Dillys Cafe & Bistro — Restaurant in Maungakiekie-Tāmaki

Watch out breakfast peddlers of Auckland! Dillys is in town! There are a lot of places in the city that will offer sorry plates of disappointment under the guise of breakfast for $23+. Dillys breaks that mould.

For a similar price, you can expect a sausage that is as tasty as it is girthy, the opposite of the stunted Pinocchio's nose you have come to expect. The bacon is also bang on, 10 on 10, and does not need dental records for identification after being incinerated. Beautiful, runny eggs come as standard, providing ample lubrication without drowning the other ingredients, which brings us to the hash. Is it a hash brown? Or is it an onion bhaji? Let me tell you, it's neither. It's Dillys own creation that at first looks dry but slice on in, and you'll find a fluffy potato consistency not unlike a potato scone typical of an Irish or Scottish breakfast. Simply astonishing.

How could this be improved? It seems perfect right? A delicate helping of creamy garlic mushrooms transports you, the diner, ever so briefly, to the continent for a blast of Cuisine la Francais before Dillys take on the humble baked bean brings you straight back down to earth in a starship ramekin. Seeing them floating there in Dillys signature tomato sauce was like greeting a long lost friend for the first time in years. Thank you Dillys. You've restored my faith...

Found this cafe when I dropped my car off nearby to get WOF done. Large cafe with plenty of seating, friendly staff and nice industrial decor.

I ordered the fried chicken baoger (meant to be a cross between a bao and a burger) but was told by whom I assumed is the owner that they are having supplier issues and his parents are trying to find stock around Auckland. He asked if I was ok with the burger instead and I said yes. Unfortunately, I received a beef burger rather than a chicken burger, which could be due to miscommunication as it was quite busy in the cafe and I had a mask on (which I noticed can be difficult for others to hear me especially in a noisy environment). I didn't inform the cafe staff about it as I wanted to get my car as soon as WOF was done and didn't want to have to wait for a new burger to be cooked up.

Despite it not being what I ordered, it was a very good beef burger with a nice juicy patty and crunchy pickles. The fries that came with it were well seasoned but could do with an extra minute or so in the oven so that the outside would be crispier. Portion size is very generous so could only eat half and took the rest home.

I don't live or work close by so wouldn't come out of my way here again, but would definitely drop by if I'm...

Came here for lunch with the family and friends.

We ordered the Wow Waffle, kids waffle, a steak sandwich and steam prawn, pork and chives dumplings.

Service was quite fast but food quality was pretty disappointing.

Both the waffle dishes were small and rather expensive with minimal elements on the dish.

The steak sandwich was OK and probably the most worth it dish in terms of price vs portion. Taste was just average with plenty of cafes serving better ones than this.

And the worst dish which is a rip off must be the steamed dumplings which to start was pan fried instead of steamed. The dumplings were definitely store bought ones from the supermarket and the dish came with 4 tiny dumplings and some soy sauce (refer photo) for $15! For $15 you can get probably 2 big bags of frozen ones from the supermarket which is where they got the dumpling from anyway!

Very disappointing and probably will not come back again after...