Parkside Cafe

Situated right next to Rocket Park, Parkside Café is well named and in a great spot.
Although not often packed, there are always people in Parkside Café enjoying a hot coffee and a bite to eat.
It’s perfectly set up for parents to grab some much needed caffeine before, during, and after a visit to Rocket Park with their kids!
One unfortunate thing about the location of Parkside Café is the bus stop right outside. This stop means it isn’t the best place to try and sit outside as you can virtually be run over by passengers getting on and off the bus.
Though predominantly a café, specialising in coffees and cabinet food, Parkside has recently opened its doors as a Vietnamese restaurant in the evenings. I have never tried this Vietnamese menu, however due to the staff all being Vietnamese I can imagine the food will be delicious.

This place is po-​pu-​lar! It is has, luckily, a spacious indoor area with room to move, only a handful of seats outside, which is ok since it is a situated on a noisy, busy intersection, and is in front of a bus stop, so my preference is indoors anyway! (this was at lunchtime midweek). Dinner service is offered Wed — Sat 5:30pm –10pm. Service is friendly and efficient. The café/​restaurant is right next to Rocket Park/​Mount Albert Recreation Park — it had two names — I’m confused too — nonetheless it has always been busy when I have been in the area, filled with families with young children, and adults exercising, weekdays and weekends. This might be the place to grab breakfast, lunch or dinner whilst you are there! For all those coffee fans — they sell ‘Allpress Espresso’ coffee, enjoy!

This place has been quietly building its following amid rave reviews from newspapers, foodies (and newspaper foodies) alike. The fact it is actually a Vietnamese restaurant during the evenings could be easily missed due to its non-​denominational name and the blackboard menu showing Kiwi brunch classics.
I personally didn’t have a lot of experience with Vietnamese food given my aversion to a large proportion of animal products including (and maybe especially) stinky fish sauce. At our early Saturday night family meal I accidentally got a good dose of it. Let me explain.
The menu has a category headed «Vegetables» and I also asked the waitress whether any of the other dishes were available without meat. She helpfully pointed out the rice paper rolls and pancake so I ordered the rice paper rolls with no meat. They arrived with prawns so I sheepishly sent them back explaining I didn’t want seafood either. All of this was handled graciously and the no meat or fish version arrived shortly thereafter. They looked fresh and delicious and being a girl who loves my spicy condiments I gave it a generous dunk in the dipping sauce and had a huge bite. It was delicious until the overpowering ponk hit, swiftly followed by major unpleasant fishiness.
I talked to the waiter again, explained apologetically and asked for some plain chilli sauce which was quickly supplied. I also checked there was to be no fish sauce in my Lotus Stem salad which was coming up next and apologised again for my extreme fussiness. Really. It is embarrassing but I can’t help it.
Anyway, the husband’s Chicken Curry was coconutty and gorgeous if a bit on the spicy side for him. I tasted a bit of the sauce and wished there was a veggie version. The one child we had with us was more than happy with his Chicken Phở and even managed some of the curry (followed by several glasses of water!). The rolls and my salad were absolutely delicious — tasty, crunchy, fresh and zesty although not as spicy as I would have hoped but then I like things REALLY hot.
A couple of glasses of Invivo Pinot Gris for me, a Syrah and a Coke for the companions and all in all we paid $ 78.50 for this yummy healthy extravaganza delivered with excellent friendly and fast (not to mention understanding) service.
Although we arrived before 6pm, by the time we left, there were only a couple of tables still empty, with families and other locals making up the clientele. If you live in or near Mt Albert and haven’t been here for dinner, then do so — we are definitely going back.