Review Cafe Drina - Albany

This is consistently the best cafe I have been too. Amazing food, great coffee and fantastic service every time. A hidden gem in Albany.

Good coffee, plenty of food/savouries, outdoor setting is beautiful in summer and winter. On site parking available and parking on street. Friendly staff.

Nice food, friendly staff....always a great place for a peaceful snack or fresh coffee.

It's nice and cozy with decent open space for a casual break and coffee. Had the smashed avocado and it did not disappoint. Would recommend for a casual visit or two if you're around the area.

Beautifully presented, delicious & quickly prepared meals - highly recommend

Staff so friendly, cafe fast and nice,food is fantastic!

Nice looking food. Yummy chicken💕

What a pleasant surprise this cafe was. Great hot chocolate and the smashed avocado was fresh and tasty! Will be back. We have been back many times over the last 2 years and the food has been wonderful each time. Most recently on Valentines Day LOL. Their cabinet food is great too! Still my fave place for hot chocolate.

Love the style, open and relaxing food was awsome loved the edible flowers so pretty highly recommend staff are also amazing.

Auckland's best kept secret. Customer parking, friendly service, some of the tastiest cafe food I've had anywhere and the ultimate berry smoothie. Best of all, it's consistently good every time I go.

My partner and I have been here a couple of times now. I really enjoy their eggs bene and my partner looooves there kumara fries. Pretty great environment and the service is always very quick and very friendly.

Lovely lunch, I'm a return visitor. Recommend the mushroom on home made hash brown and the big breakfast... food always well presented. Just too much garlic info the mushrooms but otherwise awesome

Perfect Place for coffee. Extremely Convinent for work as i work just around the corner. Friendly Staff, Great Food! Have nothing to complain about. They even allow you to call them 10 minutes before your break to order food so its ready when you get there! Overall Highly Recommend going here!

French toast was beautifully presented!! Food and hot drinks very nice. Nice layout to the cafe. Enjoyed our experience. Many thanks

Tried Iced Coffee, Iced Mocha, Iced Latte, Flat White from this cafe and they were all OK. Visited at around 2 pm in the afternoon during the weekdays and always found something to eat from the cabinet. Tried Blueberry muffin, Chicken&spinach filo, brownie, Almond croissant, Steak and cheese pie and my rank for them is 1. Almond Croissant; 2. Chicken&Spinach Filo; 3. Steak and Cheese pie; 4. Blueberry muffin; 5. Brownie. It would have been better if the pie and filo could be hotter, but I guess it can be requested.

Delicious meal, beautifully presented. Highly recommended.

Great service! Yum french toast paired with iced coffee frappe!

Ambiance is quite and fine. Hot brew are really good. I tried cappuccino and flat white. For breakfast we ordered Evil chicken burger it was perfect amount, juicy and i loved the side chips they were awesome. Must try this burger. Egg Benedict was ok. Had a good vibes here. Good for weekend breakfast.

Had a Moroccan chicken wrap & a smoothie to take away - was absolutely amazing so decided to return and dine in.. Unfortunately it was a let down and we did not finish our meals nor drinks. It’s a shame as our first experience was so great!

Really nice little cafe! I had a chicken and spinach filo, ginger slice, and a chai latte - all really good though the filo pastry was a teeny bit soggy. The ginger slice was crunchy just the way I love it :)<br/><br/>It was really quick and lovely service and they have a nice range of different kinds of seating to choose from, including outdoors and booth type seats. A good place for a bit of study!

Actual rating would be 3.5 if half points were still permitted.<br/>We revisited Cafe Drina last weekend as we drive past it frequently and have been meaning to go back there for a while. The menu offers the usual suspects but with some variations. We had the Eggs Benedict, with bacon, kale and chickpeas; and the Evil Cajun chicken burger. The Eggs Benedict which were served on hash browns were very tasty, the bacon and kale good, but there were only 4 chickpeas which was a major letdown. My initial choice of Mr Bean (which is on the Zomato menu) was no longer available, which was also a big disappointment. The Cajun chicken burger was served in a black bun with generous slices of spicy grilled chicken breast, avocado, tomato etc, with fries - very tasty and adequately filling for brunch/lunch. Overall reasonable quality and value for money.

I ordered big breakfast. Sausage， Grilled mushrooms，Grilled tomato hash cake…… Good presentation, nice food. The chef is beautiful. I work nearby, come to this cafe regularly. <br/>Recommend to all.

This cafe is okay. The staff are polite, which is nice, but the food and drinks are just below average. Bought the ice coffee and a chocolate brownie. The ice coffee was awful. The coffee beans had a yukky burnt taste. And the brownie had a unpleasant "fridge" smell to it. By "fridge smell", I mean when food has been in the fridge and have soaked up the smells of other foods.. YUK!! <br/><br/>Prices are average cafe prices. Unfortunately, the taste isnt. Really wanted to like this place, because friendly staff, but cant say I can.

