Hello Friends + Allies — Restaurant in Albert-Eden

Having apparently blown their entire staff budget on 3 unfriendly hipsters with artisanal man-buns and immaculately manicured beards, this place was left dreadfully short-staffed on the weekday lunch we visited. After seating ourselves out back, we were left without water or menus for about 10 minutes. I tried to serve myself but the water self-service station out back was utterly depleted, so I took the empty jugs to the front counter to request they be refilled (and that they bring us a menu when they had the time). The menu (pictured) was shockingly pretentious and overpriced, and the staff member who eventually served us (who I assume was perhaps an owner given her appearance and lack of familiarity with the iPad they used for taking orders -- she made quite a show of blundering through the ordering system) unfortunately took the wrong order for my wife, meaning that our mains arrived 40 minutes apart, with no apology -- I just sated myself with 9 dollars worth of coffee while waiting for my wife's actual order to arrive. I ordered what looked like the "mixed grill"/"big breakfast" option but, as you will see from the photo, it was not. Bonus points for the filthy kids toys out back that were covered with a sticky film and crumbs and looked like they had never once been cleaned since their acquisition, and the dead and gone-to-seed herb garden on the back balcony accompanied by soggy bucket of cigarette butts. All the hipster charm/grunge with true Remuera/Parnell pricing. If I could give this place zero stars, you can be...

I visited this café yesterday and was left really disappointed. I ordered eggs on toast for $14 and a fluffy for my dog. The menu clearly listed fluffy as $2, so I expected that price. However, when I went to pay, I was charged $3.80 for the fluffy.

When I asked why, I was told that it’s “a different price for a dog.” This was confusing, because it wasn’t stated anywhere on the menu, and the dog fluffy didn’t even have the extras like chocolate on top or a marshmallow (which are usually included for kids). If anything, it should have been cheaper than $2, not almost double the price.

Under the Fair Trading Act in New Zealand, it’s illegal to mislead consumers with unclear or incorrect pricing. Customers should be charged the price they see advertised — not something different at the till. So if I had known it was $3.80, I wouldn’t have ordered it to begin with.

I also work in a popular dog-friendly café, and we always charge the same for both ($2.50), which is the standard across most cafés in Auckland. Charging almost $4 without clear notice feels like taking advantage of customers because at that price, you could buy an entire 1L or more of just plain milk from the supermarket. Sadly, this experience felt unfair and left a bad impression and I don't think that I will be coming back...

We tried to provide feedback at the counter but honestly, the staff were not interested at all in even saying sorry so I’ll post here. The entire experience was frustrating to say the least as as we got our food 1.25 hours after sitting down and people who came much later and ordered same thing got there before us. There was terrible wait staff who ignored us, didn’t bring water, forgot knifes and forks when food eventually came and just seemed to have no idea what was going on. Not the typical friendly kiwi cafe environment we all know and love. I get places are ‘busy’ but it actually was emptying out when we arrived and 1/2 by time food came so who knows how they would even handle a full house. I’d been wanting to go for ages so made the trip and while food was phenomenal (besides stone cold bacon), the service and wait time were astoundingly bad. I wished the staff had even registered that something was wrong or listened to concerns but even cashier at the end didn’t say sorry, just oh, busy day. Perhaps the space is just too big to handle but it’s not like they are new. If you can, go on a weekday and sit at front so you can make sure you are...