Review Balance Kitchen - Albany

Off the beaten track is this trendy café with good outdoor seating and convenient parking. Coffee was great and food presented wonderfully. Little bit too healthy for my liking but good experience all round 😃

Delicious and some great whole food options. The service is fast and its always really chill and relaxing. The mixed mushrooms with feta was amazing.

Yummy coffee and a great selection of healthy, tasty food.

Devine scrambled eggs with lovely pieces of pepper, garlic etc, toast and butter! scrummy! Great decaf coffee too. Many thanks.

Popped in for a coffee nice and relaxing Cafe with love staff. Didn't have any food but it looked awesome

Fantastic healthy food that tastes amazing to! Highly recommend to all :)

Great atmosphere and great tasty healthy food. Highly recommend it.

Amazing place. Build you're own breakfast and lunch. A must visit!!

Great Place to come for a quick and organic fix for your breakfast or lunch

This restaurant only supplies healthy foods in Albany District of Auckland in New Zealand.

Nice to have something different to choose from. Try the turmeric latte

Tasty food options and heaps of parking

Great food great staff

Great range of 'healthy' options

A really healthy option with amazing tasting food have been here a couple of times and every time the food has been on point with nice flavours and really good presentation! Also the restaurant has a really nice vibe to it

Food was clean and healthy, however our experience here was a bit poor. They were out of a lot of ingredients and the staff gave us attitude since we did not understand the ‘build your own’ platter. Not sure I would return only because food was just decent.

Food: really fresh, wholesome ingredients, everything tasted really fresh. I had ordered a “healthy bene”, the toast were a bit hard to cut and chew, but everything else was tasty. <br/><br/>Service: great service.

Used to be owned by an awesome bunch of people who took pride in their food.... well not anymore!<br/>I used to get the gorgeous champagne shaved ham straight off the bone on some grainy bread with eggs and garnish. Sounds simple but it was delicious!! What turns up now is a piece of thin square sliced luncheon on molenberg bread, with no butter or garnish. The coffee arrived after my breakfast was eaten/picked at.<br/>$19.00 for that? No thanks! <br/>Will never ever go here again. Not even the ‘free coffee’ email they sent will entice me back.

Nice concept and nice decor. Food is average, portion size is small for the price. I asked for juicy with no ice but still gave me tones of ice. Service was really really slow. I visited around 2-3pm with 2 friends, lucky we wasn't in a rush. I waited about 20 minutes for a glass of juice alone, which there were only like 3 or 4 tables at the time, one table was finishing their food.

I stopped by for a quick breakfast and ordered the creamy mushrooms. The food was good, I would have likely a little more creaminess to my mushrooms. The coffee was really good. Fast service Quite and chilled atmosphere.

Got an average muffin from here a couple weeks ago but thought I'd come back and give it one more go. <br/>When I walked in it was empty (never a good sign) and I began to peruse the menu, the incredibly rude waitress told me that the kitchen was closing so I could order from the cabinet and that was it, even though the door says open till 4pm and the kitchen was open for another 45min. <br/>Definitely won't be returning EVER. <br/>Shit service twice and if you can't be bothered to cook then I won't waste my money in here.

The ambiance was really nice and staff are super friendly. The menu isn't very extensive and the food lacks a bit of flavour. Drinks are nice 🤗

Unfortunately had a disappointing experience here. The food was bland, unexciting and overpriced. I suggested to front of house that they review their menu as it clearly lacked variety. Not many other customers in at lunchtime... Says a lot. Balance Kitchen could do very well for themselves but seriously need to make some changes. Meal was such a let down that my sister and I went across the road to get a pie from Z service station. Enough said.

Went in to get a coffee this morning, and after waiting at the counter for over 5 mins to even get acknowledged, the girl tells me they're not making coffee today as their barista is not there.... a cafe that doesn't serve coffee!! umm here's an idea, learn how to make coffees! Terrible service.

