Ronnie’s

plentiful & expansive menu, but nothing great and everything my family had was greasy and tasted stale. we tried two ronnie’s outlets and never need another «meat pie» or greasy lunch.
diner (s) were decently cleaned; service was friendly enough, but overall, there are much better choices.

Ronnie’s is a bit of a Kiwi institution with many small towns boasting an outlet of their own. That knowledge makes this one feel a bit out of place — it’s the most prime of downtown real-​estate, yet Ronnie’s feels more like a roadside diner mixed with the lunch line at an American school. They do a bit of everything here — bakery stuff like pies and bread, an all-​day breakfast menu, as well as slices and wraps. It’s all your daytime food needs rolled into one, and everything has the impression of being slightly less than fresh and slightly greasy. Still, it’s pretty cheap and located equally conveniently for office workers wanting a quick bite and people still in town from the night before wanting to eat off a hangover. Think Denny’s but breakfast…

Ronnie’s Café carries the weight of an almost legendary status for anyone who grew up or spent any time around Matamata: the original Ronnie’s is located here, and used to be the only place to go. No, really, often it was the only place to go in Matamata that wasn’t a burger bar or a pub. It also had a beautiful gold tiled frontage, so would shimmer like an oasis in a desert. Sadly that Ronnie’s changed hand, lost the gold tiles, and became all to similar to so many of the other bakeries around.
This outlet of Ronnie’s is pretty similar: the bread is not great, too doughy, and they do that slightly annoying thing of pushing everything in the rolls to the front so you both get fooled into thinking there’s more in there than there is, but then also having to rearrange the roll so you can eat it properly. Saying that, if you’re in the market for a big greasy breakfast made with good cheap ingredients, which is sometimes exactly what you need, this is the place to go.

First impressions of booth seating around easy clean hard top tables gives this prominent corner location café the impression of a classic diner. The set up is slightly confusing but if you navigate past the glass cases of cream cake temptation and make your way around to the cashier, you can order from a large menu. I was in a hurry when I visited so opted for a bacon and egg croissant with a flat white coffee. My order was promptly delivered much to my satisfaction given my time constraint and the coffee was above average but the croissant tasted like it had been cooked many hours earlier and had been lavishing on the shelf. I suspect if I had ordered something a little more substantial, it would have been cooked fresh, as other diners appeared to have more luck with their food.