Review Rata Cafe - Wellington

Great little Cafe attached to Zealandia. There is a menu with made to order food and a display case with pre-made sandwiches and pies for about half the price of the made to order. Nice choice of seating. Food was very good and the portions were well sized, if you're a light eater you probably could split most things.

They were operating on a reduced menu for New Year's Day, but the quality didn't suffer. Delicious, well presented, and didn't take too long to arrive. Great reason to fuel up before heading out on the tracks.

Lovely location. Go on a sunny day and grab a coffee and look at the view

We went to Zealandia for our marriage anniversary and started our day with brunch there. The service was absolutely amazing: kindly staff, nice and prompt service. Food there was average and the portion size was ok. We ordered three mains and one dessert which just fueled us but not to a complete satisfaction. Overall it's a good experience.

Gorgeous setting, and very comfortable. Relaxing after an awesome walk through Zealandia. Although COVID staff shortages prevented them from offering hot food today, the pastries and coffee were just what we wanted.

Great cafe, great food, great coffee, great service. Make sure u start or finish your trip to Zealandia with a stop into the cafe! Or just stop by for a coffee. Great venue with a focus on being environmentally friendly, supporting the work which is done in the sanctuary next door. Worth the stop.

Lovely warm atmosphere in a glass room with views, although very busy at lunchtime. Life under covid has made service here difficult. We had to sit at a table (which was well spaced for social distancing) and have the menu explained even though we then wanted to go up to the counter to choose food from the cabinet. I observed a worker with a spray bottle wiping down the tables as people left. The staff were friendly and have perfected the expressive eye twinkle above their masks. I was surprised that a café in a family expedition place had gourmet type food at quite high prices but maybe it's a Wellington thing. I chose a box from the chiller that read raspberry & chocolate organic milk but it turned out to be a chocolate iceblock with a jelly tip which had begun to drip by the time it was my turn to order food. The restroom sign is tiny and high up so we completely missed it and went down two flights of stairs to the main one.

Excellent cafe. Lots of room, comfortable and a menu a cut above the standard cafes. Nice place to have a break at lunch time. Staff and service couldn’t be faulted. So convenient if you spend the sandy walking the trails.

Nice coffee shop to visit after a good wonder in Zealandia. Or to wait at while others go for their wonder. Note: there is a 15% surcharge on public holidays, so avoid those days if that bothers you.

Friendly staff, good food Vegetarian and Vegan extremely friendly!! Great portobello veggie burger!

Had a great lunch today. The cafe offers a good range of options for dairy free, gluten free, vegetarians and vegans. Great coffee and milkshakes as well.

Cafe is within the Zealandia bird sanctuary. Busy during school holidays but good service, nice coffee and meal off the menu. Attention to Covid19 restrictions in place, well done.

Nice to sit down after a walk around the grounds of Zealandia for a coffee & snack

I had the wonderful ham n cheese quiche. A casual and scenic setting for a tasty lunch, Excellent!

We went to Zealandia for our marriage anniversary and started our day with brunch there. The service was absolutely amazing: kindly staff, nice and prompt service. Food there was average and the portion size was ok. We ordered three mains and one dessert which just fueled us but not to a complete satisfaction. Overall it's a good experience.

We love Zealandia, so thought this cafe would be a great place to meet up for brunch. Sadly, this proved not to be the case. My husband is strongly gluten intolerant, so he makes a big effort when ordering meals to ask the person taking the order to make sure that everything is gluten free. In this case, the order was for a big breakfast, so plenty to check, and he made it clear that it wasn't just gluten free bread that he wanted, but a whole gluten free breakfast. However, part way through eating, I said to him that it looked like he had the same sausages as me, and I was pretty sure it was not gluten free. So he checked with the kitchen and, sure enough, it was not! No apologies from the staff or kitchen. And by the end of the meal, my husband was having breathing issues and tummy issues. Not ok Rata. So disappointing!

Not too shabby. Went on the eco-sanctuary walk, and decided to grab a bite before going back. The Zomato rating was pretty low, but I feel it was too underrated? My experience was reasonable wait and food quality. Got Streaky bacon, chips and smoothies and these were reasonably good. The lady at the cashier gave me an estimation of how long the order gonna take - a step forward from complaint received before. Overall, A good stop if you are worn out from the eco-walk.

