Cafe Esplanade — Restaurant in Palmerston North

I bought my mother here for her 84th birthday, 23rd Feb.  Thoroughly disappointed in the meals. We ordered corn fritters for $17, small wedges $11 and a kids ham and cheese toastie. As you can see by the pictures, this is what greeted us.  I'd just like to mention I had just driven from Wellington to Palmerston North to take my mum out for lunch for her birthday (I was freaking starving). First off, the very salty and small corn fritters, I often order corn fritters so I have experience to say, that these were the smallest, saltiest and very expensive corn fritters, I have had in a long time.  Couldn't believe I would have had to add $5 for bacon. Next, the wedges - its definitely a different type of bacon for it to be cut up like so, an inexpensive bacon, or maybe, ham?   Just awful, also super salty, the cheese wasn't freshly melted so premade? or just badly made. Next! The easiest meal by far - chips and a ham and cheese toastie - ordered, because there is just no doubt my 6yo wouldn't eat it, but wait!!! a few bites in, she didn't want it, said it tasted funny, on closer inspection there was a tomato in it! WHAT! We pulled out the tomato but the damage has been done, she wasn't going to eat it.  Further to this - I had to ask "where is my coffee" as it hadn't arrived - I had finished my AWFUL fritters and so I had my coffee for dessert. I actually want my money back - Café Esplanade - can I have my $50.20 back please? Then to add insult to injury - it was freezing inside - I have heaps of padding - but I was freezing, my mum and child were freezing - this is a place that seems to cater to over 65yo's - the aircon was on to cold, the fans were on and the door was open - unsure if the chill was to cater for the waitstaff. This meal was an utter disgrace - I wasn't going to make a scene on my mums birthday but oh boy, any other day I would have. Apparently there is an ad going around on the radio - best food in town - It ISN'T!  The worst food in town 100% If you get them on a good day - consider it a miracle.  We...

Came for lunch today, spent about 10 minutes waiting to order at the till, despite there not being many customers. We ordered a lime thickshake and a chocolate thickshake, Caesar salad with grilled chicken, a panini, a side of French fries, a breakfast farm-muffin, and a yo-yo biscuit. This cost about $63, if you can believe it.

French Fries: served cold at the table Caesar Salad: was made with iceberg lettuce (why????), the leaves were wilted and slimy (and warmer than the French fries), and the chicken was somehow rubbery. It was also a very very small salad, considering it was $24. Disgusting.

Chocolate Thickshake: wasn’t too bad, a little too thin though.

Lime Milkshake: came out as a green coloured milkshake. This was sent back and we got a lime semi-thickshake about 10 minutes later.

Breakfast farm-muffin thing: was actually quite nice, it was made with egg, ham, cheese and potato.

Panini: Terrible. Tasted like it was 3 days old, the tomato was so old that it was disintegrated and slimy, and it was barely toasted.

Yo-yo: very nice, probably a bit stale but still tasted good.

We then came back at 3:55 (they close at 4) to get ice creams. Ice creams were fine, but the whole time there was a skinny older Maori lady giving us dirty looks like we were offending her by spending money, and snapping at people to get out of her way while she was packing up.

To summarise, this place seems to suffer from very poor management, and even worse cooking. The menu items are VERY expensive, and are extremely poor quality. I only wish I had taken photos to go with this review, but I only decided to write this after dealing with that horrible woman at the end of the day.

My recommendation: bring your own food to the Esplanade and use the free BBQs, you will have much better food at a fraction...

We sat outside as we had our dog with us. However the dog still wasn’t allowed in the outside area of the CAFE which we found disappointing. We ordered two drinks and a large bowl of fries. The latte I ordered was good! However the milkshake that we ordered was not mixed properly. The straw was too small for the thickness of the milkshake and all the flavours were at the bottom of the cup. The fries were the most disappointing, the fries themselves were really good they were warm and crispy. Personally they were slightly underdone. The sauce was good however there wasn’t enough of it for the amount of chips that we ordered. There was about half a bowl of chips left to an empty pot of sauce. When I went back in to ask for more sauce I asked one of the waitresses she said I think you have to pay for more sauce, this was disappointing as I wanted more sauce for my chips and I was also disappointed that the waitress said “I think” this is because it shows that the waitress doesn’t have enough knowledge of the products she is selling. Previously I was given sauce without a fuss. I have given a three stars down to the disappointment I felt while there. However the area was nice and clean and the atmosphere was lovely to be in! For business growth could be an idea to get outside heaters as it allows for more customers to come in during the winter especially as inside can get very packed. overall happy with my visit as I still enjoyed the meal just minor errors that would make the place...