This is a nice cafe shop around rosedale area,I had the french toast is really nice. Also i like the thi beef panini.Service is oky. I will bring my family next friday!

Have had many good lunches here.  Had our Xmas company breakfast here today.  We try to support local places each year.  Sadly we have left disappointed.  All the poached eggs were hard.  Really should have asked for them all to be redone but didn't think of that at the time being a staff function so would have been multiple returns.  Service was fine although one of the waitresses decided to give some pre-ordered flowers I had waiting behind the counter to one of my staff members in the middle of the meal for no reason.  I did ask for them to be held until I collected them as I say a few thank yous at the end and with that present some flowers.  She didn't even know who they were for so have no idea why she decided to present them to one of the team.  Kind of ruined that part of the Xmas function.

This was pretty much on the high end of ok. Food tastes fine, but noisy with all the heavy traffic going past. <br/><br/>I was very pleased they brought out gluten free bread from the kitchen when I was expecting none so the effort and thoughtfulness is appreciated.

** edit ** I would like to change my review in light of Café Drina responding so quickly and making a change to now support Keep Cups.  Awesome service and really pleased you have taken this on.  I look forward to using Keep Cups with you and hope others do also :)***I go to Cafe Drina from work regularly.  As an environmentally conscious person I was very disappointed that the staff have never heard of Keep Cups.  I said I would like to buy one and use it there but they couldn't confirm they would support them and didn't seem to have any intention of finding out either.  Very disappointing as many cafes in Auckland even sell them now.

My favorite cafe till they closed on Sundays, was the only time I was over in Albany, lovely atmosphere, great coffee in nice big mugs..I miss it..

Hands down my favourite cafe in the area. I buy a coffee from here every week day & they always open their doors for me and welcome me in before 7am going above and beyond before they even technically open for the day. Coffee is consistently good & the food is delicious. They have a nice variety of gluten free options too. Exceptional customer service. Would highly recommend

I was not happy at all with this cafe. I ordered a hot chocolate and wrap to takeaway. The hot chocolate was cold and had big clumps of powder all through it and the sweet chili chicken wrap was not eatable. I took one bite and spat it out, the chicken was so rubbery and the lettuce tasted like it had sat there for a few days. Such a disappointment.

For the last three years I've frequently been going to this cafe, both to meet with clients and for personal catch ups. They hire friendly staff and their service is always great.<br/><br/>Oh, and great tasting coffee too!

Our favourite cafe, we go there at least once a week. The food and coffee are excellent and reasonably priced and the service friendly. They also have plenty of gluten free options. A nice quiet, pleasant atmosphere. Can highly recommend this cafe. The bad reviews baffle me as in all the time (a couple of years) we've been going to this cafe we've never had a bad experience. The coffee has always been very good. We've been to alot of cafes around Albany and this one is the best.

We dropped in here for a coffee after a short walk around the very beautiful Unsworth Reserve. Our coffees came as we ordered - extra hot and were very tasty. We like to stop for a coffee and sometimes lunch after our many walks around Auckland, and this cafe measured up to expectations.

I've spent the last 3 months away from Albany enduring one cup of rubbish coffee after another from a dozen different vendors around the North Island.<br/>I can, with absolute certainty, proclaim that Cafe Drina serves the best coffee around!<br/>It was like returning to my childhood home to find my cat still sitting on the doorstep. Friendly staff, nice tidy dining area and the consistent taste of quality coffee. Thanks guys!<br/>I find it hard to understand the bad comments on here as, after buying my coffee at Drina for 3 years, every single cup has been perfect. 10 out of 10. Sometimes, not knowing what good coffee tastes like makes you think McCafe coffee is acceptable I guess? I can't wait for the next Cafe Drina to open next door to me.....hint hint....

This was my first time sampling coffee from this place. I don't normally write reviews but as there was no email address to send a complaint and when I phoned a young girl took my girl and didn't really seem to care I thought best to post as coffee is obviously still going to roll out the same. Two work colleagues went in for coffees and muffins and took one to go for me in the office. Coffee was very bitter. Milk was burnt and even after putting in another 2 sugars to try and make it drinkable, no one in the office could drink it so went down the drain. The person taking a call like this should be grateful for feedback and immediately talk to whoever is making the coffees so they don't stop clients returning!!! Coffee did not even deserve one star and neither did the response from the employee taking the call! Have your coffee somewhere else.

I did not enjoy my visit to this cafe at all. <br/>first of all the food took ages to come over they forgot a ice chocolate when i came over to tell them they hadnt given us our drink yet they took a very long time to bring our drink over we finally got our ice choc once we had finished our food and it tasted like watery milk. The only thing i would say was that the food was nice it would be lovely place if the service wasnt so bad and i wont be returning again

this is my favorite cafe by far , Alan makes my coffee just how i like it every time , i also have breakfast there on a regular basis always Delicious

The food is really good ,service by both the owners one in kitchen and the other out and about just relaxing and laid back .They are attentive to when you require something extra,they can also do groups for the local business community .<br/>Well recommended