Review The Elm Cafe - Palmerston North

Good place for breakfast. Amazing friendly staff. Good selection of food and coffee. There’s also free parking.

Tried it, loved it. Fantastic service, vibrant atmosphere, great food, ticked all the boxes. Went for breakfast, and had a good selection to choose from, they were kind enough to offer GF swaps on the French Toast and the Big Breakfast. Great quality ingredients, quick turn around, and busy but not crammed, so clearly the locals know to come here.

It's literally down the road from where I stay, and I didn't even notice it until my best friend took me to lunch there . I'm very happy with the service, and they have an in side and outside settings, I thoroughly enjoyed the outside setting, and the food is absolutely fantastic 👌

A very popular cafe with delicious collection (not a lot though) of non vegetarian items. The prices for most items are above $27. While the taste is good, the quantity isn't much though (you can easily feel hungry after 2 hours). Lots of seating, with limited/no dedicated parking options.

Warm in winter. I stopped in for coffee with friends and the tables are a good size for meeting with a small group. The decor is understated, cozy and classy, and the service is prompt and very friendly. The front smoke-stop door is great for keeping the weather out, but is very heavy which causes some problems for folk in wheelchairs or those with mobility challenges. I found it well worth the visit because the coffee was lovely, and I stayed for quite a while rather than braving the weather!

A great cafe on the outskirts of the city. The coffee was a class above other cafes i've been to in the area and the food was excellent. It has both indoor and outdoor seating. Several tables were reserved when we got there and it was pretty full so maybe booking ahead would be a good idea.

A pretty busy cafe. Love the coffee and the brunch. The French Toast is wonderful. The Salmon with crispy potato is yummy but the serving size is pretty small.

Really friendly staff and the best eggs bene I've had for a long time, quick service and great coffee.

Nice food, great service. A bit noisy when they’re full, and they’re full a lot! Better book a table.

I didn't expect anything special and was pleasantly suprised with the cafe. The pancakes that I eat were perfect! The service was quick and very good. I was impressed!

Great cafe has a great menu and moderately priced cakes and slices are very nice and great service

Good food, especially brunch. Good service.

Always beautiful. Sevice and food. Thank-you staff of the elm. Best omelet in town.

A lovely experience with excellent staff and service. Meal was great.

We had an ok experience at Elm Cafe. Unfortunately we are coeliac and there weren’t many options, we found the food to be quite “old school”. We ordered fresh apple juice to be given one out of a carton. No kids menu and a half eggs on toast was tiny and not enough to feed our 2 year old. Staff were friendly and good coffee.

First time here for lunch and I was disappointed. Service was slow and we waited a long time for our meals to arrive, despite others who arrived after us being served and getting meals before us.  I felt the menu was rather 'fancy' for lunch and didn't really appeal to me that much. However quality of meal and flavours etc was exceptional.

Went here for brunch with three friends, all were very happy with our meals with two of us having the kumara hash, one having French toast and the other the mushroom crumble. I ordered a mocha and found it far to sweet and lacking in coffee. Overall the service was fast and friendly. Favourite brunch spot in Palmerston North

Came here for breakfast... nice place friendly service. Ordered the Kumera hash stack with sauce on the side.... presented nicely...kumera hash was nice and crunchy...

Nice food good, quick, service. Worst acoustics of anywhere I've ever eaten ever. What a racket. Sure it wasn't helped by being full with ladies who lunch all trying to sound more important than the person next to them.

Very good food and service. We ordered the big breakfast, crepes and spring onion potato cake with smoked salmon. All the meals were delicious and well presented, and my request for well done bacon was delivered spot on. Only reason I didn't give 5 was due to the coffee being average, overly milky.

Awesome staff. Really nice drinks and food. I came for lunch and enjoyed the decor and outdoor seating area. Nice location, actually. Really reasonable prices. Will definitely be returning.

