Review Astoria - Wellington

A solid Italian restaurant oozing with style. Nestled in Midland Park, Astoria greets you with a moody space filled with the smells of bread, olive oil, and matured cheeses. The waiters are warm and attentive. You will never feel rushed or forgotten and no ask feels out of place. The menu has plenty of gluten free options, many of which can be adapted. For example the linguini pawns were served with gluten free penne. However, Astoria cannot guarantee dishes are safe for coeliacs. Unfortunately fresh bread is prepared in a shared cooking environment. The wait staff will ask you if you are coeliac as you place your order. The food is a modern interpretation of classic Italian flavours. In particular, we would recommend the burrata and beef cheek ragu.The burrata was fresh, delicate, and soft, while the ragu has a strong umami flavour. The drinks menu will appeal to a wide variety of taste buds, preferences, and ages. You will also find a range of Italian drinks and sprits like the Camperchi Chianti Riserva and Limoncello spritz. Overall Astoria is a good restaurant. However the menu, although varied, lacks the flare to really wow. It is also a shame that the dishes aren't safe for coeliacs and the only pasta alternative is penne. A fundamental aspect of Italian cuisine is pasta variety which is flattered by only one option for all. _ _ _ * Critically Coeliac - reviews to die for * Whether a tasty treat or something more intimate, we are passionate about helping coeliacs find amazing restaurants. Check out our profile for more reviews.

When you arrive and are recognised by the staff from weeks ago...Great! When they remember your drink of choice... outstanding! After a while the staff become like family, focused on making good choices for you if you want them to. Thank you Wen, Alex, Olly, Sam and Josh.

A good spot for a tasty meal. I often come here for the pasta and sometimes breakfast too. The food is consistently good. It can get quiet noisey in there.

One of my favourite cafe in Wellington with great atmosphere. Little busy at times which makes it difficult to find the table, but staff is very friendly. Great coffee and breakfast / brunch options.

Fab place this will become a regular haunt for us. The charcuterie was not as we are used to.. could be improved with an assortment of other delicacies but meat lovers would love it. Pizza was wonderful again. Wine selection on song! Great atmosphere!

Excellent service and coffee. The full breakfast comes with top notch house made baked beans and a truly delicious sausage; my chief complaint is that there wasn't more sausages! The bacon is meat but a little dry, and the eggs need a touch longer in my opinion, but I greatly recommend this place.

A comfy location, plenty of room inside. One male staff member seemed rather solemn. Pricing seemed reasonable (we bought 2 Astoria Breakfasts, 2 hot drinks and a fluffy) at $58.00. Food was decent, bacon was overcooked however. Eggs were poached and perfect.

Great atmosphere, food and coffee were great. Close too town centre and shopping.

What I’ve always liked about Wellington it’s the predominant young vibe found easily and with little effort. That’s so very welcomed on a lazy Sunday morning. That’s the type of vibe you’ll find here; a busy and popular but yet relaxed spot. The food options are simple but variety is good and tasty enough for a good rating.

4 cheese pizza was packed with quality cheese and the crudités was also very good. Service was excellent. Great vibe and popular with after work crowd.

Good food, great staff

Quick service, food was good but very noisy inside best to sit outside.

Nice coffee. They have oat milk as their alternative milk.

Great location in town. Always busy and noisy. Good coffee but pricey.

The coffee here is wonderful, there is something different and rich about the beans - It's what draws me to keep coming back. The service is great, love seeing people have fun and be happy in their workplaces and that is usually the vibe I get from these youngsters behind the counter. I have tried the different vegan options in the cabinet that have become featured over the past year or so, and as much as I love that Astoria is TRYING, the baking is always lacking. I am a vegetarian, predominantly plant based and I can bake better cakes in a hot hour at home on a Friday evening, so it strikes me as odd that I havent tasted one good vegan baked good from trained bakers/cooks who are paid for such. I sadly have given up on the vegan options at this cafe but will come in to indulge my coffee cravings as they come.  The chippies on the other hand are always hot and fresh, better than maccas.

Just had lunch at the Astoria and was pretty disappointed, I got the Caesar Salad plus Chicken -there was half a cold soft boiled egg (not a warm whole one that you might expect for the price), everything was a bit meagre and the chicken dry and tasteless I would not order that again or actually go back.

We went to Astoria as it was the only cafe to be open early on a Saturday morning. The pancakes were the best! Customer service and atmosphere good too.

