Review Calendula Cottage - Auckland Central

Beautiful spot for a lovely Sunday afternoon. Coffee and food delicious with generous helpings. Loved the garden setting, just superb. Thanks for a lovely afternoon.

Very serene rural garden setting. Great food, good pricing, good huge portions. Friendly fast service. Highly recommended!!!

Such a lovely setting. Friendly staff and delicious food!!! Super fast cook! The menu was varied for everyone (including kiddies) and there's a great choice of goodies in cabinet too... which we couldn't resist choosing from and took home :D

Loved it here. Staff were friendly and helpful. Food was brilliant. Lovely garden setting. Highly recommended but it does get busy.

This cafe has the most beautiful garden and the food and coffee is fantastic. The portion sizes are huge and the Banoffee pie is the best that I have ever had. It really was mouth watering! The weather wasn’t great when I was here and the garden still looked amazing. On a beautiful day this place would be well worth a drive from the city.

Their coffees are excellent:). And the gardens settings are so lovely and beautiful 😍

Best iced coffee I've had in years. Such friendly staff. Loved the outside atmosphere with all the gardens around. Not bad pricing for how incredible the food was too.

Great food and drink with reasonable Auckland prices, beautiful scenery and tidy staff. Great little place to stop by if you are ever in the area. Seats may be hard for the elderly and prams could get stuck in the path during winter rain seasons. Worth it though as the garden is perfect for children to play in while mum/dad sits down for a cuppa.

I think this is my all time favorite cafe now. Sitting outside and eating food is definitely best in my books. I had the mushroom chicken fettuccine. Delicious 😋 I have a feeling weddings would be awesome here. Go for a little drive and you'll find a peaceful retreat. Five stars for this hidden 💎 gem 😁😁😁💯

Noticed the cafe sign while out on a drive to Glenbrook. Decided to stop and glad we did. Beautiful garden setting and delicious food

Nice cafe, service was fast and enjoyed our meal

Great selection of your normal run of the mill food but all looks lovely. I had to sit in the little cabin in the lovely garden which was delightful. Food n coffee arrived very quickly . Coffee hot but I spilt it as table was wobbly . Room for the kids to run around, will definitely come again when out this way.

Nice day, meal portions could’ve been a bit more generous but perfect if you plan for a sweet treat afterwards.

Lovely little garden cafe. Apple and boysonberry pie was warm and delicious with fresh cream. Fresh flowers on the tables :) Note: Only one toilet + one portaloo at the bathroom here.

Love coming here for lunch. Sometimes its busy other times not, so hard to predict. Nice to get a table outside. Kids love it here too. Good, extensive menu and amazing cabinet foods and desserts. Think between hubby and I we have almost tried everything on the menu. Highly recommend the banoffee pie!

Beautiful environment and location. Excellent service. Yummy food and competitive prices

We had some lovely food and service was good too. I can imagine the gardens are lovely in summer

Ive been here several times ans mostly received average service, today however I left without ordering anything, the staff member on the till was disinterested and unhelpful, i asked for vegan options and she waved me dismissively in the direction of the menu, On inspection of the menu i could only see vegetarian ,the staff member continued to talk to her work collegues and fanned her face, not at all professional service, will not be hoing back

There are many unexpected places in New Zealand and this was one of them, literally tucked in the middle of nowhere, located in Glenbrook this restaurant is surrounded by farms on every side. An oasis in the middle of lush farm greeneries this place surprised me. I dined in here on a Saturday lunch and was never expecting it to be packed with diners specially in a far-away place like this, a place that is really nice for families where there are countless picnic tables and gazebo dining area as well as the main restaurant. With a nice garden feel, you are shaded from the sun by trees regardless what time of the day you dine in. To simply put it in words, they have a lovely setting, a cool little spot out of nowhere.

