La Belle Poste Café — Restaurant in Waitematā

The general vibe is very nice and light. They are a vegetarian Cafe (ie no bacon etc) but very vegan friendly. The service was very attentive but it was a little bit weird to have 2 or 3 different staff looking after us, seems like things would get missed between staff? We started off with coffees, I had a soy mocha which is my go to. I was very happy to see that the sugar on the table appeared to be coconut sugar. Mum had a long black which didn’t come with any milk or a little jug of hot water, but they were very happy to bring over water when asked. The coffees were excellent as you would expect considering they are coffee roasters. My soy mocha was the perfect amount of coffee to chocolate ratio, there was a hint of something else but I can’t put my finger on it. It could be the flavour of the milk perhaps? The soy they use is much nicer than all soys that I’ve come across, the barista showed me that they use the Macro brand milk which you can only get from Countdown surprisingly. A quick look at the countdown website shows that you can get soy, almond or rice milks from this brand which is an organic brand from Australia. At roughly $3 for this soy it’s a real winner!

Mum ordered the Mexican beans which is free range scrambled eggs, salsa, avo, tomato, nuts & seeds served with a poppadom. This can be changed to be GF, DF, or vegan but mum had it standard. She said that everything was excellent and complimented each other well.

I ordered the special of the day which was a superfoods muesli with a berry coulis on the side. The muesli was a lovely combination of oats, seeds, almonds, Maca powder and coconut shavings. The berry coulis was lovely and tart, it had Goji berries in it which is a nice touch. Was all topped off with some mint leaves and a jug of what appeared to be almond milk. The combination of everything worked amazingly well together to be sweet, tart and nutty all in one. I will be repeating...

Hi Kokako, Came in a few days ago, ordered gluten free, as I am coeliac. Meal came, for some reason I asked the waitress, this is gluten free isn't it? just before I went to eat it, she says no it's not, I forgot. To those of you who do not understand coeliac, had I eaten this meal, I would not have been able to function, for weeks going forward. Coeliac people whether a silent coeliac or not, cannot tolerate minute amounts of gluten or contamination. Gluten damages the gut. The longterm effects of eating gluten to an undiagnosed coeliac, or to a diagnosed coeliac, can be cancer. It is not an allergy to gluten. It's a full on disease. A pain in the you know what for all concerned. But nevertheless we coeliacs love to try and be normal and eat out at our own risk. And believe me the risk is great. I was a little surprised in the way it was handled, and thought better of coming back to this cafe. All a bit nonchalant. I think education though is the answer. I have been diagnosed coeliac for 34 years and am pretty much an expert on the subject. Have experienced the good, the bad and the downright ugly in the gluten free eatery scene. The Kokako food was delicious and the drinks as well, a little on the expensive side, however am happy to pay for excellence. The unknown eating of gluten on occasions over years and the longterm aftermath of being unable to function and very ill effects, have lost me a greatly loved job. It is a very serious disease. We coeliacs do appreciate any efforts eateries make in 1. providing gf food. 2. staff training. 3. making sure that gf food in cabinets is on the top shelf to avoid falling crumbs and contamination, and not touching other gluten food. 4. that separate tongs are used etc etc. The Coeliac Society are pleased to train and offer support to businesses who want to understand the nature of gf and what it means...

We went to your cafe at around 1.00 so understand that it was in the lunch time rush . The Cafe was busy , atmosphere was good looked inviting so we got a table . The service started off great we were greeted and sat at an appropriate table which catered for us all including the two grandchildren . The waitress that seated us brought pictures for the children to colour in , gave us menus said she would come back and take our orders. So we waited about 10 mins later she came back and took our drink orders .I hadn't decided at that point as I was attending to one of the grandchildren..She advised she would come back..And that is where it went down hill from there . The drinks came out from a waiter ..Great then my granddaughter knocks over her drink 2 mins after receiving it ...Not one of you staff came to assist.. yet they were all walking past and we were trying to get their attention. So I proceeded to your main counter and asked for a cloth to clean the mess up my self. I was given a wet cloth which didn't do a lot except stop it flowing on to the floor ... Still no help from any of your staff...Went back to the main counter to ask for paper towels to soak up the spill ... And again no one offers any assistance at all.. The table beside us that came in after us had there drinks and meal order taken before us , and they also spilt a drink and was attended to straight away and we were still ignored. So we had been ther for at least half an hour the waitress or any of the staff had not return to take our meal orders ....So we decided that it was best we leave and go else where ... This was my first time at your cafe which I think is amazing but sooooo gutted at the experience ...I have just returned back to NZ and had heard from quite a few of my friends how amazing this place is and am now feeling totally dissapointed at this experience we...