Essence Cafe — Restaurant in North Island

The owners response to my son's review (Oscar Michie's below) illustrates what he referred to as rude: "I see you brought your own grass". We can appreciate that vegans make up a small % of the population, however it's a growing population and this is reflected in the fact that most cafes in centres of reasonable size will have at least one vegan friendly option or be open to adapting existing menu items ("hey, no problem! You can have a toasted tomato sandwich and our standard side salad" or "OK, we can do the breakfast minus the sausage and egg"). Essence cafe (or at least the staff member we encountered) was not interested in coming to that party in any way shape or form and seemed to bristle at the mere question of vegan options.

Addition after reading cafe response: Politely asking if there are any vegan friendly options is not inferring that the person asking considers themselves to be "more important than anyone else". The response to that question was not "yes, have you seen the toasty options?" but "No. Not at this stage". That was when Oscar asked if it might be possible to just have a salad. Thank you for your offer of a complimentary meal - that is nice of you, but we were only passing through....

So the owner replied to my one star review saying "why bother when you say nothing, if you are unhappy say why" . Sorry didn't realise I had to explain myself, didn't realise that was a requirement. But since you want a reason. Staff were not polite and you almost felt like you weren't welcome to come to the front counter (easily jusitifed as most people here have said rude staff) , ice coffee was bitter, food was average (ie pastry was stale and you don't need to go overboard with the icing sugar which is normally a clear sign it's old, bathrooms could do with a good clean and from just now the owner should learn to take a review as it is, if someone only puts one star then accept it...

yummiest food. great chai latte. quiet atmosphere at the time. surprised to find there was another area at the back. friendly staff. however we had a close shave when one of the grounds from Nikau tree fell away from top of tree and just brushed the back of daughters back. Thankful no one was hurt. Immediately spoke to staff who were very sympathetic . However fronds often fall, so it's not as if it's a first. Be wary customers dont sit under the trees with these fronds...