We had high hopes fromRata with its lovely views and organic locally sourced menu - but unfortunately the experience just didn't deliver. Ordering at the counter the service while polite was painfully slow - despite a half empty cafe and what seemed to be s huge amount of staff. The delivery of food after we ordered was equally slow. My breakfast burrito was tidily presented, but lacking in flavour - and the bacon option I had asked for didn't eventuate. My friends big breakfast was was again just a little flat , and the poached eggs cooked solid. It's unlikely we will be returning.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Set in the lush surroundings of Zealandia, Rata cafe is a wonderfully lit space with ample tables and seating (indoor and outdoor) and a light colour scheme. Great an inviting setting to cap off a beautiful walk around the Zealandia grounds. <br/><br/>FOOD: we ordered off the counter (menu available too) and had the gourmet sausage roll. It was tasty and packed with flavour (loads of garlic!) and the pastry complemented the meat. It was served with a generous side salad although a tad heavy on the creamy dressing. <br/><br/>COFFEE: tasted great and looked great in a bright red cup.<br/><br/>SERVICE: the cafe wasn't overly busy but the staff were friendly and quick to serve. <br/><br/>A good pit stop and no complaints from my folks. In fact they enjoyed sitting out on the covered deck and happily chatted about the wonder of the Zealandia grounds. <br/><br/>

Good food, great place on a freezing cold day in Wellington!!! Warm & welcoming- child friendly, nestled in the city forest!! Crispy fries, crispy rosti with perfect poached eggs!! Good breakfast!! Will be back again!!

We went for Brunch on a busy Sunday. We were told on our arrival that there was a 20 - 30 minute delay on food from the kitchen. We weren't in a hurry, so accepted this. We appreciated being told this. The staff member was pleasant, and came and took our orders very promptly. We probably waited all of 30 minutes for our food, maybe a little longer. I had the vegetable soup with bread, and that was nice. My partner had the big Rata breakfast, and it was pretty average in quality and size of serving. In my view the food was very average. Have certainly had better in many of the other great cafes in our city. The service though was good.

Really disappointing! Such a lovely setting, but very expensive, and food almost inedible. I'd sack the chef, even the muffins and scones were horrible - so dry, and needed to be held together with butter just to get it into your mouth, and completely tasteless. Would never go back to eat there.

I've eaten at Rata about a dozen times now and each time have been impressed by the excellent quality of the meals and the warm, friendly approach taken by the staff. I make a point of taking visitors to Wellington there, certainly for the great ambience of the Sanctuary and the spectacular outlook from Rata, but I have never heard any complaints about the food or service. Over the years I've been to all the eateries in and around Karori but Rata is well clear of the rest.

We had some visitors from out of town and thought we'd take them to Rata cafe for lunch as they'd heard about Zealandia and had never been there.<br/><br/>We were quite excited as we had not been since the new visitor centre and cafe had been built.<br/><br/>We were extremely disappointed. This was one of our worst cafe experiences, if not the worst - ever.<br/><br/>To begin with, my husband and I ordered a chicken and feta panini each (as labelled) in the cabinet for $8.50 each. Our friends ordered a BLAT each from the menu.<br/><br/>After payment, I noticed that we had been overcharged for our paninis, they should have been $8.50 each (labelled as chicken &amp; feta for $8.50 each in the cabinet), but were in fact charged $9.25 each and the receipt showed that they were chicken &amp; brie.<br/><br/>My husband went up to the counter and asked the lady about the price difference. She told my husband that - quote "the price in the cabinet is fricken wrong". He could not believe what he heard, and in was in so much shock he sat back down.<br/><br/>This lady was unbelievably rude. Take note. Middle aged lady with glasses, short sandy blonde/brown hair with an attitude!<br/><br/>Our paninis came out, which were in fact chicken and brie (not chicken and feta as advertised in the cabinet!), and to top it off, our friends, did not receive their BLATs until AFTER we had finished our meals.<br/><br/>The staff were clueless to where food was supposed to go. They were walking around each table asking if the food was theirs. They asked one couple if they ordered bacon and eggs when in fact, they ordered a vegetarian meal.<br/><br/>Overall, we were appalled with the level of service and behaviour of this lady. We will not be going back and we will be telling all our friends not to ever go there.