long beach cafe

went here last night for a birthday celebration and was amazed by the good service and food.
our table had the steak, pork belly and different pizzas - wow - it was great.
my compliments to the chef,staffand owners!!!

i've been to longbeach many times, it's a great spot 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. thestaffhere 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.

it wasn’t very busy but they still managed to make us wait at least a whole hour to be served. not to bring us what we ordered, but to place our orders. food was actually very good once it finally arrived. and the location was lovely. however thestaffweren’t the friendliest.

yummy dinner here last night. cheese board starter was awesome with the mushroom pate being the standout of the night.staffwere hard pressed as only 2 out front with an almost full restaurant. they did an excellent job. being rushed off their feet yet keeping a smile and taking the time to make sure everyone was looked after.

would be great to have any service!! only way to get it after initial service was to go up to counter. waitstaffdidnt 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 look great but we didn't hang around after one round as it was really pompous feeling. the place is very clean, very well laid out and thestafflook 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.

the food was delicious, atmosphere was great, drinks were good, but the service was absolutely shocking.

the level of rudeness amazed me. i felt bad for thestaffbecause it was clear they had no pride working for this cafe. it would be beneficial for management to reconsider who they are hiring onto their team as the frontline faces of their company.

i would never return to this cafe even though the food was fantastic. service is just as much a factor in the experience as the food is. i would also make a point to never recommend this cafe to anyone else due to the awful experience.

i have read a few other reviews on this page and i feel sorry for those who also experienced something similar to what i saw and heard. no one should be subjected to that kind of behaviour and be paying for the bill at the end!

the positive of the day was that the presentation of the food was beautiful and the taste matched.

i hope you all consider what kind of message you are sending to the surrounding community about your company name.

got given a warm iced chocolate, asked for a replacement, got given a warm iced chocolate with two iced cubes in it. at least they tried. my girlfriend got given a latte that needed sugar to mask burnt taste. nice place and helpfulstaffbut wont be back.

good is always on point. but thestaffare never happy. if you sit close enough to the kitchen you can hear the chef screaming busy at his staff. will not be back to give this twat any more of my money.

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 was great (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 theirstaffthat'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 counterstaffimmediately 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!

overpriced food about the quality of pub bar meals at twice the price, nearly an hour for our meals to arrive, small portions of fish n chips, greasy fish, luke warm chips. our teenage kids went to the dairy for something to eat after leaving. fish n chips at the takeaway around the corner was way nicer, cheaper and faster service.staffwere ok but under pressure i think. wouldnt go again.

excellent thin crust pizzas and great (hot!) chili sauce to accompany. very good selection of beers and wines together with good coffee. friendlystaffand 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.

**don't go here today -boxing day - you'll be disappointed**

i have a policy of not writing negative reviews without having given my feedback to the manager in person first and at least given them a chance to respond. i'm afraid this has been one of those times where i gave my feedback quite fairly and it wasn't received well by the owner and was negatively reacted to. this is a shame as it could have gone differently.

these guys are the only establishment open in waikanae today and they don't have enough people on, or good enough infastructure, to handle the demand they're clearly under. we saw people leaving for the same reasons we weren't happy. we waited 40 minutes for the coffee and fluffy we ordered, and our croissant was given to another table who arrived after us, but got their order before us. the biscuit we ordered was wrong and the one that eventually arrived was not very nice. the compensation we were offered was not being charged for the food that we didn't receive and was wrong/ not nice. this isn't good enough, i'm sorry.

here are some suggestions that would make things easier for everyone,staffand customers alike:

- if there's a long wait for things like coffee please tell us before we make the decision to sit down. that means we are making an informed choice. you might lose a bit of custom but at least you won't be dealing with unhappy customers and therefore reviews like this one.

- if you're going to be the only place open in town, please don't use this as an excuse for a bad dining experience, like you did today. fair enough you were busy and clearly struggling but this could be avoided by making sure you have enoughstaffon, as you must have predicted how busy you would be today. if you make a decision to be open, make sure you execute it really well by having who and what you need to cope properly. being the only place open is not a form of compensation to your customers.

- you could also put on a limited menu on a day like today rather than your full selection. this would make it more efficient for the chefs to pump out meals quickly. perhaps more counter food also available would have made things easier.

- have people there soley focused on getting the coffee made and waitstafffor just delivering coffee. most people want coffee and this was your biggest delay today. your waitstaffwere rushing around like blue-arsed flies and this could be avoided if you had specific coffee runners in addition to waitstafftaking orders and delivering meals.

- if a customer is unhappy just acknowledge it and offer a decent compensation. that would have made a world of difference to us today.

we are really disappointed in today and your reaction to us. i feel like i was fair and not angry or rude. we've lived in waikanae since 2012 and have been regular customers of all your establishments. i'm aware it is fairly slim pickings in waikanae but there are other choices and i'll definitely be making some other choices after today. i feel sad about this but not sure what else to do.

i hope the rest of the day improves and that yourstaffget paid at least time and half for the difficult job they had today.

charlotte.

my wife and i consider longbeach the best, and only restaurant on the kapiti coast worth going to. the food is fantastic, and always of the same high level of quality even when the place is bursting at the seams. the waitstaffare attentive and enthusiastic to help if they can. the drinks list is extensive and thestaffhave a great knowledge and are happy to make recommendations. if your on the kapiti coast, long beach is definitely the place to go!

sorry to hear that rhianon had a poor experience. longbeach is my local cafe where i meet a large number of friends at least weekly. i have found thestaffoverwhelmingly pleasant and helpful, the food excellent and the wine list outstanding on the kapiti coast for its variety. thestaffare knowledgeable about their wines and are happy to discuss it with you. i would give it another try on another day rhiannon, i'm sure you will not be disappointed again.