Five Rivers Cafe — Restaurant in Northern Community

We were traveling from Te Anau to Christchurch and decided to have a lunch at Five Rivers Café. Our first impression was very good. The café has a good location, with gallery and nice, warm interior decoration. We have ordered our meals and coffee. With the order we were told that it will be a wait time of 15 to 20 min. We had our coffees shortly after - the coffee was really good. Unfortunately it was the moment when all the good things ended. After 40 minutes of waiting, we asked one of the staff about our order. We had an answer, but from the body language of the staff member, we felt like we did something wrong. Our order arrived 5 minutes later. From the name ( Café), the nice surroundings and the prices we were expecting good, café quality food. I believe we were served with "pub" or fast food quality meals. My wife's $22.00 chicken burger consisted of soggy bun taken straight from supermarket 6 or 8 burger bun pack, with a little od colour from hot plate. The chicken was soggy to, it looked and tasted like it was just defrosted and heated in the microwave. I have ordered $24.00 papered squid - it came on the plate in thick and soggy dark colour coating, mixed up with the hot chips. I believe that my squid went through the same "cooking process" as my wife's checked - from the frozen state on to the plate via microwave oven. The hot chips needed some more time in hot oil too. To be fair I want to mention that the salad on my plate was good. The café was not that busy and I can imagine why it took them 45 minutes to present this "fast food", which would cost us in other places 1/3 of what we paid at Five Rivers Café. When we were getting up from the table, and collecting our belongings, another staff member came to clean up the table. Usually in the café, you expect a smile and polite question about our meal. We did not get even an eye contact with the person clearing out table. I truly think that Five Rivers Café had a great location and warm atmosphere due to interior design. It is definitely lacking the service and food quality. They may survive on accidental customers like us - but I do not think many people will come back to this place for a meal. After we left the café, we had another bad experience. We were in our car backing up from the parking space when a big coach entered the parking and parked right in front of the Café entry, totally blocking the parking exit. The driver was very kind for his passengers, letting them out very close to the Café entry - but we had to wait another few minutes to continue our drive to Christchurch. I hope that the owner of this café will read this review and reflect at the whole operation. I believe that Five Rivers Café has a good potential, but currently the service and food is well below...

Called in here on the 28th June 2020 on a cold miserable day looking for a decent feed while driving Queenstown to Invercargill. The young ladies serving and working were great. No problems whatsoever. However the coffee I had was pretty bitter and needed quite a bit of sugar to offset that. I order the nachos for a light meal. Pretty bland - they really need to offer mild/meduim and hot alternatives. However what the nachos did consist of for me was a plate of Corn Chips with a smattering of Mince/nacho sauce mix and a ton of sour cream. Fairly disappointing by my reckoning. If this was the trend I would not be back and wouldnt be inclined to recommend it. I'm not fussy and was not asking or even expecting a million dollar meal - however this was a bit less than I expected from this place. In all honesty - only 3 stars from me and that has more to do with the staff than the...

I have edited my review as my wife felt I was being too harsh. Yes there was issues on two occasions however the food was good once it arrived. Some staff need a reminder on customer service. but in saying that there are staff who just go out of there way to be kind and its not fair to label this place by the attitude of some. On one visit the chef was more than happy to do our breakfast after appointed time thanking her for that. We visited this Cafe three times while traveling the lower South island on tour Wait time on food was longer than expected I noted Senior Staff can be very rude especially when an order was placed at the wrong table. Back in today 16th greeted with a very pleasant young staff member shame when there was a delay in food all you could hear was inappropriate language from the kitchen. be aware you...