Elm Cafe — Restaurant in Palmerston North

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G Staff, food, service, drinks, menu, everything. We came in a couple of weeks ago, I'm hard to please and very fussy when I go out but the menu caught my eye as soon as we sat down. Being in hospitality myself, I take notice of the little things. Quick, easy service straight away, even though it was full and busy. Plenty of staff but it was good, noone was standing around.. everyone making sure customers were happy. Made service efficient and pleasurable. I can say our meals were the most amazing meals I've had for lunch anywhere I've been in palmerston north. I've been to 90% of cafe/restaurants here. Full of flavour and just a pure quality. We had 5 different options off the menu, sorry cant remember what they were called.. but everyone was deeply satisfied and happy with what we all got. I'm raving about this place and you will definitely see us back again!! A little outdated decor and layout, but that's an easy fix. Wouldnt know about this place if it wasnt for google and word of mouth though, being hidden away like it is but I truly can't fault anything. Keep up your little hidden paradise, good job staff. See...

The service is beyond bad.

Someone in my group ordered the same food as I did and he got his food first. But he was not happy with the bacon as it was too burnt, so he rejected it. 30 seconds later the waitress brought over the same plate in front of me and said "do you just wanna take this while we making another one for him" - yes, the one he just returned! Before I even answered she already put the food on the table and left. I mean hey, I just watched the whole plate rejected right in front of me! I was feeling uncomfortable about this and people at my table were all saying they shouldn't do this. So I took the plate to the counter and said I don't want this either. That women looked so angry and the moment I turned around, I heard the other waitress busted out laughing, like I just did something unreasonable... When I got back to my table everyone said they looked so rude and they all felt sorry for me lol

So here you go. My 1 star. I wish I could give a...

Perfect!

This phrase has been used by our waitress more than 20 times. It was amusing each when the waitress asked us how we were and whenever we said we were good, she would reply "perfect". As amusing as we initially were, we were impressed with the attention given to us.

Most of the waitresses we encountered were friendly and full of smiles and professional. This reflects positively on the management of Elm Café.

The food came and we were quite pleased with what we saw except that my son was a little disappointed with his piece of steak. For that price, almost $40 (tax included), he expected a bigger piece of steak.

The taste of the food was good though the Hollandaise sauce was a little bit salty but overall, we were very happy with it. The coffee and chocolate beverage we had were fabulous and the chocolate chip cookie was amazing and a perfect match for our hot beverage, which ended our breakfast with...