Essence Cafe & Bar Feilding — Restaurant in Manawatū-Whanganui

So disappointed. Great menu and nice decor. Staff were geat when we booked a table for six on the phone. My mother got a great response when she rang and asked if we could have a table in a quiet spot as she is hard of hearing but sensitive to base beat. BUT our table was not in a quiet spot - that was taken by another group of six! And there was only one waitress to serve over thirty covers. We waited half an hour and watched table after table give their orders to her before we finally stopped her as she passed and asked when she was going to take our orders. An hour later we were still waiting for food and despite going up to the bar we had no drinks. The table behind us, one guy had finished eating and the rest were still waiting for their food. AOnly one person in the kitchen. We walked out. This could be a good restaurant if they put on enough staff for their bookings and reduced their menu to a number of items they could do well...

This place use to be wonderful and had a selection of beautiful meals! We waited 1 hour before our order was even taken, despite there only being 3 small groups at the time. The entree of bruschetta was laughable just pesto on toast with one cherry tomato cut in half and a vinegar that didn’t taste like balsamic and was awfully bitter. The meals are VERY over priced $42 for a steak on chips and eggs, no side salad, garnishing or anything! And burgers very very basic! Meals took forever to come out, think the overcrowded pub would have been 10 times faster! Definitely not cafe/restaurant like eating like it use to be, more very very basic pub meals with an extreme price!! Unfortunately no recommendation what so ever, extremely disappointed and...

Down in Manchester street, away from hassle and bustle of shopping area, the cafe and bar is in an older building.

With a small outdoor area with tables and chairs, sure it would be busier in summer than today when we visited it. Street parking, so can be abit tricky.

Unfortunately it does have a light damp smell to the cafe. It didn't detract though from the food which was OK!

Ordered french toast with bacon. Unusually maple syrup didn't come seperate to add yourself. Instead the three slices of bread were coated in it.

Loved the variety of fresh fruit that came as part of the meal. Large portions, reasonably ... priced. Unfortunately bacon was overcooked as was the chicken schnitzel that was ordered too.

Nice mango...