Came here for lunch today, and was disappointed. The pricing is extremely steep for what is served, especially since their ‘smoothies’ came from the carton you can get at the supermarket, and a small bottle of coke was $5!!!?? The food was average at best. My prawn linguine has about 3 prawns in it (I counted) and the omelette looked and tasted a bit bland. However, service was good!

Everything about this place is OK. Food-ok, service - ok, ambiance- little noisy but ok. We ordered poached eggs on toast and a Vagyu burger, hot choc and mocha. Eggs were again, ok, and the burger was good but astronomically priced at $28. The sausages are apparently made in house and were nice. You could avoid this place and wouldn’t miss out on much.

Staff were super nice. However, I disliked how we had to take our drinks to our tables ourselves, especially if we were dining in. I had a latte. It was lukewarm. Tasted solely like milk. Would not recommend at all. Also the iced coffee and iced chocolate were both diluted.

The food was just horrible!! I ordered fried rice with vegetables, I got lump of oil socked rice that had no taste not even salt in it, and 2 pieces of sad looking cauliflower as my vegetables! And worst thing is I paid $15.50 for that! Very very disappointing!!

We went to Astoria on a public holiday for some brunch. There were plenty of tables and it wasn't too busy. We ordered a mince of toast and a tomato and avocado on toast. Food was really great! We did have to chase up a cupcake after not being bought out after about 10 minutes. We also ordered two flat whites and a hot chocolate. Unfortunately there were no teaspoons that came out with the hot drinks and after asking, we told they were being washed. We were given wooden stirrers as a replacement. The coffee cups were all quite grubby too. Overall, not a bad stop for lunch.

Went here for breakfast today with my friend. The cafe itself is in a good location and the inside is really warm and inviting however the staff are not. <br/><br/>We ordered at the counter and were given a number however got told that we needed to wait for our drinks which I found weird... <br/><br/>The food was ok, I had the French toast with salted caramel sauce, banana and whipped cream. The French toast was nice however the sauce was not salted caramel it just tasted like bland sugar. My friend got the bacon sandwich and asked for a fried egg. Rather than putting the egg in the sandwich it was just on the side.<br/><br/>Probably wouldn't come back as there are plenty of other really nice places that do table service and a lot nicer food.

I came here for breakfast, I had bacon and eggs. The meal was extremely bland and flavorless. I had to add alot of salt to make the taste average...

Nice and vibrant place. The Barista prepared two coffee while I was paying and surprisingly very good coffee with that speed. The French toast was nice and very large portion. Astoria breakfast was ok, the poached egg was done perfectly, the hashbrown was well cooked, the sausage was average and bacon was ok. Overall great place to have a good coffee and snack. Only feedback would be, it would have been nice if they didn't bring the food with prepacked butter.

What feels like a normal cafe is topped by excellent service! There was a slight delay on one of our dishes and the manager gave us free coffees and fries. Where do you find such generosity? Blown away by this service and will become a regular here do sure! Also, the scrambled eggs are amazing!

Quick service! Long black was perfect! Biscotti noice! Great little place to get away from the office! The view of Midland Park helps break up the concrete jungle feel of the CDB. Will be back for sho!

One of the more popular cafe's in Wellington, and a favourite of many, but I've never enjoyed coming to Astoria. The whole place is dark, and not in a good way. The place has a dull vibe, it's not exciting. Also, due to the way it's built, it's popularity and the fact that they've crammed a lot of table's into a small space, the cafe is almost always (even at less peak times) noisy to the point where it's genuinely difficult to properly hear and have a conversation with the person you're with. The most annoying thing though is more often than not, after paying good money for your (have here) coffee, you are told to wait at the counter to get it. Surely after paying for a coffee, I should be able to sit down and relax and have them bring it over like literally every other cafe in Wellington. The coffee itself is fine, but not excellent. I never intend on coming to Astoria on my own accord, but the reality is I will end up going in future due to it's weird popularity with others.

Great coffee, hot chocolate and food. The cafe has some class and is centrally located. The service is prompt but friendly. Their french toast is particularly good.