Great Cafe with out door setting located in a semi rural setting. Great environment to relax with friends and family. Went on a weekend of a long holiday. Was super busy but the staff and service was fantastic and very efficient. Ordered fries, scones and coffee, was surprised to find the low coffee price. All other items on the menu was priced as expected. The wedges were outstanding, service super efficient and super fast(infact pleasantly surprised to find the quick turn-around)<br/>Highly recommended for a relaxing visit

Went here today. Venue is lovely and food was ok, but unfortunately the staff let this cafe down. Didn’t really talk to us just put food down in front of us. We seemed to wait longer than other patrons and my husband received his meal miles before me so I ended up eating by myself. This could be a lovely cafe with some staff training and a smile.

Stoked I finally got around to coming here and already looking forward to my next visit. Such a cool little spot, quite small tho especially inside so pays to go on a sunny day so you can sit in the garden.<br/><br/>Service was a little stand offish and impatient when ordering but the staff who were clearing tables and who brought food out were better.<br/><br/>The cabinet food selection looked amazing and the cakes all so generous!!!<br/><br/>Food is fantastic, well priced and awesome presentation.

Visited for the first time today with family for lunch! Food generous portions however not so tasty! Egg Benedict with hash brown 2/5, waffles with lots of ice cream & Nutella 3/5 and hot chips 4/5. Long black $4.60 and a 2/5!! Would I make the effort to visit again probably not.

Amazing food, very friendly staff and the ice coffees are soo good! Will be going back!!.......................................................

Food was yum, coffee and chai latte was great too. Homemade brownie was Divine 😍 Great atmosphere, great service, great people around and the gardens are beautiful 😍

Had a wonderful afternoon tea here with the family before my sister headed back to the UK. We chose to sit under cover but I love the little cosy nooks outside too :-) food was nice, service was good

Lovely setting, lovely service but food needs to be worked on I think. I ordered waffles here today but was expecting lovely fresh homemade ones but unfortunately not. Shame though, husbands burger was nice except once again processed. Wasn,t worth the $47 including 2 coffees, which btw were very nice. Too expensive for something that isn't made fresh. Sorry won't be back until the food gets better

Phoned 3 hours ahead for reservation in outside area. Girl @ reception indicated inside table & refused to address our request. Ordered mussel fritters. Big mistake. More like muffins & only a few bits of tasteless tough mussels. $19.90 for this dish is a complete rip off. When I questioned the management my unfinished meal was removed and absolutely no follow up happened. Only two good things I can say about this cafe. Beautiful garden setting and polite young waiter who brought our meals to our table.

Very popular cafe - great destination after a drive in the country. It pays to book, particularly on the weekends. There can be up to a 45 min wait for meals on busy days too, but they are upfront about this. They have indoor & outdoor seating available including in some gazebos which are quite cute.<br/>Menu is varied from a range of breakfast options through to salads, & burgers.<br/>We had the BLAT, beetroot salad with chicken & beef burger. All we enjoyed.<br/>Coffee is Bach Espresso & was well made. No room for sweets today but they looked impressive. <br/>Service was good.

Please do not be put off by the negative reviews! Most of them are from the days of previous management. I live here and have been many times over the last 2 years. It has never disappointed.<br/><br/>The garden is beautiful, food is really tasty with lots of different options and service is absolutely fine! Staff are always really friendly.<br/><br/>One of the best cafe's in the area. Pizza nights are totally rad as well, great overall experience.<br/><br/>Well worth a visit if you ever find yourself out this way. I'm sad that the old reviews drag the rating down so much, it is NOT an accurate reflection.<br/><br/>

Delicious food and a wonderful selection to choose from, friendly welcoming staff, stunning environment, surrounded by the beautiful sound of birds and local animals .. It was a perfect Saturday getaway

We had a family celebration lunch here on Sunday with a group of 9. We had reserved a table which was just as well as the place was very busy. We were warned there was a 45 minute wait for food when we were seated. They were right! The food was nicely presented and very tasty. It did come out from the kitchen not altogether with the Caesar salad, steak sandwiches and burgers first, and potato hash dishes about 5 minutes later. We didn't try any of the sweet slices that were in the cabinet but they were very tempting to look at whilst we were waiting for our meals!

Awesome friendly service!! signs out on main roads make it easier to find! great food and very nice setting! pizza nights are awesome and it being licensed alcohol cafe makes it even better!

