Serenity Cafe — Restaurant in North Island

I'm usually a regular but unfortunately as of last Saturday morning I will not be a returning customer anymore.

I was greeted and served by a young Asian Male, I found him very rude and snappy.

I came in for the $7.50 pies, I asked him for the particular pies I wanted and he said hang on a minuite and just ignored me for some time. So I went to grab one from the sliding glass cabnet with tongs thinking it wouldn't be a problem like most cafes. All of them were in bags anyway and I only grabbed one and touched no other pie in the cabinet but that one specifically. He noticed and then shouted at me very loudly saying they aren't self service. I was thinking well why are you taking your time then?

At the end of the day I'm not too bothered about rude individuals what really pissed me off was that he passed the pie I was going to eat to some another staff member and said put it in the trash. This made absolutely no sense at all, food was wasted unnecessarily which I find disturbing.

The look he have gave me was also disturbing, one of the cafe ladies stepped in and served me instead because she noticed how pisses off I was with him. On the upside she was lovely and...

⭐☆☆☆☆ Very disappointing experience

I checked the café’s website before coming — looked through the menu and prices, and everything seemed fine. When I arrived (after paying for parking), I was surprised to see that the breakfast mains were around $10 more expensive than what was shown online.

I asked to speak to the manager, Tony, and explained the situation. Instead of acknowledging the issue, he refused to match the price, saying it wasn’t their fault that they forgot to update the website. I was honestly shocked by both his tone and attitude.

It’s unacceptable for a business to advertise one price online and charge something completely different in person — and then blame the customer for noticing. Definitely wouldn’t...

This mōrena I stopped by Serenity Café for some kai and kāwhe. It's such a lovely outlook looking out over the Quay.

The place was packed, sounds of a very busy kitchen and the staff were very busy serving and clearing tables. Despite all that, service was excellent, greeted warmly, and informed me of a 30-minute delay in the kitchen (which wasn't as kai arrived in really good time).

Kāwhe was excellent (cappuccino) with a good amount of chocolate on top. Chocolate milkshake divine, made with ice cream, just the best. Kai (eggs Benedict) was scrumptious 😋.

It was a really nice start to my day, roadtripping around Whangārei. If you're in Whangārei, call into Serenity Café, lots do, and for very good reason, great service,...