Wow amazing I love this cafe very excellent service really approachable staff. The food is so amazing and how the design of this place is so romantic I love the place.

This was the first cafe I visited in Palmy and I keep going back because the food is delicious and they make a great soy flat white- not everywhere froths soy well unfortunately. It always seems to be busy, which is a testament to their good food and nice service.

This place is happiness. Although you maybe wouldn’t guess it from the decor, it has a superb menu. So good in fact after I went the first time I rounded up my Dad and bestie and took them in to try it too. It’s a little hidden in that it isn’t in the main city area. It’s up across from Girls High school, on Fitzherbert, going towards Massey University. The first meal I had there was brunch. Crispy spring onion potato balls with spinach, smoked salmon and a chilli creme fraiche. I love that it was served with a grilled lemon which I poured right over the meal and gave it the perfect tang to compliment the flavours. The next time I thought I would try the lunch menu. Lemon rhyme risotto balls with beetroot pesto and creamy feta. It was mouth watering. The risotto was crisp outside and smooth inside, the feta super creamy and the beetroot pesto was a great contrast with the risotto. Just beautiful. Mum had the lamb kebabs with kumara (sweet potato) curry and roti bread both times it was

we arrived at a good time as it was mostly empty and by the time we left it was packed. I ordered a savoury muffin which was pleasant. the service was good. we ordered one coffee (long black) and it took ages. I will be returning.

Rather cool reception...felt like we were intruding...slow to take our order...great looking menu...excellent presentation...however food was lacking in seasoning.

Thanks for your consistently great coffee, impeccable service and fabulous, friendly staff.  The Elm Cafe is now my favorite, regular coffee spot…and my kids adore your iced chocolates and hot chocolates - a visit to the Elm is one of their favorite treats : )

ooh exciting, i was finally going to the Elm for brunch after hearing so many fantastic things about them. I went for brunch on a cold wet day. <br/>Parking a major issue. went round the block 3 times to get a park and then had to cross 4 lanes to get there. <br/>After the waitress filled our glasses with water then the table and walked away, i cleaned that up. <br/>I ordered the spinach,crispy spring onion cakes with chilli cream fraiche. <br/>I got fried potato balls with im guessing spring onion in them, cause i couldn't taste it. The chilli was in the cream fraiche because i could see it, but the taste wasn't there and i love my chilli. Wilted spinach was ok, a bit chewy and stringy. I don't understand why i had quite a bit of green stuff (rocket i think) it was over load if it was a garnish. annoying.I will come back, but for first experience, very disappointing. Oh and the waitress"s hair could be a bit tidier and tied back. a bit disconcerting when they serving food.

Everything was great - customer service and food including entrée, main AND desserts (except the lamb rack was a wee bit overdone so be handy to be asked how we would like it cooked). Also the ambience of the place has a real café feel so more suited for daytime rather then night time. So a upgrade of décor maybe and adding tablecloths at night to give it a night time feel. But these are only minors and we would not hesitate to come back again and again.

Everything about this cafe is AWESOME. We've eaten there on several Sunday's and have found that even at peak time, around noon, we never have to wait long to enjoy our meal. I highly recommend the Eggs Benedict and muffins. The Pasta is delicious too. If you're looking for great service, and YUMMY food this is THE place to go. Another bonus would be the sensational value for money. I've gone there spent $10 on a couple muffins and coffee and come away feeling like a million bucks. The fries are really good too. Absolutely the BEST cafe in Palmy that we've come across. Another place I'd recommend to anyone visiting Palmy for the first time!!!!

Excellent food, fantastic service, friendly staff, great coffee! Love the terrace, especially on a sunny day. We have been there a few times for different occasions and all meals were very tasty and nicely presented. Everyone was impressed and the service is very fast. Probably my favourite cafe in Palmy!

Best cafe in town. Always good, always friendly, always yum!<br/>Food is always presented with care and cooked great. Service is top notch and always with a smile. Highly rate the Elm Cafe.