At eight thirty on a Thursday morning in late September 2015 I began the search for a decent cup of tea in Wellington.<br/> I’m a little tired of coffee. Don’t get me wrong I love it, but its… well … overexposed. Its kinda like the Lord of the Rings, in fact the two seem inextricably linked, with marketing folk branding our city as the little coffee capital where Hobbits sip Aero press, filtered, syphon drip nicuraguan while sitting outside cafes in northwesterly gales. <br/><br/>Although Wellington coffee culture presents itself as reasonably sophisticated, I don’t think it really is, we have relatively few different coffees that are single origin, organic - most are roasted by companies for mass market publication. <br/>At the end of the delivery line is the bearded young man, or unbearded young lady, either with tatts (a sure sign of coffee quality-I mean it), behind the espresso, manipulating their tamp and grind artistically, to the gasps of adoring espressoholics at a few cool cafes. <br/>Unfortunately most cafes in Wellington are very average. The presence of an Italian (or at least one with an Italian name) espresso machine is no guarantee of quality. But the best are very good, the worst abysmal. And although Hangar, Custom, Memphis can present a few different single origin beans and the occasional tasting note, the numbers aren’t large. You can’t go into many cafés (that I know of) and get a flat white from a choice of a dozen or so origins (Hangar is perhaps the best for range at the moment), and anyway the subtle distinctions may well be destroyed by the occasionally inept disinterested, person behind the machine. As well, for some consumers, coffee is simply seen as an alternative, fashionable, legal-high as opposed to a branch of gastronomy.<br/><br/>More complex, and just as interesting, is tea. Some of our good tea shops (t-leaf, T2, and the internet Tea-Total for example) list dozens of delicately varied single origin teas from around the world, as well as blends and flavoured teas for those who need training wheels (there are parallels with craft beer culture).<br/><br/>Why are there no cafes (wrong choice of word) with a dozen or so different single origin teas? Not flavoured / herb teas but real teas, single estate black teas, a variety of green teas, aged Pu-ers etc. If Wellington Hobbits really want to grow up as sophisticated connoisseurs shouldn’t they not only know what a good coffee is, but also develop some sophistication towards the complexity of single origin teas and perhaps blends. <br/><br/>How bad or good is tea in Wellington? Maybe it would be worthwhile finding out. I don’t pretend to be an expert, probably quite inept really, but at least someone needs to have a go.<br/><br/>Many of my friends say that buying tea in cafes is pointless, thinking the tea brewed at home is so much better. Perhaps therefore its psychological – we have tea at home and coffee out, and that’s that. Can a café-bought tea be just as satisfying as coffee?<br/><br/>So, asking the question, at 8.30am Thursday in late September 2015, my journey began … at Astoria.<br/><br/>The cafe was half full, and very self consciously (feeling I was going to sound wimpy in a place of coffee culture) asked for “An English Breakfast Tea ... please … and a ham and cheese roll.”<br/><br/>What surprised me was how quickly it arrived. Tea it seems requires little preparation, and no artistry on the part of a barrista. No longer than sixty seconds after ordering I was on my way to the table.<br/><br/>The tea was from the Enzo Orient Tea Company, which sounds flash. Enzo was putatively an Italian emigre who brought espresso to New Zealand and features on the labels of L’Affare coffee. This was in fact L’Affare tea, which according to google is owned by Cerebos. Enzo “yearned for the brew of espresso” but I’m uncertain whether he knew anything about tea.<br/><br/>Astoria had a range of teas from Enzo the emigre, but only one unflavoured black tea (English breakfast). There was an Earl Grey, a green tea and the other eight or so were flavoured (so of course is Earl Grey).<br/><br/>Astoria is a lovely café, no question … nice, cosy European feel, amber lighting, burgundy and yellow walls with duck egg blue ceiling, concrete floors, the sounds of coffee being knocked out of its portafilter and enough clatter and conversation to give the place a nice buzz. Its invariably busy through the day, business meetings, clandestine meetings, folk reading the paper – and me drinking an English Breakfast Tea.<br/><br/>The tea came in a steel pot fitted with an interior sieve. Into the sieve the Enzo loose leaf tea had been spooned. <br/><br/>I waited 5 minutes given that it was loose leaf rather than tea bag. With a little milk in the cup I then poured the tea - a cup of flavourless milky water, a grey brown colour. Clearly the amount of tea was inadequate for the quantity of water. Or perhaps this is what Wellington punters actually want – if so they deserve it!<br/><br/>The ham and cheese roll was OK but the pale, soft, flabby bread wasn’t great, I would have preferred some sort of crust – perhaps that’s just me.<br/><br/>I gave the pot of tea another ten minutes and it was still thin. Possibly the water level had fallen below the sieve, I don’t know but that didn’t really matter – whoever made the tea in those 60 seconds, or dictated the quantity to add, had no idea how to make tea.<br/><br/>Day one … and not a brilliant start.<br/><br/>PS. My zomato rating of Astoria is not based upon the tea, but my experience over many visits, over many years … drinking (and enjoying) their coffee.<br/><br/>PPS. Eventually I do find a really good cup of tea in Wellington (one to rival coffee), but it takes quite a few goes and quite a few tomato reviews before I get to it.<br/><br/>For assessing the tea, I used a crude scoring system: 6 assessments, each with 0 worst, 5 best):<br/><br/>1. Specialist tea offerings (the variety of unflavoured teas): 1/5<br/>2. <br/>2. Brew temperature (the likelihood that the tea was brewed with near boiling water): 5/5<br/>3. <br/>3. Cup temperature (how much of a heat sink was the cup – a thick, cold pottery cup scores 0, a warm thin china cup scores 5): 2/5<br/>4. <br/>4. Milk requirements (was I asked about milk and what type of milk): 0/5<br/>5. <br/>5. Strength (too weak or strong =0, just right = 5): 2/5<br/>6. <br/>5. Taste (bad=0, excellent=5): 1/5<br/><br/>Astoria Total 11/30<br/><br/>My Suggestion: Do Enzo a favour and get the tea/water ratio right. <br/><br/>My next stop is Soho Brown in the CBD.