I only ordered a tea and a scone! The tea was lukewarm more like cold nearly! the scone was nice. We were a group of about 8 but most were having a coffee and something small! Thats really not good enough!<br/>Then on a second occasion Went there again only cuz had to my friends wanted to meet there, was awful! Charged me heaps for the large portion but what i got was about 3-4 small baby size pieces of VERY VERY BURNT CRUCIFIED kale and 2-3 small baby size spinach and two small pieces of broccoli! That was IT!!! Really ridiculous! If i was on my own or with close friend/ family i would hv certainly done some thing about it but my friends friends were there who i had just met so therefore it would not hv been great to do that! <br/>They are rude so if next time i hv to go there you know what il not buy anything or might even take my own food there hows that! Lol <br/>Ohh and get this, also my friend had a baby who knocked some water over the table and on the floor ( BUT DID NOT BRAKE OR DAMAGE ANY THING AT ALL) so the waitress comes over with a rag and a very angry upset look and attitude & SHE LEAVES THE RAG FOR US TO CLEAN THE FLOOR! Ummm Hello you get paid so its your job to clean it not us (the customers) how rude is that? And it was ONLY WATER and NO DAMAGE! for **** sake! Thats just beyond ridiculous! They deserve a zero at best but i cant make this Zero so even though they dont deserve even one it had to be one cuz the app wont let me make it zero!

Will never ever come here again. <br/><br/>My 2 year old and I came here to have Laksa at 2pm on Thursday. <br/><br/>It was quiet... But the lady behind the counter was almost offended to see me and my daughter at the counter keen to order and pay for food. <br/><br/>She had already been rude to her chef about the location of apples... She then informed me that they don't serve Laksa anymore. So I ordered plain scrambled eggs on toast priced at $15.50. <br/><br/>Very average food by anyone's standards... I really regret stepping foot in this place...

Just had my coffee with my toddler. <br/>I ordered a fluffy and he accidentally knocked it on to the floor and broke the cup. <br/>They heard the noise and did nothing. I picked up all the broken bits and took it to the counter. I apologized for the broken glass but the lady was frowning and said "but ... but.. but.." . I waited to see what she wanted to say (i think she wanted me to pay for the broke cup). Later she just walked away. I was so upset so I took my wallet and said "do you want me to pay for it? " and she said "just be careful" and she repeated saying it for 3times. <br/>Come on .. it was only a toddler's accidental happening. She had no understanding for it.

This was my go-to place for lunch. I'm a huge fan of clean and healthy eating, and loved their cabinet food as well as the made-to-order meals. However, the owner changed a few months ago and it has never been the same since. I kept going back now and then hoping they would improve, but this place just keeps on sinking. They've finally hit my last nerve by forgetting my order and not bothering to even apologise when I told them to not worry about it as I had run out of time and had become depleted of all patience. Such a shame; it really used to be an amazing little place... With a bit of effort, I'm certain it could return to it's former glory. Here's to hoping; but for the meantime, I just go a little further up the road and go to Tank for a similar cleanse.

I found this place purely through Zomato, the pictures looked great, got excited, took my mum for lunch. Coffees were okay-ish, the meals seemed to be overpriced compared to the quality of the dishes we got. <br/><br/>I ordered 'Breakfast beans & bacon' ($16) and the plate had three stripes of bacon, one egg, two quite small ciabatta bread pieces with some sort of white spread on them, LOTS of beans where each had a sunflower seed planted inside, and small pieces of tomato. I mean, the taste was not terrible, but I would rather go somewhere else and eat better with the same price.<br/><br/>My mum ordered 'Protein pancake' ($17), I haven't tried it so I can't really say anything about it, but the dish contained four pieces pancake, a little cup of maple syrup and some berries. She said the pancakes were very stiff.. I guess because of the name 'protein'. Again, would rather go somewhere else. <br/><br/>Maybe if I tried other better dishes or one of their protein shakes, then my ratings might be a little different, but this is what I would give for what we ordered. A number of healthy looking people seemed to visit and order takeaways.<br/><br/>+ The staffs seemed to know very little about their cafe dishes and their movements were not that smooth. I guess they just got hired.

