long beach cafe

this cafe/restaurant has had its ups and downs over the few years we have lived in waikanae. the present owners and chef have done a fantastic job. turning a very ordinary cafe into a first class eating experience. this has been achieved by quality, trained staff, an enthusiastic chef that takes pains to cook and present high quality meals. the menu is quite limited but our party had no problem selecting what they wanted and all were highly complimentary.greatambiance summer and winter. very popular. highly recommended.

i've been to longbeach many times, it's agreatspot for lunch in waikanae - i am quite the regular over the summer months. i love the seafood pizza here; they are generous with the toppings, the salmon is fresh, and the prawns are big and juicy - de-lish! their twice-cooked chips are also amazing. i have ventured out a couple of times and once i ordered their seafood chowder, which was also delicious. the food is very good here and they make a mean llb! i love sitting in the sun in the patio area. the staff here are always very busy but they are friendly and attentive. this is a very popular café and i highly recommend it if you are in the area.

nice pleasant corner cafe adjacent to the beach (but no direct view of the beach).greatfood well prepared and presented. good friendly helpful service. eggs benedict would be agreataddition to the brunch menu but that said the eggs i had were excellent. highly recommended we will be back

would begreatto have any service!! only way to get it after initial service was to go up to counter. wait staff didnt even look to see if glasses empty or food wanted!!

we popped in here for afternoon drinks and possibly food. we found the place to be unnecessarily pretentious, and the service really stuffy. the wine selection was excellent and the menu did lookgreatbut we didn't hang around after one round as it was really pompous feeling. the place is very clean, very well laid out and the staff look tidy and are professional but the air of this place made me feel like they were too good for us. it's just the vibe of it. i'd never go again purely for this reason.

great food- very gourmet for the price. tuna, salmon and fresh fish all delicious.greatatmosphere and service. lucky waikanae beach. love the garden to table idea and edible flowers were gorgeous.

our favorite place to grab a drink and a bite in waikanae. best craft beer menu on the coast, awesome pizza (and chili oil omg), andgreatstaff.

hmmmm.   we were on a road trip north over labour weekend, and popped into long beach café for brunch on the way through.   we'd initially tried to go to the front room (which is a firm favourite), but they had a hideously long wait with food, so we popped next door to long beach café.    following the experience we had at long beach café, i can see why they had a number of free tables, whereas the front room was bursting at the seams!   in all fairness, the food we ordered at long beach café wasgreat(creamed vanilla rice, and their big breakfast with everything); the coffee was good, and the young waitress who served us was just lovely ... it was just the rudeness of a couple of their staff that's made sure i'll never bother going back.   as we were in a hurry (and i'd made that known when we arrived), after we'd been seated and waited for a bit, i'd popped back into the restaurant to grab a couple of menus so we could get started and at least figure out what we were going to have.   well.  how very dare me?!   i hadn't realised there were two doors to the courtyard - i'd popped in one door, while our lovely waitress had gone out the other one (i mean - the door is marked "toilets", so i hadn't realised it also doubled as a second entrance to the courtyard?!).   i asked the surly girl making the coffees if we could please have a couple of menus, and got snapped at out and was ordered to go and sit down, as a waitress was headed in our direction [*stomp* *spit* *snarl*].   excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me?!   (a)  i'm not 6 years old; (b) umm, customer service anyone?; and (c) i can see why this particular individual is assigned to the coffee machine and not front line service (someone get this girl some evening primrose oil, pronto).   if we hadn't been in a rush, and i hadn't needed to feed my nephew, i would have walked out immediately, on the back of that interaction.   long beach café - you do so many things so well, but when you're in a customer service industry and you have such a strong competitor right next door (where our experience that morning had been the polar opposite - the front room front counter staff immediately welcomed us with a warm smile, and advised they'd love to seat us, but that there would be a huge wait on food), just remember - i have a choice where to spend my $40 on brunch ... your food is great, and your lovely young waitress helped balance the experience out, but such bare-faced rudeness and the bad attitude was enough to make sure i won't be choosing to spend my coin with you again!

i love this place! every time i am in the waikanae area this is the place i come.greatcoffee andgreatpizza! this place is relaxed though still top quality with awesome staff! see you again long beach!

excellent thin crust pizzas andgreat(hot!) chili sauce to accompany. very good selection of beers and wines together with good coffee. friendly staff and relaxed beach atmosphere. seating outside as well as inside. a real mix of customers. plenty of parking nearby. in essence everything a casual restaurant/bar over the road from the beach should be.

love this place .. has a cool vibe and they work super hard to please.
it isgreatto pop in and just have a coffee and a yummy scone or casual pizza but they also serve fabulous food from an extensive and tasty menu with a focus on local fresh produce.
staff are super friendly, well drilled and efficient.
lots of nice touches make long beach our favoured local pit stop!
keep up the good work and look forward to seeing the new renovations!

my wife and i went to long beach last friday night. it was busy and we hadn't booked but managed to get a table.
the new chef has really done agreatjob revamping the main menu. the food was fantastic.
entre of seafood on skewers in a piece of driftwood - perfectly done. i had the angus eye fillet that was also perfect and my wife had butterfish that was superb. we've dined a lot in wellington and i have to say this was right up there with the best. congratulations.

best service i have had in a very long time. our waitress emily was very knowledgeable about the menu, made suggestions and recommendations so we took her advice.
we were all only there for desert, but the food was fantastic. emily asked us for our thoughts once we had finished the meals and when we gave her some feedback for one small improvement she took it straight to the chef. she was energetic, hadgreatpeople skills and a delight to have as our waitress.
yet another fantastic experience at the long beach!

it's a fave and while a few months ago were afraid it might be going downhill - we had a lovely meal there recently. maybe they had a dodgy chef for a while. anyway - last weekend it was back to what it always has been, a place with enjoyable food,greatwine and beer list and friendly, efficient staff.

the best..greatcustomer service, lovely food and excellent coffee... definitly be back
nice location. was packed whn we turned up but was a good turn over... will suggest this place to others..... prob the best waiters ive dealt with...