My girlfriend and I went to Astoria because reviews from a neighboring cafe, Soho Brown, suggested Astoria was the better choice for coffees.<br/><br/>As we walked in, we were greeted by a friendly staff member. We liked the setting, as it felt like we were in an early 1900s eatery, with classic colours of burgundy and gold, also with wooden tables and chairs.<br/><br/>We ordered two mochaccinos. They came very quickly. The first thing that caught our attention was the generous three marshmallows as opposed to one or two. The coffee was hot, although personally I felt like the coffee overpowered the chocolate. It may just be that they use darker/stronger beans than what I was used to. I just have to remember to ask for extra chocolate next time, but that is no biggie.<br/><br/>Overall, we enjoyed our coffees. Based on our personal experience, we enjoyed the coffees more at Astoria. The food may or may not be a different story, and there is only one way to find out.

Friday night drinks after work on a cooler and slightly damp evening...some would say normal Welly weather.<br/><br/>The snacks menu looked interesting; bit fancier than pub snacks. We had the Polenta and Rosemary Chips and normal french fries along with a couple of beers and a couple of ciders. <br/><br/>Can't fault the service; really friendly staff. The snacks we had were good and past experience of the menu has been good <br/><br/>They don't have menus to take back to the table (that we could see) so that would could be useful for groups that are sharing snacks and can't easily see the counter menu that hangs. Also would be great to have some outdoor heaters to take the chill off.

<br/>Breaky for two on a Sunday morning. Visiting lovely Wellington. Not many people in the cafe.<br/>Staff were really good throughout.<br/><br/>Coffees were average. More of an abrupt taste, not at all smooth, including the froth (not patterned either!!!)<br/><br/>I had granola, and it looked like Kellogg's Just Right or something similar - didn't appear to have been created in the cafe anyway - could be wrong. In any case not as good as most cafe granola I have had. <br/><br/>Partner had poached eggs on toast. Both eggs were undercooked and flooded the plate when opened! The toast was just out of a white bread packet by the looks.<br/><br/>Cafe itself was pretty good. Outside area looking Lampton Quay if you are lucky with the weather or a hardy Wellingtonian!!<br/><br/>So, all told I think they could do better with the food, and I won't be heading back on my visits to Wellys. Not saying you shouldn't give it a spin though.

We got a table as soon as we walked in, then given menus and told to order at the counter which is fine. Then ordered our coffees and were handed a tray of them to take back to our table. Coffees were great apart from a Luke warm mocca. Ordered the Astoria breakfast of sausage bacon poached eggs and hash potatoe, this came out very quickly but I am not surprised as I could have cooked something much better myself. One slightly cooked sausage, a few rashers of bacon, a poached egg on white plain toast and a few unseasoned potatoes, for $16. We stayed a while longer and our table did not get cleared or any staff checking in with us, very safe to say I won't be rushing back to Astoria!

Love this place! The creamy mushrooms and polenta are to die for!! It's a bustling 'full of life' cafe in a great location. Thanks guys - one of my favourite places to visit in Wellington.

