The Coffee Club Riccarton — Restaurant in Christchurch

Excellent service can mask a multiple of sins in hospitality, but where there are few sins or fault to be found, That excellence in detail can elevate ones appraisal of a dineing experience beyond belief. The Coffee Club recently came under new management, and I was very pleased to see it was a partner from the neighbouring Jamaican Blue Cafe just down the mall. Aval Singh is now the proud owner of Coffee Club, and he has brought his delightful warm personality, attention to detail and food prep excellence from down the hall to re-vitalise this long standing franchise to life. Just to reiterate, I am not a relative or employee, I just love how these guys operate. They have embraced the Kiwi culture and brought an excellence in service rarely experienced in the mall cafe culture. And egg bene is a national favourite, and mine was beautifully presented, hot and in a decent time frame considering it was noon on a school holiday. I suggest you choose the hash as a base. A lovely good sized crunchy outer with a soft sweet potatoes. The holindaise has a creamy slightly zest flavour and a bed of rocket (Rocket is the new spinach) A price factor we have learnt to adjust to..Bacon was soft, cooked appropriately and decent portion size. All up, for the price and location, excellent. My sweet tooth after meal caramel latte was served hot, flavoursome and with the meal. All in all, simple lunch with a side of smiles and love. Definitely worth a visit. Next week I'll give those pancakes a nudge.. Watch this space. Reviews shouldn't be reserved for just over priced restaurants and Michilen Stars ..I enjoy supporting the industry at all levels of service. Big heads up for The Coffee...

Set the scene - two gals up in Christchurch for a girls weekend, we decide to get out and have some breakfast to ensure we have enough energy to last the night. We head to riccarton mall and decide on eating at The Coffee Club where we are greeted by a lovely lady that asks us what we would like to eat. I ordered the smashed avocado with pumpkin and decide to add a poached egg and bacon alongside a delicious spiced chai latte (what my friend orders is irrelevant right now). We sit down, have a few sips of our delicious hot beverages on this cold Canterbury morning, we wonder why we aren’t able to smell bacon cooking, but are eagerly awaiting our breakfasts. Our food comings over looking as chilly as we are, it’s placed in front of us and we can both do nothing but laugh, else I’d cry. My ciabatta was as pale as a ghost, the smashed avocado had a spray tan that made it go a horrible brown colour along with some lovely looking stringy bits and the pumpkin was green and raw, my sliced tomatoes looked as though they’d seen better days and were also paler than a ghost, my egg looked like a dollop of aioli and the bacon that you would assume was rashers of bacon was shoulder bacon and probably raw. I don’t believe my meal was cooked at how cold it was, but more like defrosted which explains why we smelt nothing being cooked. A few hours later I ended up back at our hotel vomiting. Looking back I should have sent the meal back and order from the cabinet food as this in total cost me $40 and my pie I had the next morning was only $5 and tasted like...

Waited more than 20 minutes for my food to arrive and it wasn't even up to par. For the price you pay for the food ($25.75 for the sandwich that was literally just split into 4 pcs of a whole sandwich and $9.89 for my coffee that made me feel so sick afterwards), you would've hoped it would at least taste good. It didn't.

Based on previous reviews, customer service ain't good either - and I can agree. The experience with the food could've been less terrible if the staffs were hospitable enough. Sadly, they weren't. They refuse to acknowledge you, specially the white lady in the counter today. Horrifying.

Just gave this café a try as I was out of options for lunch. Made a terrible decision, so will not be back, certainly and ever. Beware with trying this café, it's just not good for the money you pay. Almost $40 for a less than average tasting food and a terrible service....