Review Home Cafe - Wellington

Best savoury gluten free scones around! I go out of my way to visit Home when I'm in Wellington. It's rare to find a good gf scone and theirs are exceptional. Big, noisy cafe often hard to get a seat. Great staff.

Cheese Scone Review : Boldly, Home have dispensed with any attempt for height, and are proudly low profile. This does have its advantages, giving more of a table top for a healthy cheese coating. There is an alarming red sash that could have been an overdose of cayenne, but relax, it's just paprika. Sadly a bit of a low crunch factor. No herbs. Evidence of flour manhandling, quite a dense texture. Not too much salt, flavour rather plain, but pleasing level of cheesing, and the paprika is adding a welcome hints. Pretty good 74.

It was okay, the line was super long but the staff went through us quickly. The scone I had was awesome but the red velvet cake didn't live up to expectations, the frosting had that strange after taste. The hot chocolate was good, itcame warm rather than hot but I prefer that.

Always great coffee ☕️ and cheerful staff. The pre made baking is fresh and tasty, especially the cheese 🧀 scones. The cooked breakfasts are excellent and fairly priced

Good value, great coffee and nice atmosphere :)

Great local. Coffee is good and cinabuns are better! Service is always with a smile.

It's a lovely Cafe in the National Library. The staff were very good.

Great coffee & light food. Delightful efficient staff. Fab space

A nice cafe inside a wonderful building. If you want to eat something there, go for the scones and the caramel slice. You will be never disappointed. How to forget about the Quesadillas!!! A large choice of beverage/coffee and milk! Love this place!!!

Delightful staff and delicious iced chocolate and tropical muffin. Will definitely be coming here again. Lots of vegan, dairy free and gluten free options too.

Their scrambled eggs are perfect (not overdone) and served with a delicious chutney. This place is always popular at lunch time, but I have always managed to find a seat. Great range of food and friendly staff. Outdoor seating on a good weather day. A good place to meet friends.

Good vibe, wide range of food and plenty of seating, great place for a coffee and bite to eat

Super busy cafe, long wait for coffee and huge queues. Cool ambient and cozy decor. Spacious with high chairs and good menu.

Lovely spot to grab a snack and a coffee.

Lovely cabinet food and a very healthy selection. Quite a loud café due to all the concrete but good place to be social during the winter.

Pricey for pretty average food. Long wait. Nice spacious café with outdoor seating

Good coffee. The food was nice. Plenty of seating and efficient service for peak times.

I LOVED the crumpets. So delicious!!!

Changing my review after much more positive experience. Scrummy vegan scone and delish filling tofu noodles, yum! Friendly service and not too unreasonably priced. I will definitely be back!

Sadly they have now dramatically reduced the cabinet food selection on Saturdays so I would no longer recommend going there on a Saturday for this reason :( <br/><br/>A lot of people talk about the slow service but perhaps it’s different on a Saturday. I always receive my coffee and food quickly when I frequent here on the weekend. I love the vibe here and it’s a place I can comfortably come on my own and chill on their big couches. There is a reason I keep coming back.

This is the SLOWEST place in Welly to get a coffee.  If they're busy, you'll wait 20 minutes for a take away (which is kind of understandable).  If it's before 8 AM and only a trickle of people inside, you'll still wait 20 minutes!  The employees move in slow motion, several are usually standing around chatting while one person operates the espresso machine.  Walk a bit further down to Fuel if you're in a hurry.  <br/><br/>As for the food, it's average cafe food.  The date scone was loaded with date stones, so that wasn't very nice.

I enjoy some of their meals but have been disappointed quite a few times here. Also, PLEASE can this place get some cake covers for their food, last time I was there I was going to order some red velvet cake til I noticed the fly burrowing into the slice the whole time I waited in line. On a separate occasion I saw a server swiping a fly out of the cabinet. The cake incident put me off of ever retuning - hence the one star :(

Great tasting coffee but poor service. Waited 17 minutes after ordering when they had very few customers. No apology when I pointed this out. They serve last order first.<br/><br/><br/>

I regularly go to home cafe due to the large open space and it's proximity to the office, making it the perfect place for a meeting however the service is horrendous. The attitude of the young man who usually serves on the counter is appalling. He is rude, surly and extremely unhelpful. The rest of the staff are not much better. Food and drinks are often slammed on the table or just abandoned and not given to the person who ordered it if in a group. They regularly do not tell you if food has run out and just give you a sub-par replacement. Once a waitress even argued with our table over this when a friend of mine was served eggs benedict with no English muffin as advertised and scrambled eggs not poached. If a meal doesn't even resemble the item advertised you need to tell your customers not argue with them that you've just had a busy day and that's all you had. The food itself is okay but nothing to get excited about. If they improved their service and actually employed people that gave a damn it has the potential to be a real little gem of a cafe.

Good tasting coffee. The pastries and nibbles on offer are great as well. Great atmosphere and convenient location -although parking can be an issue. Cool place and highly recommended. <br/>

Coffee is somewhat average, but a brilliant place for meetings.  The large space means that even at rush hour it isn't too hard to find a seat, and even when it's crowded, it doesn't get too loud which is really good when you're having a meeting and is not something that can be said about many of Wellington's cafes.  There's a wide variety of seating too which is a nice touch.

