Sign of the Kiwi Cafe — Restaurant in Banks Peninsula Community

Loved this place a lot, and glad I made the impromptu decision to visit it on the last day of my trip. The cafe is located at Summit Road, it is housed in one of the several rest houses there were built in the early 20th century. The cafe also faces the Dyer Pass Road, a winding road leading up to the mountain and very popular with both hikers and cyclists in a weekend which makes it a great spot to let time pass and observe the surroundings. If you are able to get seats on the higher ground, you could get a nice view of Christchurch and the mountains as well.

The interiors itself is quite cosy and the best spots are the seats at the entrance. The food was delicious. I loved the breakfast "muffin" which is a delicious combination of pastry, eggs and bacon. The coffee's good too.

If you are driving, the Summit Road carpark in front of the cafe has limited lots and gets filled up pretty quickly. While there is a 1 hr limit for the parking, cars tend to park a little longer than that. The cafe is also located at the junction where there is access to several hiking trails around. The easiest one would be the Sugarloaf Loop which could take an hour-hour plus.

There is a toilet outside and bicycle...

I must say that some of the cabinet food is really good, and the scones are very nice too. Can't say the same about the coffee, though.

The main reason I'm only giving three stars is the inconsistency of the info on their website. I've recently noticed they advertise an all day breakfast, which I found really exciting. Well, the ALL DAY part is a big fat lie. When I got there at 3pm I found out the kitchen was closed and apparently had been closed since 2pm. The opening hours are also pretty confusing because it's till 3.30 on Google and till 5.00 on weekends on their website.

Oh, and to add to this, the manager (the owner? the old bold dude) seems to like having annoying conversations with customers. While I was there he decided to talk to a family sitting next to us. It was clear that two of them didn't understand him much and the third, who could, wasn't happy with this sudden attention. Yet the dude proceeded to tell them random facts about their country of origin. It seemed like there would be no end to him talking. Really made me understand what an acquaintance of mine meant when she said the guy was weird and was really pushy trying to sell...

The perfect place for our large family group to celebrate our Grandfather's birthday! Our plans for another cafe fell through at the last minute, so I rang Sign of the Kiwi and asked if they could accommodate a large group in about ten minutes time.. well, they reserved us a large table in their beautiful garden setting, and when we arrived we were so grateful as all their other tables were full! (Says a lot about how popular they are - no wonder with the outstanding food, service and atmosphere!). The wait staff were so friendly and helpful, and when they found out it was my Grandad's 88th birthday they even shouted him to an ice cream of his choosing on the house. These gestures of kindness and generosity go such a long way, and it topped off the most perfect morning of family time. We are so glad our original plans fell through, as it couldn't have beaten our experience at the Sign of the Kiwi - simply perfect! Thank you Louie (and the other lovely man too but I'm sorry I didn't get your...