Benedicts Cafe — Restaurant in North Island

Lovely, spacious, child-friendly café with friendly staff and welcoming atmosphere. Just a great place to have a cuppa, a chat, and relax, and if you have kids, the environment is their entertainment! The only downer for me has been the tea. The tea after a short time becomes super strong, and unless the metal ball (containing the tea) inside the pot is removed relatively quickly, it can become intolerable to consume as the tea simply does not stop getting stronger and stronger. It has made me feel ill before. The flavour isn't the nicest I've had either, but it's ok. I now remove the ball from the pot quickly after getting my tea and find it works out fine. That being said, they are super generous with the amount they give you!

Chips used to be served up overdone at times, and kids complained it was like eating "burnt toast", but now that has improved and kids love their chips!

Occasional issues with taking too long to bring the order to your table, even when not overly busy, but usually they are okay. Complaints aside, It's a place I continue to love to visit and would...

Absolutely love your food but I find it poor advertising that you do not update Google or Facebook page about your hours, we came twice these public holidays on a SATURDAY from town and still closed, twice. It would be really great if you could please consider as you do not just get people from Maungaraki. You get people coming a long way for your food and this lack of communication and consideration for customers has made us want to come less. This is our fourth or fifth time trying to come to your establishment to eat meeting a closed sign. It’s an exhausting long trip each time for nothing. From a fellow hospitality I would kindly ask if you could really please work on managing expectations at least on the Facebook page. Social media is a great...

This is a great example of a community cafe meeting place. A must place to visit, so much more than just good food and coffee. Two years ago I described Benedicts as above. Since then we have traveled extensively throughout the north island provincial towns and communities and stopped at 100s of Cafés. I will now say BENEDICTS is the BEST example of a community cafe meeting place we have experienced, still serving a great selection of food without fuss, in a basic but homely environment. There is plenty of space so your conversations are still private and not drowned out by intrusive background music. Maungaraki you are so privileged to have this wonderful and...