The Refreshment Room

If you love the wild west and love Farm to Fork then The Refreshment Room will be a godsend. Countless times I have driven past this place on Scenic Drive and despite the packed car park I have never thought to stop in until today for brunch. Things started off great with a perfect machiatto, I find most cafes in Auckland serve it burnt so to find a place that gets it right is a real treat. Our server was attentive but not over bearing. I opted for the slow-​roasted pork belly on toast with spinach and my partner had baked eggs with homemade sausage (of which I totally had food envy!). The menu changes weekly and is based on produce that is seasonal and grown on-​site. At the end of the meal, I already started to think about what I would have next time and wished that I could rewind and have it all over again. A true sign of a winner! Can’t wait to try them for dinner in the Red Room soon…

I’ve been here for dinner before and it was really good! Great taste, presentation and overall the experience was good… So i decided to buy a grabone for these guys when they were available and boy was i disappointed… a grabone deal does not mean you have to lower your standards… use it to promote your restaurant and get them to come again after…
It was a $ 30 grabone voucher that includes a weekend brunch for two… our meals were SO small and looked horrible AND taste average. We ordered one sausage crêpe and one baked eggs. The sausage crêpe serving was so small (for an original price of $ 19) and the crêpe was drying out and burnt around the edges… at least there was flavour in this one… the baked eggs was the worst baked eggs i have ever tasted… it was all sweet capsicums (or sweet peppers) and nothing else. you could hardly taste the eggs. Also nothing to dip into the runny eggs. no bread … nothing. it looked plain and boring… and tasted even worse.
What is the point of putting yourselves on grabone if the outcome will be to lose customers. Grabone should be an opportunity to introduce yourselves to new customers and convince them to return again… I know they can do some amazing things with food and service but a grabone voucher does not mean you should eliminate all that to earn more money…
We decided to go to another café after as we were still hungry…

So so good.
We came here for dinner on a Saturday night. The restaurant was full so we sat outside on the deck before a table freed up. Since it’s not summer yet, it was freezing — but definitely a good spot for warm summer evenings with a view.
The food was amazing and service friendly. We had the steak, which came with chunky chips. Best chips ever.
The ravioli though, we couldn’t get enough of. Super delicious. The tomatoes on the dish were superb, so good that even after the meal we were all still reminiscing about them.
There are more tables and a sofa and fireplace downstairs in the Red Room — watch out of for the super steep stairs!

We were looking to trying out a new place and remembered Nici Wickes providing rave reviews about this place. And it lived up to it every bit. We ordered their top seller entre the chickpea and Mozzarella cheese sticks with Salsa. Yummy. For mains my partner chose Risotto with gorgonzola, leeks, sage and hazelnuts. Oh my god that was absolutely delish. And I chose their Ravioli with beetroot and smoked ricotta with sage and burnt butter sauce. I was in Ravioli heaven. And for dessert we had the Crème Brulee with roasted rhubarb and hazelnut icecream. Right from the crackle of the brulee to the tartness of the rhubarb and bitterness of the hazelnut icecream it was symphony well orchestrated. Will I be going back? You bet I will. Highly recommended and can’t endorse it enough.

If you blink you will miss it when driving down scenic drive. The food is amazing here. The menu changes daily but has a common theme. If you can, try the eggplant crepes and the belly pork sandwich. Both are superb. The chick pea chips are supposedly what they are known for, but to be honest I found those a bit on the dry side.
They also do live music sometimes in the downstairs area, well worth a look as well.

This place was brill! Came here for a birthday dinner. Their menu changes on a regular basis so when I went I ordered the lamb shoulder and it was amazing! Portion size was average but it was worth every cent!
The service here is great, atmosphere is awesome, and there’s even nice outdoor seating with a spectacular view of the Waitakere ranges which would be great during the day or for a summer night dinner.
It’s a fair drive from anywhere, the Refreshment room was hidden away on Scenic Drive in the woods, so be prepared for that!

I’m not sure if it’s because I looked like a blogged with my massive camera and iphone snapping photo’s of everything, but the service here went above an beyond anything I’ve ever experienced in my life. I didn’t even know such hospitality even existed. We’d ordered the gnocchi (really yummy, soft pillowy dough in a tasty tomato based sauce… though I wish they made their own sausage which came in the sauce) and the snapper to share but the girl didn’t here us order the fish. So we’d been waiting about 10 minutes before she came up to us and asked if wanted dessert to which we mentioned we were still waiting for the fish and she had a little freak out and started apologizing profusely… I mean, the waiting hadn’t even bothered me and she got it to come out of the kitchen so quick I’m sure I’ve waited longer at other restaurants for my food to come out. She then offered (as compensation for the lateness) free dessert and coffee! Whaaaat… I actually felt like it was so unnecessary the food was so good we didn’t care (snapper was absolutely incredible). But she insisted… I couldn’t believe it. Restaurants don’t do that, and people don’t expect them too. I was such a tiny slip up I would’ve forgot about instantly if not for how she responded to it. Claps for the Refreshment Room, it was a lovely meal (would’ve happily paid for everything and will be coming back). Thanks!