Child Sister — Restaurant in Christchurch

Initially I thought this place had a cool vibe with the chill techno music but listening to the repetitive high pitch sounds was nothing short of "Please make it stop!". It was quite loud, not background music.

My first impressions of the decor was disappointing, as it didn't appear finished. High exposed beams and the a-typical exposed extractor vents, concrete floor and white walls and ceilings with an unusual large curved wall around the semi-exposed kitchen.

The blandness of the all white walls with no artwork made it look unfinished and naked, bare, not inviting at all. Like what is that wall about?

It would look one hundred times better if they had plants hanging from the beams all through the cafe. It's a really large space and and there's no softness in the decor, apart from the gross micro suede padded swabs for seating around the wall and windows, which were covered in dried up spilt food and God knows what else.

I couldn't find a clean table to sit at and my table never got cleaned after I sat down. I had to wipe crumbs from the swab. The sugar container was dirty and the sugar was stuck together from someone else putting their wet spoon in there. Much prefer individual raw sugar satchet's than open containers for sugar. You would think that would be a wise move with the whole cross contamination concerns with Covid?

The coffee was excellent as I was informed that it was from the Lyttleton Coffee Company. I ordered the eggs benny that came with spinach, a rosti and bacon. The eggs were undercooked and seeing translucent egg white when I cut into my egg, made me feel sick. Sent it back and when the new cooked eggs came back, the waitress left me sitting there with no replacement cutlery to eat my lunch. I tried waving at her but she was oblivious and then turned her back to me until I caught her eye and did the whole I need a fork and knife body language with my hands.

The spinach tasted dirty, the bread average, the bacon was good and the poor excuse for a potato rosti, was a thick round of mashed potato lightly grilled on each side. Nothing like a rosti which is generally grated potato, light and crispy.

The whole place felt really filthy. Dirty seats, table, floor and windows. When I passed on my constructive feedback about how the decor didn't look finished and made some suggestions of some large artworks or hanging plants to finish it off and how I did interiors, the waiter disagreed with me and told me he thought it was one of the best cafe's for ambience in the CBD, that the owners like it like that.

I disagreed and then he asked me where else was better? I really disliked his self righteous attitude. There are much more constructive and polite ways to have a discussion with a customer so they feel heard and treated with respect. There are so many other cafe's that have much more aesthetically pleasing decor. I rattled off a few and he agreed with me that they were all really nice. Then he admitted to me that he got similar comments a lot like mine about the decor from customers. I replied "Maybe they should listen to their customers?!".

Won't be back! Nothing good apart from the coffee. You won't be able to find a clean seat or table to have your coffee, so get it to takeaway.

The Asian cooking staff all had long hair tied back, but had lose long fly away bits of hair around their face and no hair nets or chef's hats. The health and safety standards don't appear to be very high. Whole place...

Last week I visited your cafe with a friend. We both ordered the Kimchi grilled cheese sandwich - one normal, one gluten-free. Your customers should be aware that the gluten-free sandwich is half the size of the 'normal' sandwich - both costing the same. We asked the waitress why this should be and it apparently is due to the shape of the loaves. They are delicious, but it should be noted in the menu or in the cabinet that the portion sizes are different, and if there is a good reason for this customers should be advised before purchase. It seems a bit unfair that hungry gluten-free people get a half size! The dish comes with fries or lemon slaw. Being very hungry we opted for both. As this was an either/or option we assumed that the total cost included extra payment for having both. Within minutes of receiving the meal we were accosted (there is no other word for it) by a staff member whose manner suggested that we were trying to defraud the system by not paying for the extra side. It seemed there had been an error by the delightful young man on the counter. We are understanding of errors and happily paid for the extra portions. But please don't treat us as criminals when an error has been made by staff. We did receive an apology from the young man at the counter but not from the 'accoster' who could do with a few...

완전 맛있어요!! 🥹

I found this place via google map and noticed it was so near to our hotel. So we set foot early this morning for some breakfast grub before heading to the popular playground across.

Now I did not expect to order such ‘heavy’ items for breakfast (more so at 8am!) but seeing that it’s the most popular items on the menu and we are skipping lunch due to a full day of itinerary, we went ahead to order them

🥪 Grill kimchi sandwich: sooo good. Made even better that the kimchi wasn’t overripe (sour) and all the flavours were on point. Also special shoutout to the sourdough bread used - incredibly flavourful

🍚 Kimchi Omelette Egg rice: when this arrived my little one said she should have ordered that instead of sandwich. I knew it was her favourite so I ordered it intentionally … and we swapped plates. She ate every grain of rice and left the plate clean. Also helped that she’s been without rice for 2 weeks during our travels in NZ 😄 #riceislife

🍳 Gochujang shakshuka: another winner, while the sauce isn’t spicy as other places that I’ve had, what really made this dish special were the meatballs.

I wish I found this place earlier and not on our last day in NZ 😢 I guess as they always say “saving the best for last” .. so here I am, leaving this review so others will...