Quarter Acre Cafe Bistro — Restaurant in North Island

Not quite in Otaki, not quite in Levin, you might easily pass by this cute little spot or mistake it for a typical roadside diner.

We sometimes come here for breakfast. The options are somewhat limited - don't expect much beyond the traditional standards of full English, egg benedict, etc. There are a couple of dishes - the waffles and mushroom ragout - that standout though. Experience shows the food to be consistently reasonable, with some sprinklings of originality and flair.

But really the main reason you'd come here is the ambience, particularly in summer. There is a generous outdoor seating area set amongst a lovely mix of native and old style country gardens. There's plenty of space to bring your pup or children (it's not clear if any other animals are allowed though). There is even a trampoline (presumably for small human animals only).

Service can be slow during busy periods, which is understandable for a semi-rural eatery like this (managing demand and staffing must be a headache). Many of the servers are genuinely lovely and accommodating, and again, it's hard to fault management for the ones that are less so. It's been tough times for all in recent years, and it's nice to be able to lose yourself for an hour or two at a sweet little retreat...

We were really looking forward to a nice dinner out and were pleasantly greeted upon arrival and shown to our table. Following the ordering our entree's arrived with the squid being a bit bland, most of the taste provided by the side of soy sauce (perhaps a bit more seasoning on the crumb) but it was cooked well. Onto the mains, I had the 250g sirloin and requested it medium rare however it came out that the top half was meduim and the bottom half was rare, took me a bit too literally, not sure? Again the main was a bit bland in taste. My wife's main, the chicken was a large meal and cooked well but again it was a bit bland. Onto Dessert, I had the doughnuts, unfortunately these were undercooked and still slightly doughy in the middle which made them very heavy and not that great to eat.

It was very busy the night we were there but I don't think there is any excuse for the above. I'm not sure that I will be back again which is a real shame going by the other reviews. Guess someone had an off night in...

Have in the past had lovely food here but the last three times we've come for lunch or brunch the service has been abysmal. The previous two times we practically had to tackle the wait staff to get them to take our order and then had to follow up when some of the items took ten minutes longer than others with no explanation. This time we gave up and left before our order was taken as it had been quarter of an hour waiting for someone to ask us if we wanted any drinks, much less food.

And at the other end of the service process getting them to take our money so we could leave was also a mission. With a half full restaurant "we were sitting out there by the fence" shouldn't take three people and a great deal of fuss to work out what order in the system we were because we had the gall not to remember the table number (which we said "sorry, don't remember it" to their shock and horror.)

Sadly taking this off our list of...