La La Cafe — Restaurant in Waitematā

Came in because of the cute name.

Staff at the register handed us a menu and told us to come order at the register when ready, the waitress that brought out the food was pleasant.

We got an Iced Americano and a Berry smoothie and ordered a Margherita Pizza and Loaded Fries to share.

Iced Americano was pleasant, Berry Smoothie was plentiful but the flavors were a miss as a result of the fruit tasting extremely sour which was a definite letdown.

The mains were a travesty. As I left the counter I could see the cook opening up a package of tortillas, little did we know that this was going to be used as the base of the pizza.

For $22 dollars we recieved a tortilla based pizza with a watery tasteless tomato base, I counted 6 thinly sliced pieces of limp raw tomato. There was cheese, definitely not mozzarella but likely a little bit of grated edam. Because the pizza was so barren the chef decided to add tiny bits of basil that had dried up in the oven, and finish with a puddle of basil pesto on one side of the pizza. The base of the pizza had dried up in the oven to the point where it was difficult to cut with a knife, there was no crust as the entire base was a dry cracker.

The Loaded Fries ($15) was basically frozen store bought wedges baked in the oven, resulting in a wet/moist skin that slid off the potato. The bits of bacon were tasty but not enough to salvage the dish, at the bottom of the dish was the same cheese that was used in the Margherita Pizza, we were unsure whether it was cooked in the oven with the wedges or microwaved in when they were assembling the peices of the dish together. There was a generous dollap of sour cream, but no condiments i.e ketchup or aioli.

Great location, most customers seem to just grab a coffee or a drink. Their cook reminds me of when an asian mom immigrates to a western country and tries their hand at making some western-style lunchtime nibbles for her children,...

Catering to a kiwi palette with the odd authentic Thai dish offered a ray of hope.

After watching the barista make coffee, I realised her technique would result in burnt coffee thus, I examined the other options. After learning that the banana smoothie had real bananas, I ordered and it was warm but, still palettable.

There were 4 Thai options which I was told were authentic, thus I ordered Yum Yum soup with prawns, witha side dish of rice and salad, which disappointingly arrived without dressing. Simple lemon juice would have made it inviting. Thus, it was left uneaten.

The soup was Authentic tasting but, it was filled with inedible content ie bay leaves, tough bamboo shoots, tasteless ginger root. Edible content was overwhelmed by onion, with the odd mushroom and tomato. The prawns were tasteless and obviously from a bag, which I forced myself to eat but, only managed 4 of the 8.

A 15% surcharge due to the public holiday puts this cafe in the overpriced mediocrity category that, typifies New Zealand's culinary landscape.

My advice is to wait until lunch and go to the Java Room restaurant, 50m up the road and ask the chef to choose their favourite dish and accompanying beverage (see my review for...

Service wasn't great but it wasn't bad either, they were just not friendly or welcoming at all. Plus the fact they'd clean other tables and leave the dirty dishes on other tables because they couldn't carry it all (fair enough, but next time just grab what you can and come back mate), saw it happening a few times and then it was our turn. They cleaned a table then saw we had finished eating and grabbed our plates leaving other people's dirty glasses on our table, that's a big no no especially during these covid times. Food was reeeeally average and definitely not worth what you pay. Parnell has many options I shall explore before setting foot there again. Live music was nice though.

Edit to reply to miss congenitality owner of the cafe: you absolutely do not have the lowest prices in Parnell haha and covid times being short staffed is not an excuse for not following basic health and service principles. If anything it should be followed stricter, but anyway. From what I can see (from other reviews) you don't take the slightest critique and the service of the staff seems to reflect the owner. Can't be helped I guess. Good luck to...