Urban Cafe — Restaurant in Canterbury

Review of Urban Cafe, Timaru

Urban Cafe in Timaru, set in a Warehouse store, impresses with its quality food, notably a tasty BLT. However, the dining experience is let down by the service. On a visit with seven people, including kids, we faced a basic issue: a lack of napkins.

Asking for more revealed a rigid policy and an employee afraid of getting in trouble by management refusing to hand out more napkins instead telling me I needed our request for an extra napkin directly approved by management.

This lack of customer focus, and autonomy given to staff was disappointing. I would not recommend for families.

I would suggest to leadership to consider basic essentials like napkins should be built into the pricing. I also recommend to give your staff autonomy to make decisions that are customer focused. Food and pricing and profit are not the only aspects. Your customers want to see your staff treated well and also want to be welcomed not turned at the cost of a couple napkins.

Note to those who may think I was requesting a large handful of napkins. When denied our table had less than 1 napkin per person.

Instead we were left wiping out hands on our clothing bringing my rating down from five to...

One star for tenacity!! - I was treated extremely badly by the owner who refused to apologize or reimburse me for a barely luke warm and weak coffee. When I tried to say, "But, I am a customer" [inferring 'whatever happened to listening?'] she replied ''Well, I'm the owner"! She went on to rant about how many coffees they make in a day (500 I learned) and what did I expect from a 'one shot' coffee which is normal for the size I had ordered. It ended with her stating there would be no refund or replacement, and promptly stormed off. Wow - this happened in front of other customers and her staff - not a way either to gain respect or clientele. And this exchange occurred with her standing over me while I sat! This is not the first time I've had bad coffee and food from this establishment, however this time it wasn't funny and needed to be addressed respectfully which is what I tried to do. I'm afraid I will definitely not be back after this occasion, and nor will my friend, who was with me and was just as baffled at this complete Fawlty Towers approach to a customer complaint. Missing the boat a bit, Urban...

We got a cup of tea and coffee, and was stopped from taking off the cover that was placed over the muffins, as this was obstructing the view, as I couldn't see properly what they looked like. Also, I went to take a water bottle to my table, and was prevented from doing this, as I might put salt into the bottle. The staff were rude, and need to use manners. Hardly any cafe has stopped me taking a water bottle to my table, unless they are short of bottles. In those cases, staff politely offer to fill our glasses, or get us another one to use at our table. It seems that you can't do anything without asking. Perhaps you have to ask the staff if as to whether you eat your food before your drinks, after your drinks, or at the same time. I would advise anyone dining at a cafe, not to go there. It's not the only cafe in Timaru. There are others that offer great service. Robert Harris at Washdyke and the Ballentynes shop being...