Friends Cafe — Restaurant in Bay of Plenty

Our visit to this café on a quiet Friday morning turned out to be an interesting but chill start to the day.

The staff were lovely, and we got to meet the new owner who had just taken over a week ago.

Portions were generous, and here’s how we rated our dishes:

Eggs Benedict with Bacon – 3/5. The flavour of dill and paprika on the potato was unexpected. Unfortunately, the eggs were slightly overdone and no runny-yolk as we’d hoped. Just okay.

Mexican Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict – 4/5. You can’t go wrong with smoked salmon, and they didn’t—there was plenty of it, topped with perfectly runny-yolk eggs. The sauce had just the right amount of spice. The salmon roe, while visually appealing, didn’t add much to the flavour. Overall, a good dish.

Steak & Mushroom – 3.5/5. The steak was cooked to my liking, but the mushroom sauce, while creamy, was a bit too salty with an unexpected stock or spice that didn’t quite hit the mark. The fried egg was perfect, and the salad was fresh. The chips were sprinkled with paprika, as was much of the dish—plain might have been better. An okay meal.

Pancakes – 3/5. Fluffy but lacking in flavour. The banana wasn’t as caramelised as expected, and the bacon was fine. Just okay.

The Mango Smoothie was delicious, and while the Oreo Thickshake and Peanut Butter Thickshake tasted on the healthier side, they hit the sweetness spot we were looking for after a couple of sugar packets were added.

Good layout, and the huge windows that let in loads of light was a winner. The First Table offer was much appreciated, especially as we couldn’t finish everything and ended up taking home three containers.

All the best with your new business—thanks for the...

Booked a first table here for a treat and was sadly disappointed. I'm so glad I had the first table deal as the cost of a meal and iced coffee would have otherwise been ridiculous. All up we ordered 2x breakfast items and had asked to swap out our sides(mine was potatoes so I swapped for a Rosti as was more suited for an eggs Benedict) as well as a side of chicken and 2x drinks. It was nearly $70 for these with the 50% off all food items aside from cabinet foods deal we claimed with first table. When receiving the bill we queried the cost of the food items as it was far too high for the foods/drink we had received. The cashier provided us a print out of the meal and we noticed that we had been charged for the foods that we had switched in our order which was ok but they had not applied the deal that we had claimed of 50% off all food and argued that it didn't apply to additional sides. We read through the terms of the deal and that was untrue. She then tried to act as though the overcharge wasn't much and make us feel ashamed for pushing for a fair deal. I don't usually follow up with these types of arguments as it's embarrassing but this cashier had been quite rude from the get go and I felt like we had been taken advantage of. Aside from all of that the food was really well presented, a bit strange with the flavor combinations(dukkah sprinkled over hollandaise) but I still ate my entire plate so can't have been too strange. My advice, if dining here ask for the pricing if not listed on the menu as there are a lot of spelling mistakes and...

It’s fair to say some of the Favourite Husband’s thriftiness is rubbing off on me. Earlier in the week I passed Friends cafe with a sign advertising a mid-week breakfast deal. Could we shoehorn this in as opposed to a dinner date? Would the money saved go in to my back pocket for my facelift fund? The answer to both of these ponderous questions was “Hell yes.” So Thursday morning saw me take the Favourite Husband to Friends cafe. When I’ve previously walked past, I often see the staff chatting with people seated outside. So Friends looked friendly. Plus Matthew Perry and all that … well you get my drift. And I was right (obvs) super nice staff, very smiley, quick service and just an all round good feel. I went with the smashed avo, a side of bacon and I asked for the toast on the side. The Favourite Husband, not known for any spontaneity or breaking the chains of confinement, went with the usual big breakkie. Holy macaroni, there must have been two avocados on my plate. Absolute taste sensation. With crumbled feta, red onion and lemon. The bacon was perfect and the toast was duly on the side as requested. There was so much I actually couldn’t finish it. And I’m a glutton so … And the same with the big breakkie, great presentation, huge amount of food, piping hot, and decadent garlic roasted potato to top it all off. The coffee was hot and strong. Much like the Favourite Husband. As we left we agreed that a mid-week breakkie date here could become a regular thing. Great...