Urban Soul Cafe — Restaurant in Ōtara-Papatoetoe

You know when you've just arrived, waiting to be seated and randomly look around at the customers? Generally, they're chatting, smiling, eating etc? I mostly saw customers looking around for a waiter, looking at their watches (which suggests they've been waiting awhile) and not a smile in sight. That was certainly a sign of what was to come.

I understand that Mothers Day is especially busy, but there were a lot of staff on that day. You are allocated 1.5 hours for your booking - you 100% need all of that. Two of our 6 meals arrived an hour later, one of those were incorrect twice. They had to go return it and come back again, still incorrect. One of those two that came an hour later, was stone cold. The food was presented well but that's where it ended. The Rosti was terrible - it was almost like it was bound with flour (although surely not) - so it had a floury uncooked cold middle, was not crispy at all, with an overwhelming Cumin flavor. No-one at the table finished their Rosti's.

The Kids Menu comprised of 3 things, short on options. And by the way, what kind of cafe doesn't serve Pancakes!!! I was gog-smacked to see the kids milkshakes come out in glasses rather than reusable plastic or metal glasses. Guarantee if we had of let our 2 year old hold the glass, it would have inevitably ended up on the ground and broke. A bit of common sense needed here guys.

When we went to pay out bill, we were all (other customers included) directed to the entrance area. So on one side of the table you had customers in line to check and pay their bill, that meant we were holding up all of the customers on the right of the table waiting to be seated. Our bill was wrong, we were overcharged, so we held up the line whilst she corrected it; and I needed a receipt so she had to go somewhere else to print it. Chaos!

Overall, pretty rubbish. We agreed that it was about the gathering and enjoying each others company, definitely not the food. You could not pay me to come back...

Upon our arrival, we were thankful to the waitress who approached our table with the menus. We ordered and started conversing. In the midst of our conversation, we started smelling a mouldy and foul smell and had to hold our breath for a few seconds. We then noticed one of the staff members had placed a laundry bag on the floor by the entrance which leads into the kitchen area. Once the service man had left with the bag, the smell left the room. We continued on with our delish breakfast. We then had the manager approach our table and looked awkward, only to say that she was just making sure that we were tended to and then walked away. Minutes later, a waitress approaches our table and clips a "RSVP for 12:30pm" on a stand, walks away and without the courtesy to inform us beforehand of what she was doing. From there, my friend and I felt uncomfortable and unwelcomed. At least wait till we had left before displaying the RSVP sign. Apart from this unfortunate incident, I have enjoyed my past experiences...

Came here after a very long time. The cabinet looked great with the savoury and sweet items. We ordered Scrambled Eggs with Ciabbatta with Hash Browns, Cream Cheese and Jam Bagel, Mango Match Smootie and Snickers Smootie. The eggs on ciabbatta was blend and basic. The tomatoe relish has to carry the burden of introducing flavour into the whole dish. The Bagel with cream cheese and jam was good. The Snickers smootie was good too. But blending lacked conviction. Lump of peanut butter sat at the botton due to neglect. The Mango Match smootie was good. Hash browns were a huge let down. At $7 for a pair, they were stuck together due to neglect when frying. Had to pull them apart and lesser cooked regions were there. Need to get better hash browns for this price tag too. Atmosphere was food, though the place needs more attention to deep cleaning. Corners visible with a cumulated dirt, black marks on furniture. Not expecting the place to look brand new however the lack of an detailed eye on cleaning is...