Had a cacao and peanut butter smoothie. Ingredients listed are 30g protein powder, cacao, peanut butter, banana and almond milk. Did the math and 1 serving of protein powder is around $1-1.50 on the more expensive side of protein powders eg. Nar labs. With the bulk of the smoothie being bananas I don't see how this smoothie could possibly be worth $9.70 for a large being around 420ML. Smoothie is warm and took more than 10mins to make. 4 people already eating in the restaurant with 2 people waiting for food. There were 5 staff members. It's a smoothie. Not that hard to make. Not the worst smoothie but certainly no where near the best!

I love this place! It has such a great atmosphere and staff are super lovely, there's also a cute chess set which I can never beat my s/o at but that's okay! To be honest the food is quite bland and average... Great if you're a gym freak needing a healthy feed because you can customise your own lunches. I ordered protein pancakes and came with sad slivers of fruit. My s/o ordered Rosti and eggs, that looked super good and I'll order that next time! I always come here for the smoothies but a very limited choice...the cabinet food looks quite sad as well. I always come here because this cafe has signed up to the goody rewards and you can accumulate points and get free food 😋 would recommend to people in the fitness industry or watching their weight and still want to eat out. Would not recommend to anyone who's wanting to sit down and indulge in a huge filling brunch. 😅

Balance kitchen has that variety of healthy and well being style foods to choose from Al la carte again an average venue nothing fancy.hoping to see what this place can bring in the near future in terms of productivity.

My girlfriend and I went to Balance Kitchen for Sunday breakfast and were pleased with our experience. <br/><br/>The staff were welcoming and the ambiance relaxed. For our first visit we ordered Protein Pancakes, Spanish Frittata, Cappuccino, and Mochaccino. The coffee were great, and the Spanish Frittata hot and tasty. Though, I found the Pancakes to be a bit too heavy, which was disappointing. <br/><br/>We tried Balance Kitchen again, this time ordering scrambled eggs and an omelette. They were both hot and filling; the omelette's jalapeño added a bit of extra spice. Definitely try them again.<br/><br/>I'd recommend Balance Kitchen to friends, family, and followers.

A great healthy option for meals! I love how you can see the nutritional values for each option and create your own combinations! My favorite is the salmon sashimi - will be back!

Went here this morning, ordered a banana oat smoothie for breakfast, and bacon & egg wrap to take away. Omg the smoothie was all I needed after Workout this morning! So yum and filling. I will be back again to try all their other offerings!

Loved this place! Where do I begin<br/>From the sunshine filled,spacious clean interior to the lovely cabinet and a healthy, guilt free menu this place was perfect for me<br/>We ordered the kale salad + gf df brownie + scone and all 3 were fab!<br/>This is a place you can go with your friends and family for a treat while also being treat wise to your body<br/>Will definitely come back!

Went to this restaurant recently with my daughter. Had a horrible experience. Not happy at all. The staff was very rude the plates are not clean don't know if they washed the plates properly. The food was not that great. This stuff can be made at home with not much effort. Overall not happy with the experience. All of people seems to rave about this restaurant, but from doing some research looks like the owner is paying his friends with free lunches to get positive reviews which I think beats the whole purposes of reviews. So going to this restaurant based on positive reviews is a totally waste of money and time.

Reading all the other reviews people obviously love this place and honestly it's not a bad place. It's really beautiful appointed with modern and light decor and the space has a very organic feeling. <br/><br/>The staff are friendly and the menus were pretty cool with awesome sounding healthy food options, broken down into handy nutritional values. <br/><br/>I was very excited to try out this place for two reasons; one being the healthy lunch factor and it was a new spot to try out. <br/><br/>I ordered the sriracha chicken which sounded amazing and the cacao protein shake. I have to say the shake was different, refreshing & had a nice flavour to it and obviously wasn't sweet.<br/>The food was beautifully presented and smelled appealing. However, I really didn't enjoy the food mainly because it lacked flavour and was very bland. It smelled & looked a lot better than it tasted. My colleague had the burger and compared the chicken to something that was boiled and put into the burger. <br/><br/>Whilst it was a nice change of scenery, we left feeling really underwhelmed and a bit disappointed. The pricing was also a bit expensive for bland food. Maybe it was a one off but definitely not popping in again unfortunately. <br/><br/>I'm sure that healthy food doesn't necessarily lack flavour. <br/><br/>

