Review Zookeepers Cafe - Invercargill

Amazing food! Cool atmosphere all round Invercargill Icon!!

At last despite massive crowds at the Burt Munro challenge a cafe that stays open beyond 5pm. Great to sit at any of the three different areas. The outside street tables. Inside cafe seating or the upstairs area. Lovely coffee,beers or spirits. Plus lots of different foods. Its the service which makes the Zoo great. Little touches like a cafe with Number 35 on it (Burt's racing number for his world's fastest Indian)

This was a really creative cafe with a great atmosphere. Nice place for a hot drink, and the coffee was good!

Zookeepers Cafe defies easy description for a non Kiwi like me. A leopard riding a bicycle hangs from the ceiling as you enter, as does an empty birdcage. A wooden Polynesian sculpture guards the door inside, while a giant animal of some kind guards the outside. Fish and neon signs and colorful wild animal art and abstract paintings adorn the walls. I had their excellent French toast with bacon and a mochaccino for breakfast. Regulars shuffled in to warm greetings from the proprietor. The atmosphere was trippy but pleasant and the WiFi was free and I wanted to stay a while longer so I ordered a boysenberry juice so as not to feel guilty.

Awesome food and ambience.. Very nice service.. Thank you Zookeepers.. I loved it :)

Amazing coffee, great service, and a crisp 'WHATS UP' from Bucko the resident mascot. Always try to get here when we're in Invers.

Absolutely amazing. My partner and I had breakfast and coffee here and both were a class stuff! The coffee is so good! It is rare these days to find a great coffee. The service was fast and prompt with no errors. The food was stunning. I loved my pancakes and my partner loved his burrito. The atmosphere is so creative and stunning. I would totally recommend to anyone and everyone. Well done guys!

A little resto in the heart of Invercargill in the south island of new zealand. I had chorizo, olives in tomatoe sauce over rice.

Had a nice lunch here with three friends. The service was friendly, and the food was nice. The decor is really interesting, with all the cool and interesting animals around the place. The only problem we had was that one of us asked if the fish dish was gluten free. They said it was, but when it arrived, the fish was battered, and when we questioned whether the batter had flour, they said it did, and the meal wasn't actually gf. Then they didn't offer any alternate gf meal.

In this sleepy town stop in here and get a coffee before the ferry. It’s quirky and the coffee is great

Thus is a great local cafe. Has been around for years, staff are very friendly and do a fantastic job. If you want to go somewhere a bit quirky and different this is the place.

always good. invercargill institution. try the cheese rolls.

Lovely cafe, great food - enjoyed the beef sliders special today! Very friendly and kind young waitress made the experience even better as she just made you feel that your custom wasn't taken for granted.

Great service, great vibe, yummy food and not overpriced. Also meals were a good portion size - not ridiculously huge if you aren't that hungry but not stingy either. Would recommend!

Café was like a beacon on a cold, dark, rainy night. We had time to spare before the Pink Floyd Experience up the road and the coffees were perfect 👌 Great service too

Probably the most interesting cafe I've ever been to. Weird & wonderful with great friendly service & good food & coffee. A thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Abit pricey, taste is good though.

First time in invers, saw reviews for Zookeepers and had to go. It was really busy yet our server was fantastic. Great personality, was helpful with the little uns we had with us (3 & 5), pretty much a star. As for the food, everything came out fast, plentiful & flavoursome. I had mince on toast. . . I'd normally have something off dinner menu but I couldn't resist. I would say probably the best I've ever had & eggs poached perfectly. Wife had chimichanga and loved it. Definitely recommended!

Funky, fun place to breakfast. Superb hearty food. Proper size milk jugs with the pot of tea. Fantastic friendly staff. Go here! ��

Great wee spot. Friendly staff and I highly recommend the Pork Belly Burger 👍👍👍👍

Its my go-to! Lovely happy staff, and great menu!, would happily recommend to anyone. Check out the daily specials ;)

Great coffee, well priced delicious food, the loveliest staff and just a real funky place. Zookeepers is a gem

Thank you Zookeepers Cafe for invited me to Open Mic. Last night was amazing! I'll keep this event to my schedule... The people that went to this place were very friendly and the staff too. Here you can find nice beers �!

