Icoco Cafe. — Restaurant in Whau

I visited the cafe for lunch on a Friday. I and the partner are trying to sample the local fare around Blockhouse Bay, having moved here recently, and the Icoco Cafe was on our list. The small cafe had a smattering of customers at noon when we visited. My partner ordered the BLAT with a side of fries, while I opted for the Turkish sandwich with bacon. When the food arrived, we quickly noticed that the two dishes were nearly identical. The only difference we could see immediately was the addition of avocado in the BLAT. Swap out the mesclun salad for lettuce, minus the avocado and add two thin slices of tomato, and you’d have the Turkish sandwich. While this wasn’t a dealbreaker, the quality of the food left much to be desired. For starters, my Turkish sandwich came on cold, untoasted focaccia. In fact, everything on my plate was cold. The roasted veggies were essentially just kumara—no seasoning or variety to speak of. The bacon was chewy, as if it had been cooked hours earlier, and lacked freshness. A smear of relish and aioli hardly made up for the dryness, leaving me with a rather unappetising experience. Between the cold bread and rubbery bacon, it felt like a dish thrown together by someone who wasn’t particularly invested in its preparation. While the cafe's prices are slightly more affordable than some competitors in the area, the overall quality of the food doesn’t justify that small saving. Given the abundance of cafes in Auckland—and even within Blockhouse Bay—serving higher-quality meals for just a few dollars more, I don’t see myself returning...

I had heard great things about this cafe from friends and online, so I had to check it out so I went in yesterday with one of my parents and turns out it wasnt so great, we had ordered and taken our seats and 2 or 3 families had come in after us and they got their coffee and cooked food much quicker than ours, we were waiting for at least 20 minutes before we had gotten our food, for the price you pay for it, mine was average at best and my parent's food was not great, not great that she is now sick since yesterday, she was completely healthy and fine before we walked into the cafe and 30 mins to 1 hour later that's when she felt ill and still is. Great people but the waiting time and the food was not up to scratch. Please improve on this, I dont want anyone else wasting their time or money and feeling...

I ordered a toasted bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese as well as a medium cappuccino. The cost was $21.00.

For whatever reason, this cafe serves its bagel sandwiches deconstructed. You get a bagel, salmon, and cream cheese with capers, all separate on the plate and you then have to make the sandwich yourself.

The bagel was a bit dry, the salad was a little overdressed, otherwise there's really nothing to say about this. It gets 3 stars because it wasn't too pricey, but it doesn't get anymore, because it wasn't very good.

The coffee was OK. A bit weak and overly milky...