Review Essence Cafe - Rotorua

A small local cafe with very good food and smiling and friendly service. We were staying at a nearby Air B&B and visited this cafe for 3 days for brekfast and everytime the food was great and service team were always smiling. Thank you 😊

Always surprised by the quality at our little local cafe! Re: previous reviews, I think they got rid of that one nasty, rude waitress - good thing, now everything is awesome. Gorgeous flowers from a local florist for sale here too.

.Family coffee house. Now called DYNASTY. Mum and 4 daughters and one extra staff. Open til 4pm which really suits us. Lovely food. Great coffee. Extra bonus Bunches of flowers for sale.Clean friendly. Good parking

Awesome tasty food. Dinner portion could've been bigger, but went back for lunch the next day and the portions seem bigger. The Wedges seemed MASSIVE! Definitely get those with bacon if you're hungry.

Had a delicious ploughman's platter while my partner has a huge and filling salad. Well worth the price, staff are very friendly, and the atmosphere is fantastic.

6 of us had lunch here recently and we all really enjoyed our meals. Lovely clean surroundings and nice food. We all recommend it.

As usual a very nice coffee and cake for morning tea. We've had lunch here a number of times and it's always been great. I recommend it.

Great coffee and good food with a great lunch selection. Friendly service from friendly staff. Always a good place for lunch, coffee, breakfast or dinner.

Friendly service and good coffee. Got to try some meals there!

The staff are very friendly, young, and full of life! The sheff is absolutely wonderful, the food is so good and so worth the money!

Best café on the strip. Friendly staff and a nice little park next door. Good for kids.

Enjoyed my lunch meal with my friend in an electric wheelchair. Very accommodating.

Fantastic place we had iced coffee and it was superb a variety of brunch meals and all very tasty and big portions . Staff were fantastic and attentive and made the meal even better !!

Fettuccine was like soup so much so it should have had bread with it. Son asked what kind of soup it was. An expensive one for $25. Kids fish stix lumps of unbattered slime fish. Kids burger really a sandwich with the added extra of a hair. Service lacking, overall disappointing.

After dining at this cafe since opening years ago, I will NEVER go back. I find the new owners rude, the staff rude, they never smile and looks like they really hate their jobs.<br/>The last meal I had was terrible. The pasta was the worst I have ever had there.<br/>The tables were not cleared and it wasn't as if they were busy at all.<br/>I have taken a lot of customers there but will never see another dime from me.

We had a bad experience today at Essence cafe ..we ordered macaroons with our drinks &amp; to be honest they were like sponge rubber iced with chocolate icing ...they were dreadful ..bland ,boring &amp; heavy .we spoke with the assistant but she just shrugged her shoulders .We are a group of friends who walk together weekly &amp; if we are in the area always drop in for a deserved treat but sorry you have just lost four customers

went to essence cafe ngongotaha on holiday an tasted the most delightful food of my life, jam packed with flavour an the staff screaming with talent what a discovery to find in such a small country town, i needed to compliment the chef or cook to me should be a 5* chef,her name was mrs simpkins thankyou mrs simpkins for the meal of my life.

Worst Mother's Day breakfast ever!!! So My Mum and I went to cafe Essence, Ngongotaha. We both ordered Eggs benedict. When it came out I had one mouthful and the Hollandaise sauce was vinegar with a bit of cream-GROSS! So we sent it back and ordered something else as it was un-edible. While we were waiting, this huge guy comes storming out over to us and starts rudely telling us ‎"That's how they do Eggs Benedict there!" Mum disagreed, as she had the same dish there last week. He was like "No, it is supposed to be like that and maybe you should read the board carefully and order more wisely next time!!" I was like "hold on, you're being very rude: and he sneered back "Yes I am!!" and walked away WHO WAS THIS MAN??? you ask? The owner of the cafe. So to cut a long story short, I wanted to walk out, but mum made us stay and so my hormones and frustration kicked in and I sat there and cried and didn't eat my new meal. What a TOTAL waste of $51.00 as well as being spoken to that way in a cafe full of customers!!!! DON'T GO THERE GUYS... I have never, in my life been treated so badly!!!

It has to be by far the worst coffee in town its even grey in colour. Thought it was going to be the best seeing as they use allpress or not as the case maybe. shame allpress....

Fantastic cafe - faultless service, food and sublime coffee! Real buzz with loads of patrons. Would visit again in fact would make it a point! <br/>Well done Essence!

Brilliant little cafe always buzzing with people and atmosphere, To class food and service second to none. Coffee's are of the highest standard and you'll be hard pressed to find anything to fault this cafe on absolutely fantastic.

A great place at the weekend for lunch. Coffee good as well. Good coffee destination for cycling around the lake.