Delicious food, fantastic service, good atmosphere. We have eaten here twice and both times have enjoyed the whole experience. This is the kind of restaurant that offers a shorter menu but executes everything on it to perfection. After being seated we received a complimentary savoury bread roll that the chef had made. Was a very nice start and the staff were very friendly and very professional. All 3 courses were very enjoyable.

The Elm is the restaurant my partner takes me to on my birthday or any other time he wants to treat me...it is my all time fav. I am never wary of trying something new as the food is always delicious. The service is faultless, the staff are genuinely friendly and always ensure you are happy. I recommend the Elm to friends family and clients visiting the district. Lovely outdoor area the only thing I can pick at is the interior could do with updating.

The Elm certainly has delicious and satisfying food. We had 7 main meals there last night and each one of them was top quality, high standard food. The meals took over an hour to get to us. The waitresses were standing around and leaning on the counter without much to do so it wouldn't have been hard work to come over and let us know that the meals were taking a long time to come out. When a customer asked a waitress for a steak knife to eat her steak, there was quite a bit of eye rolling (and more leaning on the counter) going on which we found off putting. It's a shame we won't be going back there because the food really was lovely.

Several of us went today for lunch and the meals were all great. I asked for a vegan option and they were most accommodating. Due to many folk being there the food took a while to arrive. I was feeling a bit faint as a diabetic who'd had an early breakfast and they were caring and prompt to provide what I needed until the main meal arrived. From the chef to all staff I spoke to I received polite and helpful service. I will go again and would recommend for vegans as well as meat eaters.

We highly recommend the Elm Cafe, we regularly go there for lunch, the food is great and the staff are always very professional. We have tried a variety of dishes and they have always been tasty, full of flavour and beautifully presented. It's nice to go somewhere where you know the food is going to be consistently good.

Highly recommend Linguini, chilli chicken. The food deserve 5 stars. The service is great. Will be our new favorite place to dine. If you live in Palmy and haven't tried out Elm Caffee, do it as soon as you can :-)

We have been here a lot over the years, the food is consistently good, the staff are very professional, The only thing that lets it down is the decor its a little 80's / cheep looking and does not match up with the otherwise high standards of this great little cafe.

Had a great evening at The Elm. Friendly, efficient waitresses and excellent food.

While I haven't had a meal here, I've had coffees and hot chocolates and I've been very happy with the quality (and quantity) of the drinks and service. The outside dining area is wonderful in summer. I will definitely be coming back.

My favourite from when I lived in Palmerston North, Im going to miss you my friend. Thanks for sharing your scrumptious food with me and my friends. I loved the free tastings at the start of the meals, very exciting and scrumptious.

Good food, over friendly staff but that's okay I can cope better this way than the opposite!! Just make it genuine....noisy atmosphere....but a good experience over all.

After checking out this site, I took the details down for this restaurant. I arrived with my daughter on a busy Friday night just before 6. The place was booked out, but without hesitating, and in a friendly way, the waitress checked whether we would be quick, which I said we would. We got ultra quick, polite, professional service. We had a beautiful dinner and came back the next morning for breakfast. Great food, great service, nice setting. I recommend this restaurant/cafe. The prices are deserved.

Enjoyed lunch today at Elm cafe, service was friendly and food was great, I enjoyed my big brekkie nicely done as far as big brekkies go and my fellow diners all enjoyed there meals. well done Elm.

Always good - love it, go treat yourself!

Have been here once so far..My partner and I are great fans of Eggs Bennedict and have been to a few other places around.. and we really enjoyed it here..the the hollandaise sauce and poached eggs makes a difference hollandaise sauce was very tastey and eggs were poached perfectly..great service and great menu selection also..would love to go back and try some more from the menu.

Visited this restaurant 2 weeks ago and have raved about it to all my friends ever since. Our group of 10 had the most amazing meal and service. The menu was extensive and delicious. Very reasonably priced and BYO a bonus.