Balls and Bangles — Restaurant in South Island

The Balls and Bangles staff went above and beyond to cater to my partners coeliac disease!! They explained how they use a separate fryer and utensils for their gluten free bagels and how they wipe down the surfaces and make the gluten free bagels on a new plate too!! The bagels were so delicious with heaps of variety and there were even heaps of milkshake options to have too!

The manager of the place, Kat, was absolutely incredible. When my partner worried that her cream cheese bagel had come from the same crème cheese container used for the gluten bagels (i.e. cross contamination via double dipping), Kat remade the bagel for us with fresh ingredients! She really showed she cared and understood my partners fear about cross-contamination and was so so kind!

Not only are they incredibly knowledgeable on coeliac disease but 2 staff members really stood out to me today. Second was a new employee who said it was her first day and yet she was incredibly accommodating and even let us look at the ingredients and allergen book for the employees to show us which milkshakes we could have. When we worried about cross-contamination she even offered (and followed through) to put the milkshake equipment through the dishwasher :))

I really hope this review reassures others who are super strict with their coeliac disease that while there is gluten within the premises of this cafe, the staff are very knowledgeable and caring, and will do the best they can to help! Not to mention the delicious food...

This is my first time returning after they moved to their new premises on Shotover Street. They have also extended their opening hours to 1900 on Friday and Saturday, which I took advantage of to grab some doughnuts to take back to Auckland before a late-night flight. I had stopped by earlier to grab some lunch as they also now do bagels. They have an interesting range of fillings as well as the bagels themselves. I grabbed a Pillie Cheesesteak and that was quite nice. The cheesy and oniony sauce was quite nice with the beef and bagel. My coworker was able to get their cold bagel warmed up and really enjoyed it. I had also tried a toasted marshmallow shake with a doughnut and that was nice. The shake essentially had toasted marshmallows blended into it. I did find the larger marshmallow pieces getting a bit chewier the longer it was left it. There is plenty of seating (although it was usually fairly full) and the doughnut cabinet is very visible from the door. The entrance is just in the arcade which leads into...

I don’t normally leave bad reviews because as much as possible, I promote local restaurants and Balls and Bagels is one of our go-to place whenever we visit Queenstown. However, I had a very disappointing experience at Balls and Bagels today, 13 September 2025 at around 10am . The cashier (lady with a black hair) taking our order was extremely rude and dismissive. I had a feeling she got the order wrong, so I politely asked her to repeat it back, and sure enough, it was incorrect. Instead of correcting it with a bit of courtesy, she didn’t even acknowledge us properly and continued with an attitude that made the whole interaction unpleasant. When our orders arrived, turned out she even punched the wrong order. Not sure if she did that intentionally as I made sure she got our orders right.

Hospitality is about making customers feel welcome, but this experience did the opposite and completely ruined our visit. Definitely not the kind of service you’d expect in a place like this. Very...