutes away.

Our coffees were a trim latte and soy mocha; they were hot and strong. I thought the mocha was a little bitter, but a quick stir-in of the chocolate soon dispelled that idea. We also ordered pancakes to share and they arrived quickly. Three reasonable size pancakes, about 8 rashers of bacon, a banana, and maple syrup soon makes one quite full, even when sharing.

This isn’t our first visit here, and as always the service is good. Blossoms can be very busy during the lunchtime rush, so it’s best to try and plan your visit either earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon.

There are some cafes which are more restaurant than cafe, and Cafe Massimo comes into this category. We arrived around lunchtime wanting only coffee and cake, and as we neared the counter we were approached by two waitstaff asking us to take a seat and order from the menu. Hmm.

Our soy mocha and latte came out in due course along with the cake - a gluten free chocolate cake fulled with almonds. To be honest, the cake was the best of the whole experience, it was rich, but not overly so; just perfect. Unfortunately the coffee was just ok, nothing amazing here.

What really turned us off was the fish. Yep, you read that right. The fish.
We didn’t  order fish, but someone else did, and as soon as it came out of the fridge / freezer / coolroom or wherever it was stored, you could smell it - and not in a good way. Think of dead fish, baking on a wharf in the sun for three days and you would be coming close to the smell. Even after it was cooked and delivered to the table over from us it still had that horrid “I’ve been rotting in the rubbish sack” smell, so we left pretty quickly. Fish should never, never smell like that; and it’s unlikely we’ll be returning.