Takapuna Beach Cafe — Restaurant in Devonport-Takapuna

This evening (Sunday 18th May 2025) we visited Takapuna beach cafe around 6pm on a rainy Sunday evening. After the well marketed enticing web page advertised fish and chips.

The fish as marketed online is Tarakihi or snapper no option was offered at point of sale, or catch of the day…

When we opened the takeaway we were visually disappointed in the heavy batter and heavy hard crumb which were overly golden, the batter per portion weighed 200g and the fish itself 100g. Even the lemons had seen better days a little dry and chopped days prior.

We were told by one of the team when ordering that our order would be approx 10 mins because they weren’t overly busy - the reality was that our order took closer to 25 mins. A staff member kindly brought our order out to where we were waiting and advised that cutlery and serviettes were in the bag……. Ummmmm nope, neither were enclosed with our order.

We peeled back the hard almost burnt crumb and batter glug and ate the fish itself and the small amount of chips.

A few weeks prior we ordered fish and chips during lunchtime mid week and it was excellent … in quality and execution of culinary skill, freshness and service.

For $48 it was overall disappointing.

On a somewhat positive note - the cheesecake was excellent but there was no prices on their cabinet and when we went to pay we were rather surprised to be asked to part with $25 for 2 slices (take away)

Overall, The wheels seem to have unfortunately fallen off the cafe over the last month or so … a real shame.

Following owners response: Thanks for your response and offer to remedy the issue One point I’d like to make is you say that you stopped serving fish and chips from your pop up on the 11th May 2025… this may be a date typo error as we ordered takeaway fish and chips from your cafe last night - being the...

I'm a man of plans.. whenever I go for holiday, although free & easy.. I've got to have an itinerary. I felt lost without knowing what to do for the day, to some extent my wife complained (in a friendly way) that I'm too meticulous. So we were back to Auckland for a night stay after spending one whole day covering northern Auckland area. I'll skip the whole accommodation drama which was unsatisfactory so the next morning upon checkout, only a good breakfast could uplift my mood and uplift my mood it did!

Since I didn't want to stay in downtown Auckland, I chose Takapuna which is a vibrant beach side area about 10 minutes drive from Auckland. It also houses a lot of nice restaurants, bars and cafes. This time I chose Takapuna Beach Cafe which is located on The Promenade directly next to the beach itself. ◾Reservation is recommended especially on weekends because it is wildly popular with the locals. It can be done through their website. ◾We chose to be seated indoor because it was winter and the kids were shivering. ◾The cafe exudes this kind of cosy atmosphere with attentive and friendly service team. ◾ Omelette with broccoli, spinach and stracciatella - it has the runny texture which I like. ◾Eggs Benedict with slab bacon - lovely hollandaise sauce poured in top of the poached egg with a thick slab of bacon on the side ◾l went for broke and ordered their "The Grill" which comprises of pulled pork shoulder, thick slab bacon, crispy agria rosti, poached eggs, borlotti beans and pain cereal with extra chorizo. ◾Nothing a good cuppa latte wouldn't do to kick start my day as I have a long journey down south (about 3 hours) later.

I wish that I have more time to spend in this cafe but we had to catch up with our tour elsewhere. The lunch menu looks promising too.. perhaps on my next...

As I have been unwell recently, going out for lunch at the beautifully situated Takapuna Beach Cafe was something I was really looking forward to, but the reality was a far cry from what visits in the cafes early days of operation had les me to expect. Firstly, the waiter who greeted us didn’t bother to ask where we would like to sit, but tried to direct us to a table next to a door, even though there were plenty of other tables available. I ordered a juice and a fish burger, as my appetite is still small after an illness, and the fishbuurger sounded on the menu like a nice light meal with some salad on the side. I had fond memories of the lovely freshly made juice combinations the cafe served in better days, and was very disappointed when my $10 juice arrived in a tiny glass filled to the top with ice cubes and without even a straw. The juice itself was a rather tasteless clear liquid, not the healthy, fresh drink I had expected. Worse was to come in the form of the fishburger; two piecs of overcooked deep fried fish with a slce of processed cheese stuck to them and a few shreds of coleslaw. The plate was dominated by an enormous pile of chips that had just been dumped on the plate and appeared to have bits of debris from the fryer scattered amongst them - the meal was the most unappealing and disappointing I have been served in a very long time and very little of it was edible. It certainly didn’t live up to the description of fare ion the cafe’s website, and I’m amazed that they clearly pay so little attention to quality control. The 3 young men in the kitchen should be ashamed to send out such an unattractive meal, given the prices charged. Much though I love the beautiful setting of the cafe, I would never order a meal there...