La La Land - Chocolate, Coffee, Waffles — Restaurant in North Island

This was our last stop in Raglan before heading back to Auckland. After a day of walking what better way to relax than to grab some hot chocolate and waffles. The inside of the cafe is quite small. The front area has lots of different chocolates for sale from all around NZ. They also have their homemade mellowpuffs made with meringue in a variety of different flavours. There is a menu on the wall for the waffles and then a drinks menu behind the counter. They also have a cabinet full of cakes. their hot chocolate is also supposed to be really good and thick, but it was 70% so I'm not sure if it would've been too bitter for me. I had the standard iced chocolate and a toasted marshmallow loaded waffle. They only had two tables and a fairly large bench outside. We were lucky to get a table since the people occupying it left after we had ordered. The drinks came first. I liked the iced chocolate since it had ice cream and cream in it. The chocolate flavour wasn't super strong through. The waffles were really nice, covered in cream and toppings. I appreciated that the entire waffle was covered in the cream. The waffles were a bit soft for my liking though as I prefer a crunchy waffle. It had a nice amount of topping and tasted nice. It was a nice place to stop to grab some sugar after a day of walking. I also grabbed some of the mellowpuffs to take home and the double salted caramel one was...

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We have been supporting this business for a few years now and own our own businesses. Monika is always bubbly, friendly, smiling and has the time of the day to connect with us and I appreciate that.

We recently came during the holiday season the week after new years all the way from Gordonton, it was so busy they had to close up for a few hours to catch up with orders. We came back later and once again it was fully busy which is fair and to be expected because she has the best hot chocolates and sweets in NZ!

The only sad part which ruined the experience was the owners attitude under all the stress and pressure. You should realy look at being in the hospitality business if you can't handle being under a bit of pressure. It makes you look unattractive, it turns people away that are there to connect, it kills the atmosphere... the experience. I know people go through things in life and have their bad days as I'm a Hypnotherapy counsellor and I see it every day but when you're the front of your business you need to stay balanced, poised, steadfast and serene. No mater what is happening behind the scenes.

You are why we come to Raglan and I hope to never see you like that again

Much love and all the best to you Monika

Will update this accordingly to...

EDIT Thanks to the store owner for replying. I can absolutely appreciate the store opening hours have to be adjusted occasionally, it is indeed very hard for lots of business at the moment in terms of staffing, including the smaller businesses. However this doesn’t explain why my order was wrong as well as overcharged for? We went to visit yesterday to try their waffles at around 2:30pm as google said they were open until 5pm, however that wasn’t the case as they were closed? I understand staffing can be a problem so I thought I’d give them the benefit of the doubt.

Today, we drove another half an hour to try again, but upon arrival we were advised they had none left. It was only 10:30am. While we were a bit disheartened, we decided to try the iced chocolates. The pricing was very confusing, and while the lady there wasn’t exactly pushy, it was all very misleading.

We also received one with ice cream and one with whipped cream, which is not what we ordered?

After paying $26.50 (not sure where the 50c came from by the way as everything was whole dollars) for two iced chocolates that were pretty average, we felt pretty ripped off.

A beautiful little shop in the heart of Raglan, and definitely worth a visit. Just make sure you know what...