Headquarters Cafe & Bar — Restaurant in South Island

Extreme Milkshakes are all the craze at the moment unfortunately for HQ it was all eye-candy.

Upon arrival you could see that this was a popular stop for cyclists: there was about a dozen bicycles parked out the front. It also seemed to be popular with retired folk and the tradies who occupied a few tables outside all wearing high-vis vests.

We first chose to sit outside in the sun. We had to clear the table before we sat down, the sun was a bit too glarey so we opted to sit inside on the comfy couches by the kids corner.

It was about 10:30 in the morning, the last Friday of the Spring school holidays so I decided to treat my son to an extreme milkshake. Each week there are different 'Extreme milkshakes' to chose from, this week we had a choice of 'Caramel & White Chocolate', 'Chunky Chocolate', and 'Sour then Sweet' there are two sizes: Large for $9.80, or Kiddies size for $6.50. We ordered all three to try: two large and one kiddies size.

It took at least 20 minutes for the shakes to come out. But we were happy to wait as we seen what was coming our way as we looked across to the other table who also ordered an 'Extreme Shake' and it looked absolutely yummolicious! The shakes finally arrived and.... Well let's just say our tastebuds were not impressed. All three shakes tasted a bit "funny", the two donuts on top of the milkshakes were stale. In fact the people at the other table didn't eat their donuts either. My son said that the 'Sour then Sweet' shake tasted "chemically", to me the shakes tasted as if cheap ingredients was used. I left with a funny taste in my mouth that lingered around for quite a while. That wasn't the only thing that left a "bad taste in my mouth": tables were left uncleared an the cleanliness of the floor and windows left much to be desired. The lavatory was also messy with empty toilet rolls on the floor and on the sink. I also tried to speak to one of the staff as my daughter broke one of their glass pepper shakers that was on the coffee table in front of us, but she kept walking away while I tried to get her trying to get her attention until I insisted that I needed assistance. Staff appeared busy and stressed out. Hopefully we just caught them on an "off day". I'm not sure if I will return for a second...

Pretty much what you'd expect looking at it. The coffee was hot but weak, and getting chocolate covered marshmallows with a soy flat-white was rather weird. The food is well presented but our meals tasted a bit odd - clumps of ginger in the breakfast bowl and very vinegary garlic in the smashed avo. Was a busy day so service was expectedly average. Nice atmosphere. Convenient and just reasonable if you're living nearby. Some vegan options available but wait staff are not clued up on what is vegan and what isn't, there are small signs for the cabinet food but they only had roast veges as a vegan option. The less you expect, the happier you'll be.

As per response below, no vinegar in garlic so please...

Turned up at headquarters at 9:10 and it was shut the chef let us in and was so lovely Jo the manager turned up and made it very clear that she didn't want us here even though the window and online said opening at 830 because she needed time to open the cafe. She then coughed and said she was sick over all the food. After finally serving us at 9 30 after serving others that had come in after us. we then ordered food and 6 takeaway coffees and she made two in mugs and then complained that she forgot that they were takeaways. The whole experience was terrible and Jo had the worst customer service of anyone...