Gentle Giant Cafe — Restaurant in Christchurch

While the cafe itself is nice and the staff friendly I ordered 2 takeway coffees at 8.12 am, there was only 1 other order of 4 coffees in front of mine (Which was already in process of being made), the barista didn't even start on my coffees until 8.25am and made orders that came in after mine before mine - on a busy day I can understand a wait but considering most coffees can be made 2 at a time and there was plenty of staff and no rush, waiting almost 15 minutes for them to even start on the coffee is a bit mad - I stopped in on my way to work and when the barista said he was about to start mine at 8.25 I had to walk out, there was no way they would be ready in time for me to wait and then get to work for 8.30... Really really disappointed, wasted $10 and didn't get anything.

Just to be fair, all the staff are friendly and the coffee is usually ok but just need to pick up the pace and make the orders in order, 15-20mins in a non busy (at the time) cafe is not okay and I'm not likely to go back and risk losing more money to coffee I might not even get!

(Also I've worked as a barista so I am well aware of how long it takes to make coffee)

Sorry Gentle Giant - Just...

Slow serving. Untrained workers. Very disappointed with my experience today from the moment I stood into the restaurant. First, I had to wait at a dirty table until they were asked to clean it MULTIPLE times. Already feeling uncomfortable, I waited for my order to come out; however, while waiting, I found the workers serving another table who ordered after us. With great annoyance, my friends and I asked the staff why our food was not served first but the worker was mumbling without a proper answer for us. From this moment, we just wanted to leave the restaurant however we had already paid so we decided to stay as we expected the food to be nice at least. But ‘SURPRISINGLY’, the food was very disappointing...

I usually come here often but haven’t as much after when I saw the chef quite literally touching food with no gloves on, touching my poached eggs. This has happened 3 times now and I really didn’t want to make a review. It made me feel sick to my stomach as he was squishing the poached eggs in between his fingers whilst and after they cooked and then placing them on the bread with his hands, no gloves or anything to scoop them on. Especially from what has been happening in the past couple of years with covid I know some people would hate to see this. Quite unhygienic. It’s a shame as I LOVE their food but the way they cook isn’t hygienic and clean. Please consider wearing gloves when touching other...