Went here today, menu on wall is really small hard to see and it's also in stupid places so you have to try find it first, ordering something from their glass cabinet (ready made) takes not long to arrive, yet the items all arrived at different times atleast 10 minutes after the each other so one person is finished and the next person only just gets their meal. Also not much parking, Other than that nice spot, with average to good food & average service.

Best.Wedding. Ever. <br/><br/>We chose Calendula Cafe for our recent wedding. Gareth, Paul, Noleen, Lizzie and the whole team worked with us from the beginning of our planning (on a cold and wet wintery day!) to the warm and sunny spring day that we had for our wedding – but they did provide a ‘wet day Plan B’!<br/><br/>Everything was perfect; The catering, the service, the attention to detail and above all, having us always feel welcome, worked with our ideas, had some fantastic suggestions of their own and guided us with the whole process. On our wedding day itself, it was like spending the day in a good friend’s garden (that also had the benefit of a commercial kitchen and fantastic staff and excellent setting for photo’s!)<br/><br/>I can’t recommend the cafe enough if you’re thinking of a garden wedding. All of our guests were very impressed – and we were able to enjoy the best wedding ever. <br/><br/>With much thanks, Andrew and Chris

I think you should seriously consider taking down all advertising for your venue because the disguisting excuse for hospitality i experienced today shows you are not capable to do more than host a dinner party, we arrived at 12:30 thinking it was a beautiful day for lunch in the sun and what better place, the lady behind the counter informed me that there was a "little bit of a wait on food" which was fine as we had nothing to do for the afternoon, I was a little taken back by the utter mess on almost every single table, but coming from an 11 year background of managing hospitality venues in Auckland city I know I can be nit picky on things like that so i ignored it. We received our food at 2:00, literally an hour and a half wait, what made it worse was the fact it was a 45 minute wait just for the English Breakfast tea to arrive, as i sat there waiting for my food I watched in awe and disbelief at how terrible the systems you had in place were. There were none! there was no urgency in your staff, nobody clearing tables, nobody set on the coffee machine churning out coffees, im pressuming you had no 86 list as customers were constantly ordering carrot cake, sitting down and then being told 10 minutes later im sorry there is no carrot cake, I mean once is slightly understandable but 5 times with about 20 minutes in between each person, how do you forget that that many times? customers were being told there wasnt cutlery, thats just bad, no venue no matter how busy even if you dont have time to clean the dirty stuff should run out of cutlery, and if on the off chance you do, you dont tell the customer, you roll up your sleaves and scold your hands scrubbing a seat clean to take out with the food. When I finally decided to see how much of a wait we had left, I was informed it was just being plated and sorry its just really busy, well im sorry it wasnt! you had maybe 40 people in there where ive worked and managed my friend, 40 at lunch on a weekend is a walk in the park, and ive done it with less staff than you had on, Ive had a Maximum wait on food of 20 minutes during rugby world cup final, 300 pax, with one chef, 2 waitresses, a glassy and me, and we didnt have a single dirty table for more than 5 minutes, and didnt run out of a single thing so you really do have no excuse and if it was so busy why the hell was the cook, because i certainly do not consider him a chef out behind the counter taking orders half the time? so finally after a ten minute wait after being told it was just being plated up, our food arrived, a microwaved pizza, a burger that tasted like dog roll and cold, and your "Special of the day" squid and salad, that was literally frozen packed squid from gilmours, So again before advertising yourself everywhere, maybe you should go back to the basics and sort yourselves out, because all your doing right now is inviting people to come see how terrible you are which in the end will just bankrupt you. If you really dont just have a clue what your doing and how to make it work send me an email and ill be happy to tell you where to begin but im seriously never coming back and im going to tell everyone I know not to either unless they want to sit around feeling insulted.

New owners have taken over and opened this week. Not sure what the old Calendula Cottage was like but the new generation is doing a GREAT job!!<br/>The place is beautifully set up, comfy and cosy and the staff are friendly. <br/>The owners are on site - Gareth is the full time chef and Paul makes kick ass coffee.<br/>The food..... superb!! If you're a fan of good old fashioned home cooking and baking, hit this place up.<br/>Gorgeous cheesecake with an after dinner mint surprise, mouthwatering quiche and heaps of other scrummy options in the cabinet and on the menu. <br/>Can't wait to go back - their panko crumbed mac and cheese sounds delicious!!!