A timeless dining room with leather couches and Brentwood chairs, the menu shows an eclectic mix of modern classic cuisine as well as food origins. We enjoy outstanding House-smoked salmon served over a quinoa, seed, caper, mint and rocket salad with cumin yoghurt (20), and Zahtar chicken escalope with puy lentil, argula, mint, pomegranate and sunflower salad. Service is friendly and efficient, providing a business lunch hour haven for city workers.

I haven't been but my husband visited last Saturday while I was having breakfast with a girlfriend at Drexel's around the corner. The thought of sitting there for an hour listening to us gossip wasn't appealing so he went elsewhere. <br/><br/>He says:<br/><br/>"After being ignored and kept waiting to order whilst a coffee was being made for someone else, I got to order a Big Breakfast and a Mocha. Swiped the eftpos card and was told to wait at the counter for my coffee. You know, for $24.80 I think I'll go find a table and sit down and relax and let you bring it to me. Is that ok? Hardly worth the effort. The coffee was luke-warm and about as inspiring as wet kleenex. Fortunately the food was much better - eggs well poached and nicely cooked bacon with a decent sausage. No tomato or mushrooms which are common with this type of breakfast but this didn't worry me as I don't eat them anyway. An extra $3.50 for Hollandaise but money well spent. It came in a jug, was thick and creamy and tasted superb.  I'd be back for the food and that hollandaise, but BYO coffee."

Inside had potential, undermined by poor air circulation and acoustics resembling a massive public bathroom. The outside section offers that rare and unfortunate olfactory cocktail of passive cigarette smoke, pigeon poo (birds en masse) and stinky street fumes. The service is better than the coffee, which in my experience is absolutely better than the food. Hardly a glowing review, but it is honest.

I ordered a passionfruit and white chocolate brioche to take away. Once I was home I opened the bag to discover I had been given a very squashed looking sweet muffin of some description. I was going to let this slide as there was a sign by the till saying counter staff in training, please be nice or something like that, but was pretty disappointed that I was not going to try the brioche. However, after heating my muffin I open it up to find it completely raw inside not moist but gooey. I can imagine I was not the only one on Saturday to do so.

Review for Astoria Cafe.<br/>I have been a happy regular for many years at Astoria the large open spaces and excellent coffee add to its unique charm among Wellingtonians.<br/><br/>The staff however are the key point of difference compared to other cafes .<br/><br/>They are very friendly , obliging and professional especially the Managers Perrin Thomas and Steve Keith are extremely proficient and nothing is a problem their energy is amazing.<br/><br/>The coffee is great and I am spoilt which is why I tip .<br/><br/>Special acknowledgement to Josh ,Tom and Emma for the great coffee

This is a great place for a scrumptious, good value quick breakfast. I go about once a week for a breakfast treat. Some weeks their poached eggs can be a little undercooked, but there scrambled eggs are the best in Wellington!<br/>However, I wouldn't go here for the best coffee in Wellington (always tastes a bit burnt). I wouldn't go here for table service (you have to buy at the counter), which makes it a bit hard to order a second coffee. I wouldn't take a customer there for a meeting as you wouldn't be able to hear each other (it can get quite loud).<br/>I still go back every week though (for now 4 years) because it is convenient and as I have said, their breakfasts are really great.

9 of us had a late lunch here on friday....OMG the service was spectacular, food was Amazing!! Best Bacon &amp; Avocado Sandwich ive ever had, mum got their recipe to take back to UK for Chees &amp; Leek Bread &amp; Butter Pudding she was that impressed.... Service was fast, friendly &amp; great atmosphere.

Partner and I dined at Astoria on Saturday morning (brekky) 6th July as we usually do when we visit Wellington. Sadly, the visit disappointed this time. I ordered the spinach feta omelette and Partner ordered the spaghetti on toast. All the toast was cold as well as striped with burn marks from contact with a hot rack/grill of some sort - in other words, toasted incredibly fast at too high a temperature, and all we could taste was the bitterness of the burnt stripes on the bread. How hard can it be to toast bread to golden brown evenly? The omelette was very firm (slightly overcooked) whereas a good one should still be just soft in the middle. The spinach was fine though - not overly wilted. Sadly, the house spaghetti was a real downer with the whole dish being incredibly dry and the sauce somewhat flavourless. The pasta itself was al dente – but where was the garlic or basil or seasoning (anything really) in the sauce? Heck, where was the tomato? There was no moisture in the sauce at all. I need to comment on the coffee too: no crema on the rather bitter long black and my small cappuccino was very weak so goodness knows what level of flavour is in the normal size one.

