Koffee Bar Onehunga — Restaurant in Maungakiekie-Tāmaki

Holy moly. This place is good. Found this little gem just a few weeks ago and this place is the perfect lunch spot. I have been back 4 weeks in a row now.

Highlights were the coconut french toast, mish mash, mango chicken salad and spicy calamari with fries and salad.

Coconut french toast - Bliss 😇 Beautifully cooked and presented in a way that it is almost a crime to eat it. It's not overly sweet but all the right flavours are there. The mascarpone is heaven. Creamy and beautiful and I want the recipe. Make sure you order this with bacon.

Mish mash - pure comfort food 😊 Tender corned beef sits on top of a bed of fresh salad and potato rostis. The magic happens as the heat from the hot corned beef and potato wilts the salad to give you a cosy warm meal. The potates are beauifully seasoned with tumeric to give a delightful flavour. Oh and top it all off... That pesto dressing just ties the whole dish together. Mmmm...

Spicy calamari and fries - YUM! 😋 Butter soft calamari encased in a crispy and salty crumb coating... Spicy? Barely... Delicious? Yes!

Mango chicken salad - Delish 😁 I have never seen a salad presented so artiscally. A mountain of crisp salad leaves lay as a foundation for the sweet mango chicken pieces. And right on top sits a cluster of the savoury version of candy floss... Filo pastry but not as you know it. Definitely not a salad for those on a diet.

Overall a great spot for work lunch breaks or a lazy...

Unfortunately I'm not here to review the restaurant itself. I didn't have an issue with the restaurant and the food was actually quite good. However, I was very surprised when a few days later I got a "parking breach notice" charging me $65 for overtime parking at their place. The sign says that you can stay 30 minutes, but it's not clear if it's 30 min at one spot or in the whole parking lot. So, I was just moving my car from a spot to another to spend more time there, since the place was basically empty. Now I have appealed about it and they asked me for a receipt from the restaurant (which I paid cash and, like a normal person, did not save the receipt). They didn't even argue about this unclearness of the sign because they know they are wrong and they just wanna make more money. I feel bad evaluating the restaurant, but I couldn't evaluate the building parking lot, so I hope the owners of the restaurant can do something to help, otherwise I'll have to pay $65 for no reason at all. It's sad because I wouldn't risk parking there anymore, so the company that controls the parking is harming the people who rented the place to work, spooking their clients... Anyway, if they accept my appeal, I'll come back and change this review. If they don't, I paid almost $90 for a simple breakfast and that makes this a fair evaluation in terms of...

I ordered the corn fritters and was really let down. The fritters themselves were hard and difficult to eat, and while the menu made no mention of spice, they were so spicy I couldn’t even finish them. To make matters worse, half of the dish was missing. When I asked about the sour cream that was supposed to come with it, the chef simply said, “run out, sorry.” If I had known that from the start, I would’ve chosen something else entirely. This could’ve been avoided with better communication to the front-of-house team, but honestly, a dish shouldn’t be served if it can’t be prepared as described.

For context, I’ve previously managed a very busy and successful café and bar in the city, and if this sort of nonsense had happened under my watch the chef would no longer have a job. A team is only as strong as its weakest link and I'm sorry to say that your chef has let the entire team down.

The coffee was okay, but that was about the only redeeming part of the experience. To their credit, they did offer a refund for the missing sour cream, but by that point, I just wanted to leave and didn’t even bother accepting it. I won’t be...