The deco is nice , but don't come for a quick meal , took me a while to get a takeaway coffee. Majority of tables had dirty dishes on it which is one of my pet peeves ! I haven't eaten here, would like to try but I almost begrudge paying so much for "clean " food.

This place was nice and quiet on a Thursday morning for breakfast. They offered a menu which included macros for all those that were interested which I thought deserved a big thumbs up! I find it hard to find places in NZ which offer this sort of valuable information! The protein pancakes are amazing and don't leave you feeling too heavy afterwards and they also offer yummy nutritious protein shakes! I think if you're health conscious this is definitely a must try!!!

Great options for clean eaters with macros listed and build your own, great atmosphere and service. Good coffee and delicious slices, recommend the peanut butter slice 👍🏼

Ordered the egg Benedict! It was different but still delicious it was nice to know I was eating a healthier alternative for such a yummy dish that is known to be quite calorie consuming! I liked how the menu told you the food calories, protein, etc. I'm yet to try the protein pancakes but overall the atmosphere was great, only down point was the food took awhile but was defiantly worth the wait! 👌🏻

■ Open & Spacious<br/>■ Great meal options<br/>■ Tasty & Healthy<br/><br/>■ Long wait for meals<br/>■ Small portion sizes<br/><br/>A fresh change and a great find. Its definitely refreshing to see an eatery that brings together healthy and delicious under one roof! With the fitspo trend that's going around, this place is so fitting for anyone trying to meet their macronutrient goals and calorie counts as each meal has a calorie breakdown alongside fats, proteins and carbs on the menu. I really love the concept of this place in the way they allow you to personalize your meals according to your taste and energy needs. The ingredients list for this is extensive and varied for a build-your-own breakfast or lunch experience.  There's both indoor and outdoor seating options so real nice to sit out in the summer months. The staff are friendly and interactive and makes for a warm and welcoming time. Although it's by a busy intersection, its pretty peaceful and youre unlikely to notice the traffic outside. The interior is simple, modern and well maintained.<br/><br/>We got the protein pancakes and the poached eggs & ham with the grapefruit hollandaise, spinach, kale n rosti. The spinach and rosti together were such a good mix. The protein pancakes were soft, light and tasty. I also got to try the cacao and peanut butter protein shake. I loved it! Looking forward to trying their cabinet food next time.<br/><br/>What's better?? Its on Oteha Valley Rd so super close to my place too! Cant wait to explore their menu more in the future!

One of my all time favourite cafes! Perfect for knowing exactly what is going in your food or someone who is health/diet conscious. The smoothies and juices are ridiculously yummy but I would not recommend the garlic juice - grossest thing ever. Love the raw cranberry slice and the egg white frittatas!

Delicious and healthy go hand in hand at Balance Kitchen. Great selection of food and smoothies, all with their calories and macro contents conveniently listed on the menu. Can wait til one opens closer to home!

Had lunch here today with my daughter. We both really enjoyed our meals. I had the make salad with poached eggs and many additional goodies in the salad. Loved the fact the kale was finely chopped. My daughter had the srirachi chicken ( not knowing that it is a spicy chilli sauce!). We finished off with some gluten free sweets from the cabinet; lemon meringue pie and cranberry slice, both absolutely divine. Service good with friendly staff. We sat outside until it got too hot then moved inside. We were not troubled by the traffic outside even though this cafe sits near a very busy intersection.

