Soul Cafe — Restaurant in Manawatū-Whanganui

Today I was traveling from Wellington to Taupo. I left Wellington after a quick coffee, planning to brunch somewhere in the middle of the island. I entered Soul Food cafe in Taihape and ordered breakfast and a coffee. Went to pay- and no purse! Oh no... Searched with no luck. Searched my parking money receptacle and found enough for a coffee. Went back and cancelled my brunch order and substituted it for a flat white only. While i sipped on that delicious coffee, I thought back. I didn't use my purse yesterday. When was the last time I had it??? While I was sitting pondering my next move, a lady approached me and said. "My staff member told me what has happened to you, and I am very happy to give you a meal." Can you believe that??? She didn't say that I was to pay her in the future or she needed an I.O.U. I was of course, too embarrassed at my own stupidity to accept and pointed out to her that I had enough adipose tissue to survive on, but thanked her for her kindness. As I sat finishing that stimulating coffee I remembered that I had tossed a change of clothing into a shopping bag on my way to the beach in Wellington, and to save taking 2 bags, I had removed my purse from my handbag and thrown it in with the clothes - EUREKA! Purse retrieved from said bag in car and brunch ordered. It is not the scenery that makes New Zealand beautiful, although it is beautiful. Nor is it the friendliness of Kiwis, although they are a friendly bunch. It is the HEART of the people and today I thank that kind, generous owner of the Soul Food Cafe in Taihape for the kindness...

Terrible experience, and don’t recommend others to go to this cafe. I ordered a full sized salad costing $21. Got something that resembled a small side salad, was confused but ate it thinking food here was just expensive for its size. Ordered extra food as well as the salad just wasn’t enough. Turns out they gave me a half sized meal. Offered to make me another half salad or refund me half the cost, pretty rude considering I had already ordered more food and didn’t want to eat more or get a half size refund. At the end left pretty annoyed as I only got $8 refund. How is $8 half the cost of $21??? Absolute waste of my time and my money. On a side note it’s a pretty slow cafe. simple things like making menus available on tables could speed thing up, as guests can view and make decisions at their table and then come up to the counter to order and pay. You had a queue of people lined up because the only menu was high up on the wall. Also I understand the heat can bring in a lot of flies, but the amount of flies in the cafe and the toilets was...

Not sure if the young lady on the counter was in training, but we waited well over half an hour for our hot drinks at which I said I think you might of forgotten our drinks, which the other lady working there responded rudely and pointed to an order slip on a machine and said No, they are there! I sat down and waited a further 10 mins, at which they bought one coffee, and my daughters had to wait a further 10mins for their hot chocolates. My husband never got his lunch or coffee and asked for a refund. My friend got her coffee pretty quickly, but had to wait over half n hour for her lunch while other people that came in after us were served their food and drinks. The system was not great. Upon us leaving the lady did apologize for the wait and offered us free food from the cabinet. My friend accepted something but my girls and I felt so gutted about the service we declined. It might be helpful to give out table numbers so that orders can be delivered to the right people and in line of the cue of who ordered, especially...