Truffle Cafe — Restaurant in Christchurch

06/06/2022 UPDATED REVIEW 📄

Think 🤔 carefully about what time ⏲️ you head to this café

SUGGEST A DEEP CLEAN NEEDED ~ NEARLY ALL STAFF OFF OVER THE last few weeks.

The CLEAN would be to future proof the peace and mind of customers and HEALTH AND SAFETY OF STAFF MEMBERS plus Customers!

I know you are responsible folk ~ so do this CLEAN up for your business 🙄

Truffle staff are amazing, accommodating, kind, flexible, friendly, welcoming and easy to be with. The food surpasses any other café in town. Fresh, wholesome, mainly local and made fresh on site. Amazing chefs. Cabinet food, salads, menu, all worth a brunch / lunch, morning or afternoon tea 🍵 😋 Should be café of the year.

Has recently been sold, still scrumptious food 😋 however, and I am reluctant to say this because 99% of the staff awesome 👌 that remains a lonely 10% who SHOULD BE CONSIDERING WHERE A CAFÉ is their correct place to work in! The Baristas work hard, the female chefs and till staff members work well, the key let down is the tables!! No one cleans them! Taking the dishes away from the table is not clean it is simply clearing...spray and wipethe mess up guys! Not hard ! Sad😒 I love Truffle 💜 just do not like their unclean tables.

Watch out also for the checking of vaccine passes! A few staff do, mostly NOT. It does matter in a pandemic, for the obvious reasons, health and safety. I wonder whenever I see all the customers pile through, how safe is the place??

Secondly, if they flout the rules of health and safety, can you trust the hygiene scenario when you aren't looking, food wise that is!?

03/11/23

Having been a regular person to go to this particular café, every two months while in town, ( near the daughter's school ) we have watched a steady decrease in customers with an even bigger decrease in staff members! What staff there are, some work hard while others couldn't care less about the place, and are super excited and keen to start locking up the outside furniture at 1:15pm onwards!! Plus telling customers 🙄 the café is closing early!? Whilst the shop door says 3pm?? Heavens ~ a café with no other cafés in sight and they start locking up the outside tables and serving takeaways from 1:15pm..lololooo would be laughable if not true!

Then they OVERNIGHT INCREASED the prices 😒 🙄 a $6.10 cheese scone went up to $7.50 / a $5 cheese roll to $7.50 / a Peter Timbs small half size sausage roll from $10:50 to $13:50 - go buy at Peter Timbs for $5:00 / a wee GF iced cake is now $13:50 brought in for around 40 in a box at $2 each / a pie was $10:50 now $13:50. Small salad and I mean small spoonful $10:50 Totally in excusable prices, greedy pricing! NOT WORTH THE TIME NOR MONEY.

Great wee café at Cocoa Black Merivale, with exactly 💯 the same cheese scones at $5:00 or Chicottis Merivale , again with appropriately priced items 😀 and super delicious 😋 to boot. Notwithstanding neither of these stores are telling you they shutting soon, at 1:15 ~ absolutely 💯 go to another worthy less greedy and neighborhood café. Truffle clearly have forgotten we I'm Merivale are...

Well, well. After hesitating to document a review and upon reading bad review after bad review (many of which are current) there is something seriously amiss with the management of this cafe in the calibre of staff that are employed. Today I visited to have a coffee, presenting a loyalty card which was full and due a free coffee (which should indicate to staff that I am a regular customer and willing to spend consistent money at this cafe (not to be sneezed at in the current climate I would think)). On arrival at 12.05pm there were only two other customers in the cafe. No reflection on the person who took my order because, seemingly, she was very new to the role but she was unfamiliar what to do at the till with a free coffee order so sought the assistance of the staff who was making coffee. I had to repeat my order again and then took a seat and waited and waited and waited. Whilst waiting, several more groups of customers entered the cafe. The staff member acting as barista was also delivering coffees and as she passed my table some 15minutes after placing my order I asked where my coffee was. She attempted to 'argue' and what was my table number, (I hadn't been given that ID by the new staff member) they were busy etc. etc. When I stated that when I entered the cafe there were only two people there. Obviously, not liking to be challenged retorted "you don't need to be bloody rude". Her retort raised eyebrows from other customers. Goodness me, if this is the best you can do with the calibre of staff, it will be hard to return to this cafe and my review certainly aligns with other...

I visited this café earlier today to grab a quick bite before my appointment. Since it was my first (and last) time there, I took a look at the menu before placing my order. In the end, as I didn’t have time to wait, I decided to go with a cheese scone and an iced coffee with almond milk.

The café was relatively empty, and when I placed my order, there weren’t many drinks being made, so there wasn’t much reason for the lack of care. My iced mocha with almond milk was made with regular milk, and my cheese scone didn’t arrive until I asked for it again.

When I requested the mocha to be remade with the correct milk and mentioned that I still hadn’t received my scone, which I asked to be heated, the cheese scone finally arrived, but it was cold and spicy. I was hungry, so I ate it anyway. As for the coffee, I asked for it to be served in a takeaway cup since I didn’t have time to finish it there. I couldn’t help but wonder, how much extra effort would it take to serve it in a proper iced coffee cup with a straw, allowing me to enjoy it comfortably?

Overall, my visit to this café left much to be desired: poor service, bad coffee, and an unwelcoming environment. To top it off, you leave smelling like fried food since the kitchen is open with no proper ventilation.

The café is in a great location, with a small car parking in front, and it has the potential to be a lovely place. However, after this experience, I won’t be returning and can’t...