Stone Oven Bakery Cafe & Restaurant — Restaurant in West Coast

Husband ordered Schnitzel, I wanted a toasted sandwich - on the blackboard with no prices. Lady serving said I had to get a sandwich from the bakery next door, bring it back and they would toast it. She wrote sandwich paid on a slip of paper which I took through to bakery/cafe and was treated by grey haired guy serving with suspicion. He took the slip and went through the back to check my story. Came back to confirm I was correct and passed me to another server (he clearly did not want to deal with me) she offered me a choice of prepped sandwiches! Strangely I do not fancy a toasted boiled egg and cress or chicken salad sandwich. I asked for a simple cheese and onion toastie- she said I might need to pay extra- which I said I did not mind. Sat back at my seat next door to be given my coffee and asked where my number was- I wasn’t given one! My fault again I suppose. My husband meal arrived and I eventually got my cheese and onion toastie- which was fine. But not worth the poor treatment and attitude from some of the staff. The young ladies were helpful but the older woman and the guy next door were rude. Avoid this place - there are many others to choose from in Hokitika. Perhaps they prefer their locals who spend every day over tourists who visit once or twice. Don’t even know what I paid as I was so flustered, got no receipt and toastie...

Went to stone over due to high reviews. Ordered at counter with the owner of the place. No issues here so far.

Went bathroom came back and my wife told me, they had told her there is no more rice so for her food would she be happy with wedges to which she said no thanks. They said but we have already started cooking your food. She said I’m sorry but I’ll swap to the salmon which was a $5 increase + public holiday so + 0.75c and yet the owner charged her $10.00. I found out and asked him why and he stammered for an excuse that was not present then refunded me $6 which I said no thanks 5.25 is sufficient. He insisted on $6.

I do not know if this was a genuine mistake or not but did not leave me feeling happy.

Then the waitress dropped off my wife’s food and said sorry for the hassle it’s hard to explain things to her people….. this is where I decided to leave a poor review. My wife is Korean but speaks fluent English. She ordered fine, paid fine, even argued about the wedges fine yet it’s to hard to explain price difference and do math and calculate difference between 21 and 26 then add 15% so you choose $10 bucks? Sorry team poor form.

Will never go...

Fantastic service here. It was so refreshing to see staff smiling and seeming to enjoy what they're doing for once! Food was good but you do need to go here with the right expectations. With a name of Stone Oven Café and the Café L'Affaire coffee sign out the front, I think we were expecting something more wholesome and fresh, but actually most of the food is either fried food or pies and sausage rolls.

We ordered the kids platter for each of our kids. It had no description so we should have asked, as what turned up was a large plate of basically what you'd get from a fish and chip shop; chips, chicken nuggets, fish bites, and hot dogs. It was huge as well - we could have ordered one between them - although really we were expecting something a bit more healthy and cafe-like. Odd as another café in Hokitika has exactly the same option as their kids platter.

Note that where you go in it feels like there are two food businesses connected in the middle, but they're both the same business and you can sit down and order...