Catlins Cafe — Restaurant in Otago

I visited this cafe on 9th January 2021 . It was a cold morning and we had very early start to go to Nugget point for sunrise so were after a warm coffee and a hearty breakfast. I ordered poached eggs the came semi hard (the yolk wasn't runny). I raised it to the waitress and they invited chef for a chat. I felt somewhat intimidated when he pressured me with a question "So, what, you want them super runny?" I said that i just want standard poached eggs where the yolk is supposed to be runny, that is how they are served everywhere else. He said, ok. So they brought me 2 eggs, and one of them was done perfectly and the other one had a runny white but i didn't want to interact with the employees anymore. However, I did notice a hair on the plate and brought it to the their attention. The waitress refunded me the breakfast but then the manager and the chef came out and said that they have noone with that hair colour . I asked what were they suggesting (that we planted it??) and said that it wasn't my hair colour either (I am blonde) and my friends had short hair and the other super dark - so didn't look like our's hair. They said that i can have the money but they will not say sorry for it. Since then i have spoken to few friends in hospitality and they said that of course these things happen and it is all about how you handle the situation. So i am not sure where the hair came from, but the fact is that neither of the cafe staff know to manage these situation and have poor customer service skills. Plus are not very good at making poached eggs. I am not going back to this place and will not...

I've been meaning to write this review for a while, as I ate at the Catlins Cafe back in April and it was so bad that I feel obliged to warn other people. I will never return to this cafe and am letting the world know so you don't have to make the same mistake. I ordered the nachos and a chai latte and both were terrible. The nachos were very expensive for a soup bowl-sized pile of broken dregs from the bottom of packet of supermarket nachos. And the topping was scant. It was almost as if they'd gone out of their way to make the worst ever nachos, and if so, they certainly succeeded. I mentioned my concern to the staff, to give them the opportunity to make it right and they just shrugged their shoulders. Horrific experience, avoid at all costs, there are other options nearby in Owaka, as well as slightly further afield (such as the Niagara Falls Cafe). So, please save yourself the disappointment and eat elsewhere. Thanks...

Do not waste your time stopping here! When asked if their burgers are local beef or frozen beef they said frozen. Same question and answer about their fish. Then they wouldn't accept my credit card because I signed it quickly and it didn't look like it does on the back of the card, and they would not accept my legal ID as a secure form of identification that the name and photo matches who I am. Signatures are not secure at all, but they said my signature MUST match the back of the card's signature and nothing else was acceptable, not even a passport! I've been using this card all over this country for months without issues. The manager didn't even ask if I wanted to pay with cash instead, she told me to go elsewhere. This is the only appalling treatment I have received in this country. It's also one of few places I've found not serving local beef or fish, so definitely...