Teed St Larder, Newmarket

I haven't seen a review for this cafe yet, I may have just missed it but but let me tell you this place is fantastic. I just want to gush with praise about it.
Our waiter was very attentive and so helpful in our decisions. I was tossing up between the braised lentils, pork sausage, sour cream and poached eggs or the panfried chicken livers, mushrooms with a maderia cream and ciabatta. He suggested the chicken livers, which I chose and was extremely happy with. He also helped JC with her decision between the lentils, hot cakes with banana, rum and coconut mascarpone. (sounds amazing and I'll be coming back for these.) Or the cauliflower fritters, curry oil, cucumber & dill raita and smoked salmon, she chose the fritters with smoked salmon. These were so tasty, the curry oil was light and not overwhelming at all and the raita complimented it all. JC's only complaint was that the salmon was cold and would have been better hot.
The other two ladies had the potato rosti, pancetta, avocado, poached egg and coriander relish which they eagerly enjoyed.
At the top of their menu they list their treats, I love that word at the top of a menu! Churros with spiced chocolate or dulce de leche. Amazing and had to have it.
Their coffees were great. LZ had the hot chocolate with 72% cocoa and homemade marshmallows, these were so delicious, I dont think I can ever eat supermarket bought ones again. ES had an iced chocolate.
This place is amazing, I cant help but praise everything about it and cant wait to go back. The decor is spacious, the counter food looks fabulous and the staff are great. I really hope you enjoy this cafe as much as we did.

Rating:

Food: 5/5
Ambiance: 4
Coffee: 5
Staff: 5

Blake St Cafe

When I lived here there were no cafes on this street and we were the only apartment block, my how things have changed!
Blake St Cafe has a good local vibe, a popular place for takeaway coffees (a good judge of a good brew, especially when there are a number of cafes just up the road).

The menu had the usual breakfast fare that most cafes in Auckland serve, I'm starting to notice a common pattern here now that I'm taking notice. There were alot of egg choices, eggs bene, eggs florentine, eggs on ciabatta. I chose bubble and squeak with, you guessed it, fried eggs and smoked venison sausage. The bubble and squeak was definitely that, potato,carrot, kumera but no cabbage. The sausage was definitely not venison, not even smoked, disappointing! The eggs were fried well. L had a brunch black board special, fish cakes with ciabatta, eggs and a horseradish sauce. The fish cakes were fresh but why would you serve fish with horseradish sauce! There were only 2 of us for lunch this weekend, J slept in!
Coffees were good.
I was disappointed with this cafe and I was so looking forward to it.

Rating

Food: 2.5
Ambiance: 3.5 (good people watching)
Coffee: 4
Staff: 3

Andiamo Herne Bay

Andiamo in Herne Bay is the cafe/restaurant that planted the seed to start this blog. We had finished our brunch and each made a comment. My comment was on the aesthetics of the food,"beautifully presented", and we all agreed small portions.
The brunch menu is varied and enticing, I chose the breakfast sausage with bubble and squeak, onion gravy and chutney $16.50 or $23.00 if you wanted an extra sausage. Couldn't quite understand how an extra sausage could cost $6.50 on the menu when on the extras they were $5.50! The hash was more potato than a traditional mix of the nights before roast veges. However there was cabbage. The 2 sausages were average.
J had the pan seared scallops from the lunch menu, she thoroughly enjoyed them and L had the smoked fish potato hash with wilted spinach, poached eggs and hollandaise. Also enjoyable.
Our coffees were great, could have been hotter, but that's just me, I like them piping hot, I will have to stipulate that at the next cafe.
Service was a little slow for a restaurant that wasn't too busy.
All in all, the food looked fantastic but lacked in size, we walked out still hungry and ventured up the road to the fantastic cupcake shop, Icing on the Cake, wow!
Rating:
Food: 3.5
Coffee: 5
Ambiance: 3
Staff: 3.5(it felt weird being seated by a maitre d who was so well dressed for 11 am.I thought he was a patron who forgot to go home from the night before. However saying that he was very polite and professional.)

Altar, Mt Eden

I visited this cafe the day their Canvas review was published. I have been here before and have always enjoyed their menu, their tandoori marinated chicken served on a cous cous salad & topped w tzatziki is huge and filled with fantastic flavours all complimenting each other.
This time I decided to order off the specials board, they had a Salad with spinach, roasted beetroot, grilled asparagus and feta, with a pumpkin seed dressing, it sounded good.
My salad came to the table without the feta, pretty important I thought! They quickly added it. The salad was on a small rectangle plate with baby spinach leaves, the beetroot was not roasted, however the asparagus was grilled. The size of this salad was ridiculously small and for $19.00 I would expect a bowl full of what the specials board promised.
My friend LV ordered the roast mushrooms with feta puree on sourdough from the menu. This came out and looked great, she loved the puree and said it was a great compliment to the roast mushrooms.
Our coffees were hot, strong and served quickly, just how I like them.
Overall I would be hesitant to order a salad off the specials board, especially if you are hungry, which I was, so this tainted my experience.

Rating:
Food 3.5/5
Coffee 5/5
Ambiance 4/5
Staff 4/5