Went there for lunch after a bush walk today. Really clean and modern interior. I got the home cured salmon sashimi and my boyfriend got the sriracha chicken breast. Both were amazing! I don't usually like wasabi but the sauce on the salmon was amazing. The chicken was reportedly pretty spicy but good, and quinoa was really flavoursome. Will definitely be coming back here! Service was fast and food was great! Will probably try a juice or protein shake next time.

Really friendly staff, nice and open/mordern. The morning sunshine juice is one of the best juices I've tasted and I saw all the fresh fruit going in to it! The protein pancakes with fresh fruit and yogurt are amazing! They're really big and filling, definitely worth $15 and the eggs benedict on a home made rosti with kale/spinach is a must try! I definitely recommend this Cafe.

We went for lunch at the recently opened Balance Kitchen today. The cafe is light, airy and modern with plenty of inside and outdoor seating. The focus of the cafe is on healthy foods and drinks. We chose the Laksa Curry and the Protein Pancakes, with sides of kale and chipotle hash. The pancakes tasted great and came covered in sliced almonds, strawberries and blueberries, accompanied by honey/maple syrup. The chipotle hash was very spicy. The Laksa, with the additional kale, was a substantial serving with 2 large mussels in the shell, broccoli, and zucchini noodles, topped with a boiled egg - all in a deliciously spicy curry sauce.<br/>The menu lists a good variety of ingredients for a build-your-own breakfast/lunch including some that are more unusual as add-on items such as kumara, pumpkin, haloumi, and kale - a welcome change from the standard offerings, and an interesting concept.<br/>The only negative was that we had an inexplicably long wait for our meals, but overall the quality of the food was very good, and the meals were good value for money, so definitely worth another visit.

CLEAN, TASTY AND FRESH!! <br/>Fast service, very high quality food with flavour! Really reasonably priced and there is something for everyone here. A must try if you havnt already. A++ balance kitchen

Went for lunch here and whilst the concept is brilliant, unfortunately the execution was poor. We waited 45 minutes for our food and 15 for our coffees. They seemed seriously short staffed with only one guy in the kitchen. No salt and pepper on the tables either. Wouldn't come back.

I enjoyed my meal of pancakes and frittata (shared with a friend) it's nice to have a healthy place to eat out especially if you're being macro conscious. Price is good, I thought it would be more, however I'm a big eater and I wasn't full from the meal. ☹

You have got to try this place, the only place I am aware of for healthy people, not just gym focused people. The only place I know of that breaks down the meal to let you know cards, fats, and protein. <br/><br/>Pancakes are a must try, my favourite shake is the mango blueberry. My wife's fav is the peanut butter and cocoa. <br/><br/>For lunch the chicken is incredible, how they get that much flavour in there I have no idea. This is a must try

My favourite place on the shore for breakfast and lunch. Delicious and healthy. I love the build your own breakfast/lunch, great coffee too.

Tried this for the first time the other day. I am a cacao smoothie addict and their choc smoothie here is delicious! Love that it had the frozen type of texture to it. Good pricing for the small smoothie.

Great to have a healthy alternative on the shore! Beautiful open plan seating area with modern, tasteful decor. Lovely outdoor area too so you can enjoy the sun while you savour the delicious meals available. I ordered the protein pancakes which were accompanied with lovely fresh fruit, yoghurt and organic maple syrup. A lovely, light, healthy start to the day. Great place to go if your on an eating plan as you can create your own meal that fits your macronutrients.

This a new favourite for me! The concept of Balance Kitchen is great - they cater to everyone providing nutritious delicious breakfast and lunch options, as well as personalised meals for those who keep to their macronutrient goals.<br/><br/>Not only does Balance Kitchen provide a relaxed and inviting vibe, their meals are fresh, well-presented and delightfully tasty! Who knew healthy could taste so good? I ordered chicken, kumara and broccoli with a side of Korean BBQ sauce. My lunch definitely exceeded my expectations.<br/><br/>The best thing? I love that Balance Kitchen is on the shore so that I can come here ALL THE TIME now! Especially in the summer. This beautiful open space is going to be so packed!