scarecrow

popped in here with a friend and my two toddlers for a quick coffee before visiting the art gallery. not somewhere i'd usually take children - i was on high alert as there were breakables, jars of nice spreads, etc on the shelves low down, that my kids would break in an instant. i was surprised that the waitress brought over a basket of toys for the kids! very nice of them to help us entertain them. i had a bit of bruschetta and it was really nice - the heirloom tomatoes were fantastic. more expensive and a lot more "posh" than somewhere i'd usually go with kids - but was pleasantly surprised.

we have been trying to find a new destination for our regular friday morning breakfast.  this place had all the ingredients but just didn't pull them together.  it's a great space with good ambience, the shelves of grocery produce sets this apart from most cafes and we did browse and buy before we left.

the meals were tasty enough but there were a couple of major fails, my green scramble was available with feta at an extra $5. there was what i would refer to as a 'garnish' of feta, hardly worth the charge.  my partner ordered a side of toast which came out with no butter, we asked for this and were told they had none and offered peanut butter!

the coffee was just ok, we didn't order our usual second cup.  

has the makings of a great cafe but they need to sort out a few things.

went here for lunch yesterday with my partner. the cafe is really cute it has a mini market inside it too with all sorts of goodies.

the service here is a bit weird. we got told to take a seat where ever and someone would be over. they dropped off water but never came back to take our order. so we went inside to order at the counter.

food was nice, simple and smallish portions so if you are a hungry person keep that in mind. i had the chicken sandwich and my partner had the soup of the day.

i would probably come back here again to try something different on the menu as it is a pretty interesting one!

visited scarecrow while shopping in town. cute little cafe with unique items to choose from. i chose the pain perdu which is french toast. it had such a warm and comforting flavour, the fruit was poached and really juicy. i really wish there was more bread because it was so delicious. also really enjoyed the hot chocolate, had a deep flavour and wasn’t overly sweet.

we came here to take a lovely work mate for a birthday lunch and it didn't disappoint.

the decor and florist in the corner make the place feel relax but full of colour. we picked some platters to share and because we stuck to the free fizzy water our meal was very reasonably priced.

the platters and particularly the pate were delicious and there was so much that we ended up taking a small box of goodies away with us.

we will definitely come back for more.

i have to say i am pretty disappointed with scarecrow.

i tried this place a while ago after seeing the great reviews and we enjoyed very nice, high quality fresh food. even though it took so long for our order to arrive, i felt that it would be worth it to come back. 
for me, the service has made me not want to come back anytime soon unfortunately. came here today and it took a ridiculous amount of time for our salad from the cabinet to come. the worst part was that the staff seemed to be unapologetic and inattentive. at one point only the coffee guy was left manning the service and no one had any idea where and when our food was coming, in fact he seemed pretty clueless himself!

i went there due to the high ratings..but i had a terrible experience and will never come back here. firstly i didn't feel welcomed. english is my second language, and i felt the lady working there was very impatient with me. i asked what kind of coffee do they have and the worker looked at me from head to toe and said in a condescending tone " normal coffee". luckily i know what a flat white is..and ordered that. i don't know if she talked like that to other customers..but please be nicer to your customers.. even if they are asian and have trouble with speaking english.

i'm somewhat sorry to say that my first and only experience at scarecrow wasn't great. staff were a bit nonchalant, food was average and coffee was a little cold. i was served rock hard avocado, complained and was then served pretty badly bruised avocado. i'm no avocado aficionado but i've got to say it was taking the proverbial a little. willing to give it another go however... it was early morning...

tucked away in a corner - i got lost trying to find this place for the first time!

went here for a catch-up on a rain day!

very cute place to have brunch! i had hummus and bread - and my god the hummus was so good 😍😍.

my friend has some type of cake and she really enjoyed it as well!

would come back again :)

walking into scarecrow reminded me a bit of the wizard of oz, probably because there’s a giant scarecrow on a bike in the window! aside from that, this new pop up grocer/cafe has just re-opened up on victoria street (corner of kitchener street) and is seriously the coolest place i’ve been to this year!

scarecrow is a collaboration between popdining, kokako, karma cola, nice blocks and the aut hospitality school. the concept is to showcase seasonal produce and artisan products from around auckland and beyond, whether it be trying out one of their breakfasts, lunches, dinners or cabinet food from their cafe or fresh produce and breads from their grocer.

just awful. my girlfriend and i stopped by to get 2 coffees to go - single shot coconut flat white and a single shot coconut mocha, but instead were given looks as though we were asking for something extremely difficult to make. the lady that served us even rolled her eyes at us after we had requested for the mocha to be less sweet. was that even necessary? we then waited for a bit for our coffee and when we gave a gentle reminder to the barista on our coffees, what do you know? he quickly tries to write me off by quoting my order as fast as possible (perfectly fine but still, rather odd). and what happens next is even better! our coconut milk did not taste like coconut milk so we obviously went up to the barista to ask, and he became extremely annoyed and threw a tantrum at us by showing us the coconut milk he had used and said "i am 100% sure i used this!". after realising that he was annoyed at us, we decided to leave it be and said it was okay and walked away. your barista decided it would be an even better idea to give off a passive aggressive comment by saying "if you really want, i can give you your money back" and started shaking his head in disappointment, thinking i couldn't see his reflection around the many mirrors/windows. is this how you treat customers? we've always wanted to give scarecrow a try, but after such an experience, it seems that having customers is such a draining experience for your staff. will never be coming back here ever again and would not recommend this place to anyone.

had a really nice dinner here tonight! we had the $35 2 course meal and food was great. i had the anchovies to start - super succulent and tasty on crushed potatoes, then the duck for main - really well cooked, full of flavour. excellent wine list. didn't do dessert but got a few chocolates from the cabinet to take home...great selection! service was a little patchy but didn't matter because food and atmosphere was lovely. lovely produce, looking forward to coming back.

after reading so many great reviews, i had high expectations of scarecrow. unfortunately, the food was just average and coffee wasnt very good. the decor/atmosphere, with the grocer and florist elements, is super cute and staff are friendly. will probably return to give it a second chance.

wifi was shocking so i had to get out. slow service. not friendly. the only good thing was food. excellent chef !

couldnt wait to write about it... just been here for the restaurant month.. not a great start to be honest with the greet and seat thingy.. but i think the food definetly covers up for it...
started of with the vegetable kofte and the beetroot hummus and i should say the flavour pairing was amazing.. i personally think the kofte could be cooked a wee bit more cz i could taste a bit of a raw taste in it.. the beetroot hummus was really really good..
moving on to the second course we got the iraqi pilaf with crispy onion roasted butternut and tahini cream.. only one thing about this i can think.. faultless, couldnt be any better.

the dessert couldnt honestly get what was going on in there but i loved the vanilla coconut labneh that came with it

over all had a great time would surely come back to try different stuff