Ahipao — Local services in Waiheke

Firstly, the setting of this cafe is beautiful and has an amazing view, so it is worth a visit just for that if you’re after a coffee or a cheeky arvo wine. The fit out is also really nice and I could imagine eating many a good meal here followed by a few drinks off the extensive drinks menu. Unfortunately the service and food menu just doesn’t match up with the rest. For such a delightful venue, ordering and paying at the counter seemed a bit odd, there were tables waiting to be cleared and half swept rubbish sitting on the floor. When we asked for some water we were told where it is. The level of friendliness that makes a restaurant great was just not there. The fried chicken was yum, but could do with some more sauce and the fries were a bit like they’d re-fried the left overs from someone else’s plate. Small things like a greeting when we walked in and giving us more than one menu would have made a big difference to our experience. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to return but would be tempted by an updated, more restaurant like menu and reports of...

Got off a ferry with a group of friends and came to this cafe. We did not have a reservation and we were met by a really friendly junior staff member who tried to accommodate us and went to ask the duty manager, Constance, who decided to come and point us out to the door saying “Leave please, we don’t have space for you”. The looks she gave each member of our team was extremely demeaning. We appreciate that you didn’t have space but please teach your duty manager some manners when it comes to dealing with customers. It was an overall embarrassing experience as other customers were looking on. We are all a bunch of professionals and do not deserve to be spoken to in this manner. She could have offered us takeaway coffees but we were simply told to leave....

This restaurant doesn't open on time, leading to a confusing mess between the people walking over from the ferry and the people who arrived earlier and had been asked to wait outside on the deck for 15 minutes past the purported start of business.

Portions are small across the board. $40 gets you about the right amount of food sustenance to nourish a patch of tree lichen from sun-up through to half past noon. The potato hash cakes in particular were positively microscopic - their main ingredients surely being grease, air and salt in that order.

Decent unelevated, non-panoramic views out to the water in the distance. Two of the three staff who served us seemed pleasant enough to be a good fit for the...