Aurum Cafe — Restaurant in Hawke's Bay

I first came 2 weeks ago in late October and had such a great experience I couldn't wait to bring my wife to try it out. Sadly, today's experience was not as excellent. The 2 staffers on were struggling and stocks of just about everything seemed low, or - the drinks fridges were depleted and several other customers had drinks options unavailable. This was particularly noticeable in the range of cabinet food. The highlight of my first visit was a wholemeal chicken salad sandwich of a sort that is hard to find these days. Today, despite being much earlier, the cabinet was nearly empty, presenting a forlorn unappealing vista. As the weather is hot, I was counting on a good range of cold cabinet food to choose from, and having only 1 sandwich (beef) available meant there was no choice involved - have it, or nothing. The beef sandwich was dry and cold from too long in the cabinet and I could not finish it. And the pour over mocha, which had been a highlight of my first visit was also disappointing. This one was more like a milkshake than a pour over and joined the dry beef sandwich in being left unfinished The curly fries were very nice and my wife enjoyed her beef burger, but I do hope that today's sadly empty cabinet and general low stock and poor food and drink quality was...

Okay, I'm a brutal reviewer. On a plus, yes the coffee was nice. On a negative: 1-breakfast clearly says baked beans. I hate spaghetti. They didn't mention anything and when breakfast brought out, was told they had no baked beans as stated on menu. 2-I also hate cheap, bent forks. 3-lots of flys. 4-Personal taste, so I do apologise, but the music is something I'd expect in an upmarket bar. The beat being so repetitive. 5-if you are going to supply magazines/newspapers (not in here though), please make them reasonably new. Magazines in there were years old. I really hope the owners take in the comments on this and other reviews. Could be updated a little too. My feet do...

One of the best coffee tasted in the bay. This is not my brief as I drink hot chocolate. The boss however has her coffee choice as Americano. Which she described as heavenly. The cheese scones that we ordered were also Devine. So thank you Aurum once again delivering above...