I really enjoyed this cafe. I went there 2 nights in a row. The staff were friendly. It was warm and the music made it relaxing. The food was great. I will be back. 😎

Cool cafe friendly staff great coffee and food, popped in here to escape from the southland cold

Great place, always fantastic coffee and the food never disappoints.

Thanks guys for the great Open Mic Night last night. What a great, friendly & relaxing atmosphere. Haven't been there for years - & the food was great. Tahla loved it - perfect place for practice.

Great friendly and prompt service. Delicious food and coffee. My go to place when I come to Invercargill �

Snuck in for dinner before the ballet. Boutique beers, blue cod sliders and great wine. Normally here in the morning for the best coffee in town - stoked to find them open in the evening. A must for anyone visiting (like us).

A great friendly cafe where there is lots of smiles great coffee and even food with an alcoholic drink of choice Well done Zookeepers !

Awesome food great coffee and my new regular in Invercargill It's a must visit when down there

Cracking breakfast with friendly staff and customers. Great environment. Thanks �

Awesome coffee. Fun location with a lot going on.

Great coffee! Awesome wedges too! :)

This is a big thank you... but not about the food (actually the cod was delicious and perfectly cooked). It's because - having an early onset of Alzheimers - I left my precious hat in Zookeepers and didn't catch on until I was landing back home in Christchurch. I'm very attached to that hat.<br/>Paul (may a thousand suns light up his name) posted it back to me and refused money for the postage. How about that? My faith in human beings is restored in a place that calls itself Zookeepers. Thanks Paul, I'll call in next time I'm down and thank you properly. Michael.

Two of us went for lunch. We had just flown down and the guy I was with had lived in Invercargill. We went on his recommendation. <br/><br/>Either he had a poor memory or the place had gone downhill. The service was slow and uninterested in us and they preferred to stand at the bar eating their own lunch while we waited. The food was poor and my burger was very average and none of the ingredients seemed overly fresh. They did make a good milkshake however.<br/><br/>A place trading on it’s past.

Poor would have to be really bad, but my cooked breakfast was barley average.<br/><br/>Wednesday 4 Aug 2010 7:30AM<br/><br/>Only one other customer , I started with a coffee and ordered the Bacon Benedict, This was very average , 2 muffin halves , bacon , spinach , poached eggs and splodge of mayo or something and side of lettuce leaf and a couple of slices of cucumber.<br/><br/>This was only just average, no LOVE went into this meal.<br/><br/>If you want muffins, eggs, bacon or bagels then I would say go to McDonald's they take these ingredients and they make it work and it cost only a fraction of what I paid.<br/><br/>The style and theme of the place is cool but you can’t eat them.

I usually enjoy Zoos, it's a nice relaxing place to go have a quiet drink and chips or wedges. However, my partner and I decided to have lunch there the other day and it was TERRIBLE! We had were so unimpressed we asked for a refund. We ordered a chicken and apricot burger which was DROWNING in apricot sauce. It went all over the plate, hands etc...it completely ruined the burger. We also ordered nachos which tasted like they had scraped out old mince pies and heated it up and tossed it on the nachos. The service wasn't so flash either and when the owner cleared the plates he didn't even ask how it was. He strutted back to the kitchen throwing a pen out of his back pocket over the bar as he went...not very professional. <br/><br/>I won't be ordering a meal there again. However the wedges were good. So it is a good place to nibble

Excellent service and great meal, good prices, their only downfall is once we had finished our meal and they took away our plates we were never asked if we wanted dessert, which we did,I got the feeling they wanted to finish up early, but it was only 7.30 by the time we left.

lovely hot chocolates but pathetic service! We walked out recently after standing and waiting fto be served for 10mins! The owner was upstairs chatting and no other bar people or waitresses around.