Tuitui Museum Bistro & Café — Restaurant in Waitematā

I must admit, I can not accurately rate the food here. I had a coffee, my friend had a hot chocolate and my husband had a Danish.

What I can rate is the service, and if I could rate it a zero, I would. It was horrendous treatment today by women with whom I will not mention her name publicly (but would happily share with management privately) towards our group.

My friend brought some snacks for her toddler. So we made our way to an available table in the lobby area to feed him. There were no other seating areas because there were several school groups visiting that day. We sat to feed her toddler while my husband stood in line to get drinks for us & a Danish for himself. My friend also has an 8 week old new born with her. In her arms, sleeping. She unpacks a sandwich for her toddler & while he's eating she uses the opportunity to enjoy part of a muffin she has packed for him also. She was hungry, she'd packed snacks and she just finished feeding her sleeping 8 week old baby. The regular room for no-paying customers was filled with atlest 50 rambunctious & loud school kids (not a setting for an 8 month old sleeping baby).

This incredibly rude employee comes up to my friend and informs her she is not permitted to eat her muffin because they are a privately owned establishment. She assumed we were not buying anything (she must not have seen that my husband was part of our group). When I questioned her concern for a mother having a bite of muffin between feeding her baby and feeding her toddler, she was argumentative towards me and somewhat aggressive with her body language and stance standing over us. I informed her we were buying something and she made sure to remind me that we could ONLY eat what my husband brought back for us. She was about to put me in my place verbally, so to avoid a scene or embarrassing my friend I reluctantly conceded to her behavior.

I was mortified. My husband returned with our coffees & his Danish. The toddler ate his sandwich. My husband hate his Danish and we took our hot beverages.

I am a visitor to New Zealand from Canada. But this is certainly NOT an experience I will soon forget from someone- towards a mother of 2 young children at a museum. Absolutely disgusting behavior and I do hope that employee is addressed for her lack of compassion, empathy or...

Staff and waitress very kind and welcoming. A very clean and an oasis from the cafe outside which was very noisy. To be honest, the menu is very limited for adults wanting a light snack, morning tea or brunch. My suggestion would be to the Cafe add more light brunch type platters and more children friendly healthy options. Ie a breakfast platter to share - ie scambled eggs, bacon, sausage, garlic bread and you could add a family platter chips, nuggets, toasted standwhiches, crossaints with cheese and ham, mini pizzas with cheese and ham which would be low drama for the kitchen and probably suit a lot of families. The adult food looked good from what I saw and generous portions, the tacos, T. rex short rib, shared Mediterranean dish looked fresh and yummy. I do feel they could add more simple things to the menu to extend it out. In the end everything looked too heavy for me for 11 am, I ordered Mango Sorbet and a coffee- turns out they had run out of the sorbet so I had nothing as there was nothing light, small and healthy Partner had the Short Rib - looked good, big and plenty of food - main commented a “little chewy” and there was bits of tendon or intercostal muscles that came with the short rib I recommend he did not eat. Cold slaw was nice. I feel the menu needs more items and more of a range of items or smaller little $8-9 sharing plates you could order 2-3 to share for an early lunch on the go. It doesn’t have to to be complicated dishes. The coffee was great, atmosphere was lovely, kids menu looked reasonable and the people around us with children had high chairs etc and families looked relaxed in the cafe, and little ones...

Terribly rude woman approached us and siad you can order and take away you know after we had already been told how in a long drawn out way to order then go across the room to pay then come back and get food we were deciding what to have she tried to bully us into ordering I said we will when we are ready she basically ignored me and made hand signals telling me to be quite saying she would only talk to the other person ie my friend and not myself a bit crazy I said excuse me why don't you just go away my friend said to her that was very rude of her and once again she said are you going to order my friend said nah and we walked away very confused as we didn't even ask for her help in the first place it was all a bit strange and she didn't do the cafe any favors I am sure ether by loosing out on four customers talk about silly service will not go back...