Wellington Functions Team (Manaaki located at Wharewaka Function Centre) — Attraction in North Island

I went to Karaka cafe with some work colleagues on a brilliantly sunny Wellington day. As most people know there aren't that many options for sunny cafes so we were lucky to get a seat. Given its location I would assume this place would get a lot of tourists which really concerns me given the service we got from the wait staff.

We had 3 people serving us which seemed kind of bizarre in itself and none of them seemed to talk to each other. One staff member had a real attitude problem and instead of asking whether we 'were ready to order' we were asked 'what do you want to eat'. Not exactly the most polite person I have ever been served by.

Our order included some of the salads from the front cabinet, we were told we might be lucky as a big table had just ordered a lot of the cabinet food. But she would 'let us know'. There was no 'letting us know' instead we received our salads after a short wait which was impressive given the number of people dining there. One of the salads was a beetroot, spinach, pinenut and feta salad however when it arrived it appeared someone had stolen all the feta as it looked as though one crumb of feta had been skidded over the top of a piece of beetroot! We thought best to speak up and once we managed to find a waitress (one without the attitude) we were rewarded with a bounty of feta in a wee bowl on the side which was nice.

All in all it was a bit of a disappointing experience, and I would be particularly concerned if this is the image Wellington is sending to...

Never been before. Was greeted ... bo I wasn't greeted I was yelled for being about to sit in a reserved section. I apologized for my mistake. They left me standing there so I assumed I had to seat myself. I asked another person if I could sit at a table they said yes. And I was ignored from then on. I managed to find a menu and go up and order my food. The woman who initially barked at me and my friend also yelled at us again when I started to use my vape. I apologised she rolled her eyes. I have never felt more unwelcome in an establishment before. Dont know the hype is. Grumpy staff is that...

Lovely sunny day. Ordered an iced tea ($6) at the bar. 20 minutes later I flag down a waitress and proceed to ask if my order had been lost. She says that iced tea is not an item on their menu. I tell her that I've already ordered and paid. Five minutes later another waiter produces a glass of sad, tepid, iceless tea with a wedge of lemon floating at the top.

All this just for a beanbag at...