Popped in at the end of an unexpected drive to Waiuku, arrived about 45 mins before closing time. Very helpful people, great that they had gluten free bread for a toasted sandwich option also. Lovely slices, etc and beautiful coffee. What a gorgeous pocket of paradise!

Just had a fantastic looking and tasting brunch here this morning. Well priced, with a good range in the cabinet. Nice to sit outside in the sunny gardens and enjoy our coffees. Well done to the team on today. We will be back!

Just a quick thank you to the staff at Calendula for another delightful morning in the gorgeous cafe gardens. This is a very special cafe, and an amazing place to be able to take young children to. Comfy couches outside with blankets, lots of toys and room on the lawn to play, and even a dedicated children's area with more toys, a sandpit and seating. Its great to have somewhere local to go where the food is freshly made on site, and the service is always exceptionally friendly. For anyone keen on getting out of the city this cafe is well worth the drive from central Auckland.

Went to Calendula Cottage for Mother's Day which we had pre-booked. There was a sign at the gate way as fully booked and only open to people who had reservation. We were advised when placing our order that there was a 20 minute delay in getting our meals. Which as it was lovely sunny day and our coffee's came out quickly was not a problem. Our meals were lovely, enjoyed my Moroccan salad and my Mother enjoy her chicken and bacon burger. Asked for something that wasn't on the menu for my daughter and they happily added to our order. The Mother's day carrot cake muffins which were given to all tables as a treat were lovely. The staff were efficient given the number of people they had, they had timed the table reservations so that the meals came in a timely manner and we weren't rushed to eat. There was plenty of things to do for younger children. Will definitely go back again.

Calendula Cafe is a treat! We had a wonderful, friendly experience. The food was tops and coffee great! Best coffee ive had in a long time and there is a fully qualified barista who is lovely with a great smile! They were all friendly. The owner came out to see if we were ok and made sure everybody had a nice bottle of water which is something important to me. The gardens are looking so much better than before. I've been round the world at cafes and this one is just a great local country cafe with a smile and plenty of laughter. Good on you girls and boys. Don't worry about what other people say. Keep on improving, I'll be there, so will my friends.

I first came across Calendula Cottage 6 years ago, and was immediately impressed - great food, and beautiful surroundings. And, it quickly became our 'regular' weekend eatery when we moved to Waiuku. We were very disappointed when new owners took over and changed the cafe into nothing more than a lunchbar ... and, after a particularly bad experience, we stopped going. Needless to say, I was thrilled to read that the cafe had changed hands again, and that the new owners were returning to meals cooked onsite. However, after visiting today, I will never return again. The grounds, garden and building were nothing short of dishevelled and whilst hot meals were available again, the choice was very small. Worst of all, however, was the dirty cutlery given to both my husband and I. Upon asking for 2 clean sets, I was given yet more dirty cutlery with the explanation "we're not allowed to wipe them when they come out of the dishwasher". Had the cutlery only been tarnished, I may have accepted that as an excuse, but as I could scrape dried-on food off the cutlery with my fingernail, the explanation was less than acceptable. Whilst the third set of cutlery was cleaner, it certainly wasn't to the standard that I would even consider giving to guests in my own home. Upon returning to my table, it also became apparent that my husband's plate was dirty with 'dish-washer' baked-on food. To add insult to injury, the eggs in our Benedict's were overcooked. It's fair to say that I left the once-beautiful Calendula Cottage feeling sick to the stomach, knowing that I had eaten food prepared in a kitchen that couldn't even clean cutlery and plates correctly (and yes, after paying $52 on our drinks and meals I did feel obliged to eat it).