Walk past Astoria during lunchtime and you'll be sure to see a big crowd of people getting their lunch fix. <br/>Quite frankly, I don't understand why so many people like this cafe. Yes, the name sounds rather flash but apart from that, it is just like any other cafe.<br/>While I have no major complaints about the food or service at Astoria, there is really nothing to set it apart from other Wellington cafes (apart from their name, perhaps). Having a wider range of cabinet food and improving the calibre of their coffee would be a great start.

As you struggle to open the door in 100kmh gale force winds, you find yourself only in a worse situation. A dark entry, with a dewy poor selection of food peering through and a rude, bored looking waitress. Upon ordering you will see more eye rolls than bakery rolls available to purchase. After ordering you will be required to pay up in an unfriendly manner, shift over to the side quickly and awkwardly wait for your coffee.. if you would like it bought to you- you best hope you're not a smoker, because these workers do not go outside. Coffee is generally warm and weak and if you complain, they will give you some rude excuse whilst applying lipgloss and send you back out the way you came.<br/><br/>Also they don't use trim milk, some of us would like to retain our waistlines and not look like the back of one of the bus's across the road thanks.

I've been visiting Astoria every morning for several years and I am a big fan of the 'waiting at the counter for your coffee' policy - very few places are so efficient in this way. I've also had lunch there many times (the bacon and egg baps with fries and aioli - yum!) A while ago, I decided to have my breakfast at the table instead of rushing back to work and what a treat that was! Their crepes are just fabulous, well cooked, well presented, and brought out promptly. Tiny, teeny little gripe: perhaps bottles of water could be stashed in the fridge behind the counter so we don't have to traipse to the water fountain to fill our glasses? Anyway, the biggest, brightest asset of this cafe is its staff. They are consistently professional, efficient and hard-working, yet very pleasant, relaxed and friendly, even under pressure - they are the best hospos in Wellington. Lovely bonus: they call me by my first name which is lovely enough, but even cooler is when I bring a guest with me for lunch and the guest says, 'Wow, they all know your name and you know theirs! It's like 'Cheers'!" :-)

Went for Breakfast at Astoria last week and had a great experience. Yes it was very busy and had to queue up to place my order and get my coffee. My breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon came out incredibly fast, eggs had obviously been cooked in a pan over a high heat rather than slow double boiler that gives that creamy texture, but totally understandable considering the number that were coming out. Like to have edible hot food now than wait ages – bit like the coffee service – wait and be served quickly or go and sit and wait forever whilst the staff chat about what they did last night as often happens in other cafes. <br/><br/>As added bonus when my plate was cleared by a happy looking owner? Was offered further coffee’s which then were brought to my table. Best of both worlds! – Fast service to start and then table service later on. A very busy establishment that has been around ages – something must be right!

Very disappointed with Astoria. Firstly it took about 3 attempts for the waitress to get my order right. Secondly when our food was brought out another waitress spilt cider all over my pants (the only pants I had with me for the holiday weekend). I should have known something was going to go wrong when I was given the number 13 as our table number.<br/><br/>Lastly the food was disgusting. We ordered scrambled eggs which resembled rubbery baby vomit and didn't taste too disimilar to vomit either. The bacon sandwich was too much bread, not enough filler and the fries were no different than McDonalds fries.<br/><br/>I definitely would not go back.

I've been going to Astoria for years and have always enjoyed the atmosphere, staff and their kick-ass coffee. Even better now they do trim milk!<br/> I know it may sound strange but I hadn't really clicked that they are also open in the evening. <br/>I went with a work group last Thursday and had a great time.<br/>We were looked after by the Irish guy at the table. He set up a tab and made sure we were never short of a drink. He also recommended a selection of snacks for us to share. <br/>I have always used my coffee loyalty card at Astoria and now they have one for wine and beer too. I'll definitely be returning to get a few more notches on that! My share of the bill was $28 which I think was excellent value for all that we had.

