Alimento Eatery — Restaurant in North Island

Have been coming here once a fortnight for the last few months for meetings. Lovely place, always a great atmosphere with awesome staff. I’ve always thought the menu was expensive. I’ve had breakfast items and cabinet food which I thought was pretty good. Last Friday I decided to try the Fried Chicken burger from the menu with a coffee. This is where I have a problem. $39 for a coffee and a burger. $32 just for the burger!! Now I was expecting something amazing for that price. What I got (I wish I took a photo) was nothing short of dismal. The best thing about the meal was the amazing chips. The burger by itself is $26 with no protein. I added the chicken for $6. The burger was small, lettuce looked old and the chicken…well one piece of tenderloin that had been banged out so thin before it was crumbed that it was over cooked and tough. For $32…come on. When you’re charging prices like that at a cafe for lunch then your food needs to be on and top notch. I really wanted the chicken soup…but that was $26!!! For soup! Staff are always lovely and coffee was good. The prices not so good.

Until the prices drop OR they raise the bar with their food ill be going...

First time customer on the 2and of Jan and unfortunately the last, upon arrival most of tables had not been cleared and I asked a server if she could please clear a table we were sitting at to be told " can't u see I'm busy you will have to wait ", wow I was quite shocked, what kind of customer service is that, I was with a group of eight so we let it go. After ordering meals and drinks, some of the group ordered smoothies, two of them arrived, one with honey and one without, the server was annoyed with my friend because she ordered a different smoothie to be told, " can't u make up your mind " , please note this was a different server from the one who spoke rudely earlier, as I explained we had never been there before and were looking forward to it. Customer service is so important, even if your busy there is no excuse for attitude, I cannot if remember what the food was like because we were so...

I prefer not to give negative reviews however, I am doing so in the hope it may help drive a positive change. We normally enjoy great service from Alimento so we were quite surprised today to receive absolutely, unbelievably poor ( almost laughable) service. The young lady, approx. 5" 4", blond, blue eyes wearing a green jumper, was moody, not one word, no smile, treating us as if we bothered her. I have fairly thick skin, she was simply rude. I asked her if she was ok? she shrugged her shoulders and replied "yeah?", I said, "Okay then...." looked at my partner who was also in disbelief. We decided to eat at MacDonald's at least the staff there appeared a little more friendly. If left unchecked, in my opinion this young lady's attitude and behavior may harm the reputation of what was a great café. I hope the owners will be able to sort her out or possibly let her go to find a job that suits her...