The setting was lovely but we were extremely disappointed by the service today. We were originally told we would be served in 30Min's which was fine as there were lovely gardens to sit in and it was a beautiful day, but after an hour I inquired how long it would be till our order was ready as we could see other people had gone in to inquire about their meals and they were getting them straight away but had arrived after us, only to be snapped at and told "I was called in on my day off, its busy if you don't want to wait, go get a refund." I was shocked as I had asked quite politely but we decided to wait and see if they could redeem themselves. Another half hour passed and people in the gardens were starting to talk, their orders still hadn't arrived, people who arrived after us had been served before us and were now leaving after enjoying their lunch and orders were also coming out wrong. Again we asked a different waitress if our lunch was far away and she said she would check, 20 Min's later no sign of her, another waitress walked past so we asked again, no reply again. After a two hour wait with two children under the age of 3 with us who were getting extremely restless we asked for our money back and then at first they couldn't even find our order, only for someone to say here it is halfway down the list of orders, looks like we had been bumped down the list so many times that they had lost ours. You would think that two salads and a salmon bagel would not be that hard to prepare, since people were able to get their burgers before us. I don't as I'm sure most people would feel the same, appreciate being snapped at by an unhappy waitress just because she was called in on her day off. It is not the customers fault shes not happy about that, and it is very unprofessional to take it out on the customers. Having worked in the service industry for over 10 years I have never ever seen such disappointing service. I was also shocked to witness another customer being yelled at by the same waitress because she was inquiring about how long her meal would be. I came all the way from the city for a lovely meal and was very disappointed. A piece of advice if you want your business to thrive then you need to provide great service all of the time, not just when its quiet. You have lost my business and I will be sure to tell as many people as I can about our shocking service and to not bother wasting their time. As we were leaving we told two separate couples in the car park not to bother going in unless they wanted to wait two hours for their food and then be abused by the wait staff. Thank god for The Kentish in Waiuku who made sure we were served promptly and efficiently, they certainly saved the day and their food was amazing and well priced also they were very polite and friendly.

Major disappointment with new owners (another set since previous reviews I think). Terrible coffee on last three trips. They obviously haven't got the hang of their machine &amp; their once amazing smoothies are watery &amp; tasteless. Food isn't anything special. If the setting wasn't so lovely &amp; sandpit not there I wouldn't go back to be honest. Come on guys, this could be a fab cafe!! Get a chef in &amp; get some barista training!!

Had an awesome lunch today made up of a Cajun Chicken Salad. It was value for money and bigger then expected the coffee tasted great also. The atmosphere and garden surroundings are just tranquil. Staff were lovely, obliging and friendly. Would definitely go back again.

Lovely gardens and atmosphere however the food was a different story. Unfortunately it was stale <br/>over cooked and lacked in flavour.<br/>I ordered the lasagna and it was very disappointing. It consisted of just mince and packet bought pasta with a plain sauce; no vegetables, herbs or spices, it did taste very plain. The salad that I had with the lasagna was rather wilted. <br/><br/>When I informed manager of our experience she acted surprised and didn't offer any refund. <br/><br/>For what i got, it was over priced. <br/><br/>Hopefully they take on this feedback to improve their menu, the cafe it's got lot of potential.

Reopened in November with new owners - Coffee is EXCELLENT - just would love to see some more in house baking and some more on the menu in terms of breakfasts - possibly some Eggs Benedict or something of that nature?? Great atmosphere, just food letting them down a bit...

Fantastic food! Tasty,original AND well presented! Wow! Definately not the same old same old! It is a 10 minute drive from our place but it far outweighs any closer cafes to us! We have become fast regulars and take all our frinds and family there when they visit us. Good coffee, AWESOME kids plate for only $6 and includes a drink!! It is also neat to have a sandpit for the kids and we have learned to take our own sand toys so all the kids can have fun while the parents enjoy their coffees in the garden! I must admit we have not been during the weekend so we have not experienced the cafe when it is busy...Thanks to the owners and workers for your passion! UPDATE: Unfortunately this cafe only opens on weekends now! WHAT A SHAME!!!<br/><br/>UPDATE: This cafe is now under new management. Lovely people and great service. Still a beautiful spot and there is still a fab kids picnic box AND new sandpit toys! But...unfortunately the food is no longer made on the premises. Gone are the amazing homemade cheesecakes and gorgeous kids cupcakes and in are lamingtons and pies. Top marks for free fluffies though! Our next visit will be to rate the coffee...!