I had the lamb's fry which was really good. The portion was reasonable and I finished the meal feeling really satisfied. So the higher than average lunch prices is justified. My friend had the chicken schnitzel which she enjoyed as well.<br/><br/>The coffee was good - I had the mochacino which is priced a little higher than other cafes but came in a large mug. The only fallback was the fact that I had to carry the coffee to my own table which was rather difficult as the cup was filled to the brim and I was carrying a very heavy big bag. Despite what was discussed below, I don't believe it is the most efficient service and it is not customer-friendly.<br/><br/>Regardless, I enjoyed the food and coffee, and I will go back to Astoria if I ever feel like splurging for lunch.

Had the Grilled skirt steak. Sent the first steak back when a rare steak was only slightly pink. The salad was small bowl containing just a bunch of green leaves with a trace of dressing. I don't call leaves a salad and could have livened up with tomato, capsicum, avocado etc. And the fill the plate just add heaps of chips. No complaints about the chips

Went here today (Friday) I have to say, I haven't yet tried their meals, but the Fries I had and the Mayo it comes with are like nothing else I have ever tried, as well as genuinely feeling like enough for the money (unlike a lot of other places).<br/><br/>The Environment is quite nice when it's not overly busy, the staff look happy and provide nice service.<br/><br/>I plan to come back and try some meals when it's not hugely busy; as it always seems to be when I walk past.<br/><br/>I recommend the Fries and the Mayo/Aioli that comes with them; they are THE fries you will have wanted elsewhere for the price, but never got unless you come here.<br/><br/>Worth a visit in Wellington so far.

Good for a coffee and some fries.<br/><br/>Not as good for lunch though

I feel like I'm a cow going through the cattle yards when I go there. You have to wait at the counter while they make your coffee. Not the greatest service!!<br/><br/>To make matters worse, a friend of my always seems to have her coffee brought to the table. She says she is part of the "in crowd" there. Clearly, I am not and I have to mill around waiting for mine.<br/><br/>Doesn’t make me feel very valued as a customer!! <br/><br/>Bit of a shame, it is a great venue. I just wish some other crowd was managing it.

When a cafe can't even make scrambled eggs right, they are in trouble. I've been trying the "big breakfast" on the menu of every cafe in town in my search for the best, and this has got to be one of the worst. I managed to struggle through mine, but my girlfriend's scrambled eggs were inedible. They were so bad we got a refund for these, but Astoria really need to lift their game to compete with most of the fantastic cafes in Wellington. Very disappointing...

We left after we were advised they do not serve trim milk. What kind of cafe does not provide hot drinks with trim milk??? It's a fairly standard request these days.<br/><br/>The atmosphere seems nice, and the people that do go there seem to like it, but they've lost me as a potential customer with their inability to provide what I want.

Today will be the last time I ever have coffee at Astoria - six months ago I was diagnosed Lactose intolerant and ever since I have taken my own lactose free milk to cafes - without exception the numerous cafes I have visited in the last six months have ALL been happy to make my coffee with my milk - not Astoria - I was told 'we will do it today but not again - if everyone started bringing their own milk we could never cope'!!! I ask you - who would willingly walk around the central city with a litre container of milk in their handbag just to be difficult??!! I read from other reviews that Astoria don't even provide trim milk - why do people keep patronising this place - there are dozens of fab cafes in Wellington with friendly accommodating staff - give them a go - I know I will be

So, the only thing negative anyone has said about Astoria so far is that they don't serve trim milk. Well, I don't drink milk, so I love this place! The coffee I've had there is terrific. They have a great selection of pastries and all sorts of breakfast food...including the only diced breakfast potatoes we can find in the area. And they are super efficient at serving and clearing tables for more customers. Great place.

This place is nearly always busy, the location pretty much guarantees this, it has a huge park in front and a big window of sun in an otherwise pretty shaded street. My complaint is that I cant get a trim milk coffee there, they refuse to servie it so I never go. Shame though as I'd like to sit outside in the sun...

Having visited hundreds of cafes and restaurant around the world, Astoria is close to the best. Great atmosphere, very European, great coffee, food, etc

My friends love Astoria; I really don't see what the fuss is about. I know they roast their own coffee beans, but to me the coffee always tastes scorched. I'm surprised that they don't offer a trim milk option. The food is usually quite good. I find the atmosphere really dark and noisy, unless you are fortunate enough to get a table outside.

I have always thought this place is over rated. The location is good, but it is noisy, often overcrowded and to my mind many of the customers are there to see and be seen.<br/><br/>I have never found the service to be particularly good and the food selection is not to my taste. <br/><br/>The coffee is acceptable but not outstanding. <br/><br/>I only go there if I have to.