The General Café — Restaurant in Bay of Plenty

Came in for breakfast with my wife on a Saturday morning around 11. Wasn’t too busy and we were easily able to find a table. Was met on entrance by a friendly staff member, but that’s where the good service ended. Ordered a flat white for myself, black coffee for the mrs and some food. The coffee was horrendous. I’m pretty easy to please with coffee, but I literally took one sip and that was all I had. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever not finished a coffee I’ve paid for. The waitress came to take the cup away and noticed it was still full, but I told her she could clear it. She asked to make sure and I said it wasn’t good, she took it away and that was the end of it. I would have thought she might say something like ‘what seems to be the problem’ or ‘would you like us to make you another one’ but no, she just took it and walked away. My wife needed some more hot water for her coffee, as it was pretty bad too and she didn’t finish it either, so we asked another waitress for some hot water when we received our food, but she never brought it to us. When we’d finished our food, another waitress walked up and said ‘are you finished’ then took our plates. Not an inherently bad question, but it was the attitude in which she said it. My wife felt as though the staff are not happy working there. She is an experienced chef working in a cafe in Tauranga and has experience working in a cafe kitchen at the Mount too, so I trust her judgement on these things. Anyway, I can’t see myself ever visiting this place again. It was just a bland and generally poor experience overall. Pretty disappointing, as it has potential to be an amazing cafe with the...

I'd give them zero stars if the option was available. Unfortunately I have to give them a thoroughly undeserved 1 star rating in order to give a review. Where to start: From the moment we arrived our waiter had an attitude problem. The food took an an hour and 15 minutes to arrive. We were not informed of any sort of long wait time prior to ordering, but were when we chased up with the waiter, although there was clearly something else going on as everyone around us who had arrived after us were served before us. When the food finally arrived it was cold, and underwhelming. My partners vegan falafel and tofu scramble consisted of a bag of salad and one piece of tofu, with buttered bread on the side (brilliant for a vegan). I wish I could say the highlight of the experience was finally being able to leave, but even this was a disaster. The owner/manager taking payments had an attitude, absolutely no apology was offered for the countless mistakes, and to make matters worse we were overcharged for numerous items we did not order. When we spotted the mistake, again all we got back was attitude and no apology. To add insult to injury, we were then charged a 15% surcharge as it was a public holiday. Absolutely no mention was made of this when we arrived, nor was it stated in the menu. Avoid this place...

My family I recently went to the General for lunch and unfortunately, we had a very disappointing experience. When we arrived, we were immediately put off by the fact that all of the high chairs were dirty. We had to wait for a long time for a server to come to our table, and even then, they were not very attentive, have to say it was not busy at all and there was staff walking around. We ended up having to get our own drinks, which maybe is just normal there.

When our food finally did arrive, it was actually pretty good. However, the poor service completely ruined our dining experience. We also felt very uncomfortable with the waitress and the guy in the counter who was not nice at all and was more playing with the stuff than serving to the clients.

I used to love this place, and after a year came back and definitely the last time.

Overall, we would not recommend to anyone unless you are just passing by and eant to grab a drink or something. The food may be good, but the service is terrible.

Please train your current staff to be more attentive, remind waitstaff to be professional and respectful of customers.

I hope this...