Great counter food and good coffee. Always a busy place but I never have to wait for long. It would be nice to have a little more seating as is quite a big space and is usually busy. Good friendly service. I recommend the cheese scones ;)

This is a busy cafe located in the National Library of New Zealand in Thorndon. It has a huge amount of seating, which can be its downfall with staff finding it difficult to locate where you are seated.<br/><br/>It serves Havana coffee with an array of savoury and sweet cabinet foods. It also has a pretty good range of gluten free options, though I wish the sweet options were changed up a bit – it’s always the same three items: brownies, friands and orange cake. Also their coffee is very inconsistent – one day great, the next day burnt or even weak. They do give discount when you bring a keep cup which is a bonus.<br/><br/>Just time your visit right here as it usually has a queue to the door, especially around lunchtime. <br/><br/>Sarah Reynolds #challenge

Tucked away in the ground floor of an office block I never knew this place existed before meeting a client there to sign a contract. <br/><br/>Plenty of lunch options on the menu both from the cabinet and the kitchen. <br/><br/>Good coffee and plenty of places to sit. <br/><br/>A good find with good coffee. <br/>

GREAT coffee and food (they cater to a whole myriad of dietary requirements, so I know I'll always be able to eat something). Staff are incredibly friendly staff (if you go often enough, they'll remember your name and your order). <br/><br/>Service is fast when empty, but incredibly slow when it's busy, so I wouldn't suggest it if you're on your lunch break and in a rush.

Parking is easy.  Great relaxed vibe and especially great on Saturdays.  Love the space....now onto the food.  Just love that the food is fresh and caters to the myriad of dietary requirements. Staff friendly.  Good selection for kids and just love the fluffies are free. Toys for the kids and clean toilets.  I feel like I have discovered a hidden gem. <br/><br/>In the neighbourhood.... Give it a go.

Where do I start...<br/><br/>I am a regular at HOME cafe. The queues are always quite long..but it is well worth the wait. Their selection of baked good is great with many options of gluten free products. Bagels, breakfast burrito and Cinnabuns are my favourites. Coffee is good and staff are really friendly and efficient for how busy the place gets. If you are in the Thorndon (Parliament) area or visiting the National Library I highly recommend popping in for a visit. Even better...It's open on Saturdays when all else in this neighbourhood is closed :)

Umm, when they take your name when you order coffee you'd think they could manage not to stuff up your order. But unfortunately not. Then when they do stuff it up, you lose your place in the queue. WTF? And the coffee isn't worth waiting for anyway. Not a good start to my day. Will be giving it a miss for morning coffee. Maybe they're having an off day the baking all looked burnt too!

Went in for a quick lunch at 12:05 on Friday. Placed our order for a couple of slices of Pizza from the food cabinet, and a slice of cake. The cake arrived promptly and the waitress mentioned that there was a drink order on the docket (note: she mentioned the docket) and just to make sure we knew it was self-service. <br/><br/>All was going well, until 30 minutes passed and our two slices of pizza was no where to be found. My partner approached the waitress to enquire on where the rest of our order was, the waitress said they had issues printing dockets, but she would get it sorted ASAP. <br/><br/>Another 15 minutes pass and we are still waiting, I head up to the counter and ask the girl preparing the food as to what was going on, she mentions the broken printer (after the first girl confirmed they had our docket, so not sure how that was even relevant to our order). After a further 10 minutes our two slices of pizza arrive, but naturally the order is wrong as I assume they sold out of what we had originally ordered 45 minutes ago. Being that we went to Home for a quick early lunch, having it turning into an hour saga I wasn't about to stick around while they "resolved" the incorrect order. <br/><br/>While a refund was given there didn't seem to be any sincerity in the apologies offered from any staff member. Reading the other reviews here, it seems Home really lacks proper management from someone with experience in hospitality. The entire staff section seemed to be under 18. I'm not sure how they expect to run a successful business when there is nobody there who has the experience to quickly rectify issues when they crop up (it's hospo, there are always issues but it's how you deal with these issues that counts). <br/><br/>Home Cafe, hire someone who has a solid 5+ years of good experience, get them running the day shift and sort out your processes. The entire two till ordering system really isn't helping you either. It just slows the trailing line and confuses people. <br/><br/>When someone orders something from a food cabinet that just needs a 5 minute reheat, they don't expect to wait 45 minutes - Nor do they care about some apparent printer issue. <br/><br/>We won't be back to see if you solve these issues, but good luck.

The staff are lovely, but they need more vegetarian meals. Too much meat is always a turn-off for people with any kind of moral compass. Please add more vegetarian meals.

It took far, far too long to get my lunch (which was pre-prepared from the cabinet selections). It does not take 17 minutes to put something on a plate - even when it is busy.<br/><br/>Like everyone else I find the food lovely but the service is so bad it cancels out the lovely food.

I love HOME cafe. The setting is comfy and inviting and interesting. The food is beautiful and there are loads of gluten-free, vegan and clean eating options. <br/><br/>However, like the rest of the reviewers here, the service is what really lets this wonderful place down. I have been there at least 10 times and they haven't got our drinks order right once. <br/><br/>Get the orders right and maybe a few more smiles from the staff then this place will be humming!

I love this cafe. The food is consistently good - it is light years better than other cafes in the area (St Paul's, Word of Mouth, Vanilla). The cakes/slices/sweet treats are really good.<br/><br/>The only thing letting this place down for me is the service. The staff and friendly, and there are lots of them, but they aren't operating as efficiently as they could. Especially around lunch time, things should be moving a lot quicker.

The lemon cake is wonderful, but the service is way too slow, not too sure what's causing the slowness.

I wouldn't know if it is good or not - we were there during our lunch hour and, along with a number of others, left before being able to order. The service is so slow that the line barely moved in nearly 10 minutes and when I asked how long the daily special of fish hot pot would take, I was told that it would be over 20 minutes. I suggested that it was the dish of the day and probably wouldn't need much preparation but to no avail. Went back to Word of Mouth over the way - always reliable. No doubt it could be a good cafe but the service is impossibly slow for a lunchtime crowd.